Bore out? It's boredom at work. Yes, you read that right ! Because the tasks are repetitive and uninteresting. Because there is no work. Or because a leader to whom we have not pledged allegiance takes revenge by devitalizing the position we occupy... This is the case of Anne, 38, graphic designer in a local authority:"I I had a little less work, then less and less, unlike my colleagues who were overwhelmed, she says. I asked them to give me some, I spoke to my supervisor, nothing helped. Until the day Anne starts throwing up in the morning before going to work. “Little by little I lost all self-confidence to the point of telling myself that it was my fault, that I was incompetent. I spent my days on the net feeling guilty about wasting public money. “Marlène, 29, is a saleswoman in a luxury perfumery and waits for the customer for hours, with no sitting down. Conversely, Alice, 31 years old, baccalaureate plus 5 in finance, sits eight hours in an office with nothing to do:“In the morning I wonder why I get up. I feel worthless. Mélanie, 34, leaves home in the evening "her brain in the fog, on edge and her back in compote". Only Clémence, 30, admits her annoyance:“I hear a lot of talk around me about job cuts and people who take two jobs instead of one, without compensation or recognition. I find it dishonest to make headlines about the bore out. »
This is the whole problem:the victims of boredom at work do not dare to talk about it, aware that many employees around them suffer from exactly the opposite, exhaustion linked to an overload of work. But the burn out of some does not prevent the bore out of others. "People who suffer from boreout don't say anything about it because it's not 'noble' to be bored," says Judith Tripard, consultant at Clementine. Jobs, a recruitment consulting firm. It creates feelings of guilt and shame. And then they don't complain about it because they also need their salary..." The worst thing is that all these idle employees love work and love to invest in what they do. Anything but lazy! Aline, 27, has archived forty years of files in order to take care of herself. To fall back into boredom a few months later... Yes, bore-out exists! It concerns 30% of employees*, especially in the service sector and in administration. A Belgian study carried out in 2009 on 12,000 employees estimated that 21 to 39% of them did not have enough work to fill their day! The first who conceptualized the bore out, Peter Werder and Philippe Rothlin, listed eight questions to ask about its work. If you answer four of them, it means that this shameful pathology concerns you. At work, do you spend time on personal matters? Are you underinvested or bored? Do you ever pretend to work because you have nothing to do? Are you tired in the evening when your day has not been stressful? Are you unhappy in your job? Do you think your job has no meaning? Could you finish your work faster than you do? Do you have little or no interest in your work? In terms of solutions… there is no miracle recipe. But that doesn't mean there's nothing to do. “Human beings need to be stimulated to live. Otherwise, it withers, recalls the psychoanalyst specializing in suffering at work, Marie Pezé… Moreover, the people concerned suffer from stress, low self-esteem, reactive depression. It is therefore important to react…”
For starters:remember that you are not your job. This can be zero. You, no! You are still worth something. If you are experiencing this situation very badly, you should make an appointment for a specialist consultation on overdue work (see box). Objective:not to be left alone with this weight, to talk about it with a professional to try to get out of it. Also try to structure your weeks with activities that nourish you intellectually, mentally and physically:a yoga class on Monday between noon and two to experience deep relaxation, a gym or zumba class, more toned, another day. So your body remains mobilized… “I was put in the closet for two years, explains Géraldine, 32 years old. While waiting to find a solution, I was doing the gym twice a week during lunch time in a club. I felt my body again, I was alive again! In addition to revitalizing physical activity, why not devote another hour a week to an association as a volunteer? Build an action plan:find out about training courses, their financing… Keep an eye on job offers in your sector, even if there are few. Frequent, at lunchtime or in the evening, friends or acquaintances who make you feel good or who are likely to give you advice, without judging you! Finally, for younger people, it is worth considering quitting. Of course, this does not happen overnight. You have to think about it, do a skills assessment, think about training, immerse yourself in useful reading**, but it's better than staying in a toxic situation. Last solution, that of Simone, 31, who mustered up her courage and complained to her boss. “Things have improved. I work five hours out of seven. It's better than two hours! So I was right to speak. Today, I manage to have projects:a move, a baby, a trip… Everything is possible! »
* cf. The bore-out syndrome, International Journal of Psychology and Behavior Management.
** To read:Am I changing jobs?, by Marie Auberger, ed. Eyrolles. I want to be happy at work, by Nathalie Olivier, Christophe Gallé, ed. Eyrolles.
It is important to consult psychotherapists who have been trained specifically in workplace suffering. Indeed, these professionals will not offer you to go back over your personal history as in a classic analysis. They will make you talk about your job, about what you experience every day. They consider suffering at work as a social pathology and not as a personal problem to be solved on the couch. The shrinks who join the Suffering and Work Network also have an address book of professionals to whom they can direct you:doctors, lawyers, etc. There are more than a hundred consultations in France, there is bound to be one near you!
