Understanding workplace boredom among white collar employees: Temporary reactions and individual differences

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate white collar employees' temporary relief strategies to workplace boredom. Building on self-regulation theory we define two responses: engaging in distraction and work indifference. We also investigate whether some individuals are more likely to engage in these strategies than others by considering two employee competencies: time management skills and proactiveness skills. Better understanding employee relief strategies and skills may help managers to remedy boredom problems before serious costs are incurred. We collected data from 166 Dutch white collar employees and analysed their survey responses using SPSS and Partial Least Squares (PLS) modelling. Findings indicate that workplace boredom is associated with engaging in distraction. Less consistent results were obtained with regard to work indifference. We find compelling results on the effectiveness of two moderating conditions; proactiveness skills affect the relationship between boredom and work indifference, and time management skills weaken the association between workplace boredom and engaging in distractive behaviour. We consequently conclude that organizations may benefit most from employees with high time management skills, as these employees are less prone to engaging in distraction as a result of workplace boredom. Directions for future research are offered.

Keywords:

• Proactiveness
• Self-regulation
• Time management
• White collar employees
• Workplace boredom

Notes

 ¹Two boredom items (“Do you find your job dull?” and “Does the time seem to go by slowly at work?”) were dropped from the analysis because of low factor loadings on the boredom construct.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gielis A. H. van der Heijden

We would like to acknowledge the insightful comments and suggestions provided by Christel Rutte (Tilburg University) and the anonymous reviewers on earlier drafts of this manuscript.