Job Boredom? Expand Your Role Say Experts

If you find yourself getting bored at work, an expert on the workplace at the University of Iowa says don’t immediately jump to another job but find ways to make your current position more challenging and fulfilling. Amy Colbert, a professor of management and entrepreneurship at the U-I’s Tippie College of Business, says bored workers can impact everyone’s productivity and bring the whole office down.

Younger workers in particular might find themselves disenchanted in their first job out of school, she says, if they don’t feel like they’re making a difference in the world. Colbert says we sometimes need to remind ourselves that the work we’re doing matters, even if it is routine and mundane.

Jump starting that process is hard to do by yourself, and she says you may have to look to your boss for inspiration.

Before abandoning our current jobs in search of greener pastures, she says there are likely things we can do to advocate for an expansion of our existing roles, finding new duties and opportunities.