Over at the New York Times,
a frustrated employee shared their story of a lazy, “do-nothing”
colleague with the Ethicist. “She frequently takes lunch breaks, comes
in later than her start time and is not actually working on her ‘work
from home’ day,” they wrote. “... In addition, she is constantly
complaining and indifferent to her projects. She gets the job done with
minimal effort, often blaming results on clients or outside factors ...
None of our supervisors seem to notice or care and they tend to let
sleeping dogs lie. ”
We’ve all known at least one colleague like this. In some instances, you
may even be that colleague and without knowing it. But maybe it’s not
your fault; it could be that the job description was misleading or
you’re burnt out after several years in the same role. This week, Quartz’s
Sarah Todd recently addressed the problem of what to do when you’re
bored at work—and the answer doesn’t involve spending time on Reddit or
scrolling through your Twitter feed.
Instead, Todd writes that if you’re struggling with boredom, it’s also
very likely that your job is the culprit and you’re struggling to find
motivation in a role that’s no longer interests you (or was never
exciting to begin with). And while you may not be in a position to
change your job, there are things you can do to make it feel less
tedious.
If you want to crawl out of the Reddit hole you’ve found
yourself in during work hours, make short-term goals for yourself and
find motivation wherever you can.
Reframe your job as a game
If you’re struggling to be motivated by anything at work, Quartz
refers to a paper by University of Florida social psychologist Erin
Westgate which contains a useful suggestion in surviving mundane
responsibilities: Add a layer of challenge and make it a game.
This could mean setting a timer to finish a project or
responding to at least 10 emails before 10am. Creating a short-term goal
might make work feel more fun or like it’s passing more quickly, at the
very least. (In our Black Mirror reality, Washington Post
recently reported on the “gamification” of jobs by big companies to
incentivize their employees; Lyft and Uber set targets for their drivers
to encourage them to log longer hours, for example. Meanwhile, Amazon
has turned some of its tedious warehouse tasks into actual Tetris-like
games for employees. This isn’t the kind of thing we’re recommending
here.)
And once you achieve that target, set another one. “Keep
yourself as busy as possible to make the time go quicker,” u/rishi_cup
writes on a Reddit thread.
“... If you have breaks, section your day off into smaller, achievable
goals. ‘Oh, 10 o’clock break. I’m already a quarter through my day.’”
And reward yourself, too. Give yourself a cap of five minutes on Twitter after hitting a target (and no more) or try out the Pomodoro method.
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| © Photo: Shutterstock |
Find motivation outside of work, and shake up your routine
If
you’re able to, take a day off next week; you might find motivation at
work if you actually have something to look forward to. Alternatively,
as another user on Reddit suggests,
try asking your manager to tackle a different project for a short time,
just to break up the tedium of your typical responsibilities.
“An opportunity to do another job with a whole new team for 12 weeks fell in my lap,” they wrote.
“The project wasn’t onerous, it was well within my capability and I got
a breather from all the irritating things in my normal job. A change
was as good as a holiday ... The important thing though is that during
those three months I got enough space to examine what my intrinsic
motivation to be at my job was. I looked at what sort of work attributes
I want to spend my time in and how well these aligned with the work I
did.”
And the expression is true: Don’t take your work home. This
means leaving the physical (ie. your laptop or paperwork) and emotional
(ie. stress) at work, which is always easier said than done. Don’t check
your emails, Slacks or IMs when you’re home. And reward yourself for
making it through the day—dinner with a friend, an hour in front of the
PS4—whatever might relax you.
Apply for other jobs
If you
truly despise your job, before you jump ship, take a good look at what’s
creating issues for you at work. “Is your boss a hovering micromanager
who doesn’t give you any autonomy, despite your years of experience?”
Allison Green of Ask a Manager writes for LinkedIn.
“Or maybe it’s the work itself; you might have signed up expecting to
do X but ended up doing Y or the workload might be way too high or so
low that you’re bored for hours every week.”
Once you’ve figured
out the issue, Green recommends taking time to find out whether it’s
worth fixing, maybe through a discussion with your manager. And if the
issue isn’t fixable, then it might be time to apply for other jobs–just
don’t jump on the first opportunity that comes your way out of
desperation.
“When you’re miserable at work, it’s very easy to
grasp at the first life raft that comes along, but leaping too hastily
can mean you end up somewhere else where you’re unhappy too,” Green
writes. So take stock of your job and consider its benefits; maybe you
have an excellent work from home policy or vacation schedule and it
might be worth sticking around another month.
And take your time
while exploring other opportunities so that you can find a job that will
actually motivate you to do more with your workday beyond digging
through Reddit posts or Wikipedia entries.
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