Recognising Boreout Early: Signs Managers and Employees Often Miss

Many workplaces are familiar with burnout, yet its quieter counterpart, boreout, often goes unnoticed. While burnout stems from chronic overload, boreout arises from under-stimulation, a lack of challenge, and work that feels repetitive or meaningless. Over time, this can affect engagement, wellbeing, and performance in subtle but meaningful ways (Stock, 2015; Poirier, Gelin & Mikolajczak, 2021).

What Is Boreout?

Boreout is a state in which employees feel persistently under-challenged and mentally unstimulated at work, leading to dissatisfaction and disengagement. Researchers have identified three key components (Stock, 2015; Poirier, Gelin & Mikolajczak, 2021):

• Job boredom: tasks that are routine, unstimulating, or below an employee’s skill level
  💡Spending hours entering repetitive data, attending meetings that don’t require input, or performing administrative tasks that don’t leverage your expertise.

• Crisis of meaning: a sense that work lacks purpose or personal significance
  💡Completing reports that nobody reads, supporting projects that don’t align with your values, or contributing to work that feels disconnected from the organisation’s mission.

• Crisis of growth: few opportunities for learning, skill development, or career progression
  💡Having the same responsibilities for years without new challenges, being excluded from training or mentoring programs, or feeling stuck in a role with no clear advancement path.

Unlike burnout, where stress and overload dominate, boreout reflects a lack of meaningful mental engagement. Empirical research confirms that boreout is measurable and negatively affects satisfaction, motivation, and wellbeing (Poirier, Gelin & Mikolajczak, 2021).

Why Boreout Matters

It might be tempting to dismiss under-stimulation as “just boredom,” but boreout has real implications for both individuals and organisations:

• Psychological distress: Prolonged disengagement can contribute to frustration, low self-esteem, and symptoms similar to anxiety and depression (Fisher, 1993; Poirier, Gelin & Mikolajczak, 2021).

• Reduced motivation and engagement: Job boredom is strongly linked to decreased motivation and higher turnover intentions (Fisher, 1998; Kim et al., 2025).

• Performance outcomes: Under-stimulated employees often show lower productivity and engagement, which can ripple across teams and organizational performance (Stock, 2015).

Boreout often goes unaddressed because employees may mask disengagement to appear “busy” or fear stigma around admitting boredom at work (Stock, 2015). Recent daily diary research shows that job boredom predicts increased burnout and turnover intentions within individuals, demonstrating that under-stimulation at work can drain psychological resources even on a day-to-day basis (Kim et al., 2025).

Early Signs of Boreout

Boreout can be subtle, so awareness is key for both employees and managers. Look for these signs:

Low engagement without high stress

Employees aren’t overwhelmed but consistently feel unstimulated. Tasks may feel “too easy” or monotonous despite being manageable (Stock, 2015).

👉 An analyst spends most of the day on repetitive data entry, or a marketing associate writes routine reports that never require creative input.

“Looking busy” but not truly engaged

Some employees hide boreout by engaging in superficial tasks, simply to appear occupied (Poirier, Gelin & Mikolajczak, 2021).

👉 Constantly reorganising files, scheduling unnecessary meetings, or scrolling through emails without real engagement in tasks.

Skills-task mismatch

When an employee’s capabilities far exceed job demands, they may feel mentally under-stimulated (Poirier, Gelin & Mikolajczak, 2021).
👉 A software engineer with advanced coding skills spending months maintaining simple spreadsheets or a registered nurse performing repetitive administrative paperwork with little patient interaction.

Withdrawal or quiet disengagement

Boreout often manifests as reduced participation, initiative, or emotional detachment rather than overt stress.

👉 An employee stops volunteering for new projects, rarely speaks in meetings, or avoids collaboration opportunities.

Midday slumps or low energy

Under-stimulation can feel physically draining, producing flatness or low arousal not linked to workload stress (Fisher, 1993).

👉 Feeling sleepy or mentally checked-out by 11 a.m., needing frequent breaks, or lacking energy for routine tasks despite a light workload.

What Employees and Managers Can Do

For Employees:

• Reflect on what engages you: Identify tasks or projects that challenge you or align with your values

• Communicate your needs: Discuss areas where you could be more involved or challenged

• Seek growth opportunities: Pursue skill development, new responsibilities, or meaningful projects

For Managers:

• Observe engagement signals: Notice when employees seem under-challenged, not just overwhelmed

• Enrich roles where possible: Redesign work to include variety, learning opportunities, and autonomy

• Promote open dialogue: Regular check-ins can provide a safe space for employees to share interests, frustrations, and aspirations

Creating psychological safety, where employees can discuss disengagement without fear, is key to addressing boreout early and effectively (Edmondson, 1999).

Supporting Wellbeing with the 11th HR Clinic

If you recognise signs of boreout in yourself or your team, support is available. At the 11th HR Clinic, we provide professional coaching to help individuals and teams explore motivations, navigate disengagement, and build fulfilling pathways forward.

Whether you’re an employee feeling stuck or a manager seeking to foster engagement and wellbeing, taking thoughtful, supported steps today can improve both personal and organisational outcomes. Book an appointment online to start reconnecting with purposeful work.

References

Stock, R. M. (2015). Is Boreout a Threat to Frontline Employees’ Innovative Work Behavior? Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(4), 574–592.

Poirier, C., Gelin, M., & Mikolajczak, M. (2021). Creation and Validation of the First French Scale for Measuring Bore-Out in the Workplace. Frontiers in Psychology, 23(12):697972.

Fisher, C. D. (1993). Boredom at work: A neglected concept. Human Relations, 46(3), 395–417.

Fisher, C. D. (1998). Effects of boredom on work performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19(5), 571–586.

Kim, J., Kaplan, S. A., Aitken, J. A., & Ponce, L. P. (2025). An examination of the daily relationship between job boredom and later burnout and turnover intentions along with mitigating strategies. Current Psychology, 44, 8807–8822.

Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.