Boredom is worse for you than stress

At work, most leaders worry about stress. Deadlines, overload, burnout — these are familiar dangers. But there’s another risk that often flies under the radar, and according to research, may be even more damaging: boredom.

What research tells us about boredom at work

Occasional boredom might be useful outside of work, but for employees, long term boredom is more than a fleeting nuisance.

• Boredom undermines energy, creativity and collaboration. In the words of Nic Mark’s “boredom is more damaging than stress” because, unlike short-term pressure, boredom dulls engagement.
• Research links prolonged job boredom with a range of negative outcomes: lower job satisfaction, reduced motivation, impaired performance, increased counterproductive behaviours, and even poorer mental health.
• A daily-diary study suggested that people who experienced boredom at work were more likely to later report signs of burnout.
• Trying to “power through” boredom often backfires, as trying to suppress boredom can prolong its negative effects.

In short: boredom isn’t harmless. It’s a silent drain that wears away at both people and organizations.

Why boredom is a “stealth threat”

We tend to take stress seriously because it presents noticeable symptoms: exhaustion, anxiety, absenteeism.

Boredom is more subtle. It doesn’t broadcast that there is a issue — it silently saps energy and engagement.

People don’t tend to quit in a fit of boredom, but as the research shows, over time monotony can chip away at engagement and commitment. Longer term, if employees are under-challenged or feel there’s nothing meaningful to strive for, their skills and capacity go unused — which is wasteful for individuals and organizations.

Along with the costs of having bored employees, you may also lose long-time bored people. Performance dips, innovation stalls, creativity declines; and then some will likely drift away, seeking more fulfilling roles elsewhere.

Boredom often looks like “everything’s fine”. It can be easy for leaders and organizations to miss it until the damage is done.

Preventing boredom, boosting engagement

Based on research and principles from happy and healthy work frameworks like the Five Ways to Happiness at Work, here are practical steps employers and leaders can take to tackle boredom head on:

1. Rotate and vary tasks

Alternating lower-stimulus tasks with meaningful, challenging work can help to prevent prolonged boredom.

2. Offer opportunities to learn, grow and stretch

Ensure that people’s skills and ambitions are matched with tasks that challenge them. Intellectual underload is a major driver of boredom.

3. Enable job-crafting and autonomy

Let people shape parts of their role — choose what to work on, when, how. This sense of control and purpose can help to combat monotony.

4. Encourage regular check-ins on morale and engagement

Using tools like Friday Pulse’s weekly or monthly pulse check-ins can surface early signs of boredom or disengagement such as low Happiness scores and low numbers of Celebrations shared. This allows teams to catch them before they calcify into bigger problems.

5. Foster connection and meaning

Boredom can be a sign that work lacks significance or social connection. Building opportunities for collaboration, feedback, recognition and shared purpose helps reinstate meaning.

6. Monitor and adapt

Track scores such as Learning and Strengths use in teams and check-in to see what’s behind these scores. If tasks or roles hold no interest in the team, investigate. Is it fixable? Can the roles be redesigned or restructured?

In challenging times, even companies that invest in managing stress while ignoring under-stimulation may end up with stagnant teams that barely get by. By contrast, organizations that recognise boredom as a real threat — and build work intentionally to keep people engaged — can unlock creativity, sustain morale, and turn “OK” into “thriving”.

Try Friday Pulse for free now to move your team from OK to thriving