Beyond Fire and Fog: Trading Burnout and Boreout for Balance

By SIOP members Shelly Rauvola and Arryn Poole

There have been many times when we’ve wished for anything but burnout. We welcomed boredom, monotony, and underutilization. We yearned for a day of predictable and rote activity. We wanted to be undervalued for once, tasked with doing things that didn’t really matter to us or others. We wanted to do something utterly bland.

Little did we know, the void beckoning to us was just as insidious as the purgatory we were stuck in. We were on track to trade burnout for boreout. And we weren’t the first, nor would we be the last.

Burnout is an almost ubiquitous term at this point, and it’s an experience that is unfortunately prevalent. Characterized by exhaustion, cynicism, and a reduced sense of professional accomplishment or self-belief, burnout is a consequence of chronic work stress. People who develop burnout are often overloaded by work demands and lack sufficient resources to cope and recover effectively. They’re overstimulated and suffering for it.

Boreout is a lesser-known but similarly devastating phenomenon. It’s burnout’s quiet but destructive sibling. Individuals experiencing boreout are chronically understimulated, tasked with routine and minimally demanding tasks that prompt boredom, stagnation, and a lack of meaning. They aren’t engaged or growing, and they may question why their role exists at all. They have too much time and energy on their hands and no purpose to direct it toward. They are suffering all the same.

Both burnout and boreout lead to negative consequences for people and their organizations: disengagement and withdrawal, performance and productivity deficits, absenteeism, and turnover. While research is limited, anecdotal evidence suggests that burnout and boreout may differentially affect workers from different backgrounds, too. People with disabilities, for example, may be more vulnerable to experiencing burnout as well as boreout due to the other challenges, demands, and forms of discrimination they face at work.

Managers and leaders alike have the ability to intervene along the way, helping workers return to or stay at equilibrium. They can play an important role in prevention, recovery, and health promotion, but they must take a few key steps to do so.

• First, roles themselves must be designed inclusively, with flexibility, support, and growth opportunities centered for all workers. Formal and informal accommodations can go a long way in fitting individuals to their jobs in meaningful and sustainable ways.
• Second, investigating, assessing, and discussing these issues in organizations must be done with attention to both ends of the spectrum. Leaders must show care for cases of under- and overstimulation, and they should collect data from their followers in a way that is sensitive to capturing both burnout and boreout.
• Third, leaders should dedicate resources to both proactive and reactive strategies for boreout and burnout across levels. Mitigating risk factors and compassionately addressing symptoms is key to a healthy, engaged workforce.

By raising awareness, normalizing struggle, and championing balance, we can help avoid a constant pendulum swing. We don’t need to go from one extreme to the other. There is good to be had right here.

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About the Authors

Rachel (“Shelly”) S. Rauvola, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology at DePaul University. Dr. Rauvola’s research applies meta-scientific principles to the study of work, motivation, identity, and health, centering on the experiences of historically understudied, underrepresented, and underresourced worker populations. Dr. Rauvola is an Editorial Board member for Psychology and Aging and Work, Aging and Retirement and serves as Chair for SIOP’s Disability, Inclusion, and Accessibility Committee.

Arryn Poole, M.A. is the Training, Recruitment, & Retention Coordinator for University Housing at the University of Georgia and serves as the chair for the Advocacy & Outreach subcommittee of the Disability, Inclusion & Accessibility Committee (DIAC). Arryn is passionate about helping others with professional and personal development. Some of her areas of interest include training and development, employee well-being, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology or its affiliates.

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