Planning Ahead With "Boreout"

I've just watched a clip of "Borat" on You Tube. NEWSFLASH: It's not funny anymore. Funnier than waiting for 14 months to tell people about "Boreout" though. Thanks to the LiS reader who sent me this:

Here is a quite mundane press release about the ‘growing office epidemic’ (to be honest, Martha, I think it probably reached pandemic status a while back, but whatever…) of ‘boreout’. Not really that interesting, until you notice the embargo – October 30, 2009. Well, I guess no one can say that we weren’t forewarned...

FORWARDED MESSAGE----------
From: Martha Fumagalli [mailto:MFumagalli@Koganpage.com]
Sent: 14 August 2008 17:53
To: Martha Fumagalli
Subject: Strategies to Fight Workplace Boredom

Dear all,
I copy below the press release of Boreout! Overcoming Workplace Boredom, launched on 30th October 2009.
'Boreout' is a growing phenomenon worldwide, it affects employees who feel increasingly disengaged from their work and become completely cut off from their company and its interests. This can have dire consequences both for the company's productivity and for the affected worker.

As you'll see in the press release below, the book describes what 'boreout' means, the causes, the symptoms and how to fight it off. Let me know if you'd like to see a review copy.

Best wishes,
Martha Fumagalli
Publicity Manager
Kogan Page
120 Pentonville Road
London N1 9JN

Boreout: A Lethal Office Epidemic!
Please don’t release before 30th October 2009

“According to recent global survey the overall European average for employees who feel stressed stands at 27%.

Of interest to us in this book are the remaining 73% - all those employees who place themselves between ‘stress level just right’ and ‘understretched’. So, it’s not about stress, but rather about the opposite: it’s not about burnout, but about boreout.”

From the Introduction to the book

· Dan Malachowski interviewed more than 10K employees about time-wasting in the workplace for Salary.com and AOL. 33% declared that they didn’t have enough to do at work.

· A Gallup poll indicates that in several European countries more than 80% of workers feel very little, if no, commitment to their companies.

· According to Kelly Services, an international agency, understretched employees represent the largest group of truly unsatisfied staff (44%).

In Boreout! Overcoming Workplace Demotivation, published by Kogan Page on 30th October, the authors describe its meaning, its causes, its symptoms and provides strategies for employers and affected employees to tackle this potentially lethal problem.

What’s boreout? Boreout, a growing workplace phenomenon, appears when disengaged employees grow increasingly indifferent to their job and ultimately feel cut off from their company and its interests.

Common causes: 1) feeling understretched and unsatisfied with the job. 2) lack of commitment: when the employee has to perform many mindless tasks, he easily becomes detached from his work and colleagues. 3) boredom: bored employees take refuge in their own world: they plan their next holiday, the weekend shopping trip and their future life during working hours!

Some symptoms: constant tiredeness, exaggerated irritability, listlessness and increasingly marked introversion

Solutions: both employers and employees must be on the lookout for symptoms of boreout, and if spotted act quickly as it can have dire consequences for the firm and the affected worker.

At the end of the book, the authors stress the importance of personal responsibility to combat boreout. True, most companies are interested in their financial bottom line rather then their employees, true most bosses are interested in their own career rather than the well-being of their team, but ultimately it’s the HANG ON - I'VE DIED OF BOREOUT