Boreout or exhaustion at work as a result of boredom: A corollary to suffering at work

Le bore-out ou l’épuisement professionnel par l’ennui: un corolaire à la souffrance au travail

Aziz Chtioui (), Lamia Hechiche Salah and Sandra Ben Othmane
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Aziz Chtioui: MAGELLAN - Laboratoire de Recherche Magellan - UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 - Université de Lyon - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Lyon
Lamia Hechiche Salah: Université de Tunis, ISG - Institut Supérieur de Gestion de Tunis [Tunis] - Université de Tunis
Sandra Ben Othmane: Université de Tunis, ISG - Institut Supérieur de Gestion de Tunis [Tunis] - Université de Tunis

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Abstract: Nowadays, work occupies an important role in people's lives. It constitutes a primary means of self-realization and social integration. However, in recent decades, work has undergone significant changes concerning the work environment. Digitalization, automation of work, job insecurity, and periods of restructuring have all disrupted people's relationship to their work. While some employees seem to be overworked to the point of exhaustion, others seem to be dying of boredom at work. Being severely bored at work can lead employees to experience exhaustion, also called "boreout." Boreout can have harmful consequences and be a source of suffering for the affected employees, who encounter insurmountable, destabilizing, and unpleasant psychological experiences at work. Many authors associate the concept of boreout with the concept of "suffering at work" without explicitly stating how these two concepts are associated, hence the importance of understanding the relationship between them. Interviews with twenty-two employees in different roles revealed that the experience of boreout generates many feelings that can cause suffering among employees: the feeling of uselessness, the feeling of shame, the feeling of sadness, the feeling of frustration, and the feeling of mental stagnation.

Keywords: Bore-out; Souffrance au travail; Ennui au travail; Sentiment; Epuisement professionnel par l'ennui (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-08-24
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Published in @GRH, 2022, N° 44 (3), pp.105-131. ⟨10.3917/grh.044.0105⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03811504

DOI: 10.3917/grh.044.0105

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