Workplace boredom coping: health, safety, and HR implications

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people cope with boredom at work, and whether differences in “boredom coping” effectiveness are associated with differences in employee well‐being, and safety behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used two methods to gather information for this paper. Employees in a chemical processing organisation (n=212) completed a survey of individual boredom coping levels, self‐reported safety compliance, and a range of well‐being variables. Also, critical incident interviews with a sub‐sample of survey respondents (n=16) elicited strategies that employees use to cope with boredom at work. Findings: High boredom‐copers reported better well‐being and greater compliance with organisational safety rules compared with low boredom‐copers. Relative to low boredom‐copers, high boredom‐copers tended to cope with boredom in ways that were more functional for themselves and the organisation. Research limitations/implications: Because the research was exploratory and cross‐sectional conclusions are necessarily tentative. However, the findings add to the scant body of knowledge about workplace boredom and serve as a useful guide to future research. Practical implications: This approach offers new insights into how the negative effects of boredom might be managed in future, both individually and organisationally. Training in boredom coping skills, in conjunction with job redesign initiatives, may help to reduce the frequency and impact of boredom at work. Originality/value: Boredom at work is an important yet neglected area of human resource management research. The present study is the first to examine the construct of “boredom coping” at work and to demonstrate a potential link between differences in boredom coping tendency and employee health and safety outcomes

Does longer job tenure help or hinder job performance?

“…Long-tenured employees are more likely to think about ways of avoiding doing their jobs because they are so bored with their assigned tasks (Game, 2007). Similarly, Wiesner, Windle, and Freeman (2005) found that employees perceived job boredom as stressful and reacted to it with increased "indulgence behaviors".…”

“…Similarly, Wiesner, Windle, and Freeman (2005) found that employees perceived job boredom as stressful and reacted to it with increased "indulgence behaviors". Long-time employees may even engage in more counterproductive behavior just to experience additional excitement on their jobs (Bruursema, Kessler, & Spector, 2011;Game, 2007).…”

Job Boredom and Its Correlates in 87 Finnish Organizations

“…38,39 This type of "withdrawal behavior" can be perceived as a coping mechanism for job boredom. 40 If an individual lacks the ability to adequately cope with the situation, negative health effects might start accumulating.…”

Boredom in the Workplace: Reasons, Impact, and Solutions

“…Interestingly, a person's affective reaction to their work, expressed as boredom, differs from the feelings of monotony that are usually elicited by a continued absence of variety or by undertaking repetitive tasks (Game, 2007). Indeed, conceptualizing boredom as an unpleasant emotional state can give rise to the notion that people self-regulate boredom through individualised coping behaviours-thereby eliciting the constructive or destructive behaviors that have been associated with boredom (Skowronski, 2012).…”

“…For example, some individuals and even entire population groups have been identified as being boredom prone-that is, they are more likely to experience boredom than others when exposed to similar situations (Game, 2007). Specifically, in psychiatric populations, the consumers who are most likely to be bored are those with depression or who have been admitted voluntarily to acute inpatient facilities (Newell, Harries, & Ayers, 2012).…”