David Keough

Boredom in the Workplace David Keough

If we can cast our minds back just over a decade ago; computers were the new essential tool to help improve our businesses, our way of life, and just about everything we do now, generally revolves around the computer and its technology. It is probably fair to say, that technology and computers have taken over our lives. When computers were being used wide spread for the first time, it threw up a new medical condition. R. S. I or repetitive strain injury; a wrist condition or injury, that was caused from repetitive use of a key board computer constantly throughout the day due to our hand positioning. Computer companies went into overdrive to address this issue, and continually designed and redesigned keyboards, the mouse, to make using their product more comfortable to use and stop R. S. I occurring. I believe we now have a new crisis that needs addressing with the same vigour and determination to solve. I am going to call it R. M. N. I Repetitive mind numbing injury. R. M. N. I causes injury to the mind through boredom; doing the same task day in day out, without any thought to what it is doing to our mind and bodies. I understand that all jobs have menial tasks and need doing daily, we all have tasks that we don't like doing; I get that; for the whole of our working day; no I just don't get that at all. This book is written for the workplace; however it can be applied to any context; Education, the home environment, sport, literally anything, the results are still the same; disengaged people-Boredom. Imagine the results if we have bored teachers trying to teach bored pupils, bored leaders or managers trying to lead bored staff, a bored parent trying to get their bored kid to surface from their bedrooms and stop playing computer games 24 hours a day; they don't stop playing or come out because everything else is boring, even you, the parent are boring. There are many, many great people who are out there who suffer from boredom, depression, stress and anxiety, who would be brilliant assets to our businesses, education systems if only we created the right environment for them. An environment which stimulates, and keeps them curious. An environment that does not make them invisible, where they truly belong and can use all their abilities; daily. R. M. N. I is a major concern and we as employers, business owners, have created this issue for our people. We have designed the job roles, the culture and working practices; I believe it is now time to recreate them with the full involvement of teams. We are responsible for them, we need to be caring for them; their complete wellbeing.