Having endless meetings, where we don’t participate or which don’t concern us. Filling out listings that will never be used. Or, even, write a document that no one will read. In most professions, workers are sometimes faced with tasks that are not very rewarding, or even downright boring. In the long run, they can cause a feeling of boredom or even uselessness, which is not good for either the employee or the company.
But, in Switzerland, 77% of workers indicate that they are never, or almost never, bored in their work. This is, among other things, what the new Swiss human resources barometer, produced by the University of Lucerne, the ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, reveals. At the same time, however, around half of those surveyed feel, if only partially, demotivated by their job, while 71% of workers say they are fulfilled by their job.
Although, at first glance, it would seem that these statistics are incompatible, in reality, they are not that much. For Anja Feierabend, lecturer at the Faculty of Economics in Lucerne, most workers experience phases of high motivation and flourish in interesting projects. But there are also phases where routine and boredom dominate and it would be good to experience both. “We sometimes need to be bored,” said study director Anja Feierabend, in the columns of “NZZ”.
And the researcher issues a warning, in connection with artificial intelligence: “When new technologies take over from routine, men are left with demanding, high-level tasks. But we can only accomplish them in short phases. Then you have to rest again. Otherwise, it can quickly happen that we and our brain can no longer cope with the workload.” Finally, the barometer also shows that awareness of the importance of finding a balance between private and professional life has increased.
