Top 30 Indicators That You Might Be Bored at Work

It seems clear to me that we're more likely to thrive when we're plugged into Reality. And I've noticed that some people who are bored at work are unaware that they are, because they find things to do that disguise the boredom, or at least make it more tolerable. For these people (a little tongue-in-cheek) I offer this list of boredom indicators.

1. You can't sleep at night, so you sleep at work.
2. You've figured out how to sit at your desk so that nobody can see that you're actually sleeping.
3. You wonder if anyone heard that snore when you woke yourself up just now.
4. On the way to the coffee machine you look down at your coffee cup and you notice that you already have coffee.
5. You look forward to your bathroom break.
6. You just arranged lunch with two people you can't stand, just to get out of the office.
7. During lunch, you find yourself thinking about what to have for lunch tomorrow.
8. You enjoy deleting sp*m.
9. You read your sp*m.
10. You send sp*m.
11. You're usually current on your expense reports.
12. You look forward to required training.
13. It's all you can do to keep yourself from correcting obvious typos in Wikipedia.
14. You correct obvious typos in Wikipedia, but you do it under an assumed name.
15. No matter what you're doing, if it's work-related, you feel relief when you're interrupted.
16. At work, you surf the Web looking for a new job.
17. You do your Web errands (shopping, gifts, etc.) at work. No point wasting time at home on this stuff.
18. You've learned the keyboard commands for quickly displaying the next or previous browser tab so you can switch quickly to a tab more suitable for work when someone suddenly enters your office.
19. You listen carefully to the phone conversations of the person next door.
20. You look at your boss's home in Google street view — again.
21. You got pretty good at some of Google's more arcane commands by searching for your ancient love interests.
22. You've figured out how to use the Internet All your paper clips are
    pointing the same wayto spy on your dog sleeping on your sofa at home.
23. All your paper clips are pointing the same way.
24. All your paper clips are pointing the same way except the ones that you intentionally turned around so that they wouldn't all be pointing the same way.
25. You've discovered that your office is in a time warp, because the clock, while not actually stopped, is moving so slowly that it might as well be stopped.
26. You send long email messages to colleagues debating the finer points of stuff that even you don't care about.
27. You send email messages that are so long that if you were a recipient, you wouldn't read them.
28. Under an assumed name, you hold the daytime North American record in an Internet computer game.
29. When a random question comes into your head (like which tree species leafs out first in springtime) you immediately get onto the Web and find the answer.
30. And the Number One Indicator That You Might Be Bored at Work: You've read all the way through this list to get to the number 1 indicator that you might be bored at work.

There's nothing magical about the number 30. I just stopped because I didn't want you to get bored.  Top    Next Issue

The article you've been reading is an archived issue of Point Lookout, my weekly newsletter. I've been publishing it since January, 2001, free to all subscribers, over the Web, and via RSS. You can help keep it free by donating either as an individual or as an organization. You'll receive in return my sincere thanks — and the comfort of knowing that you've helped to propagate insights and perspectives that can help make our workplaces a little more human-friendly. More

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:

Commitment Makes It Easier

When you face obstacles, sometimes the path around or through them is difficult. Committing yourself to the path lets you focus all your energy on the path you've chosen.

Social Distancing for Pandemic Flu

It's time we all began to take seriously the warning about a possible influenza pandemic. Whether or not your organization has a plan, you can do much to reduce your own chances of infection, and the chances of mass infection, by adopting a set of practices known as social distancing.

Heart with Mind

We say people have "heart" when they continue to pursue a goal despite obstacles that would discourage almost everyone. We say that people are stubborn when they continue to pursue a goal that we regard as unachievable. What are our choices when achieving the goal is difficult?

The McNamara Fallacy

The McNamara Fallacy is the idea that measuring properly chosen attributes of inputs and outputs provides all we need for decisions about organizational and human performance. And we can safely ignore anything that can't be measured. It doesn't work.

Pseudo-Collaborations

Most workplace collaborations produce results of value. But some collaborations — pseudo-collaborations — are inherently incapable of producing value, due, in part, to performance management systems, lack of authority, or lack of access to information.

See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming September 4: Beating the Layoffs: I

If you work in an organization likely to conduct layoffs soon, keep in mind that exiting voluntarily before the layoffs can carry significant advantages. Here are some that relate to self-esteem, financial anxiety, and future employment. Available here and by RSS on September 4.

And on September 11: Beating the Layoffs: II

If you work in an organization likely to conduct layoffs soon, keep in mind that exiting voluntarily can carry advantages. Here are some advantages that relate to collegial relationships, future interviews, health, and severance packages. Available here and by RSS on September 11.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenyrWpTxHuyCrjZbUpner@ChacnoFNuSyWlVzCaGfooCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info