Busy Boredom Misconception

I want to write about what I see as a common misconception. That boredom means free time. In fact, I think boredom has very little to do with time at all. Boredom in my opinion, is about the mind not having anything challenging to do. To use a computer analogy, its like when you look at your computer’s CPU utilization and it says CPU 99% idle, even though you might have tons of applications open and the I/O might be very busing because you are sending files. … Maybe that is not such a great analogy, but you get my point.

Looking at dictionary definitions, I think an interesting description of seen is that on Wikipedia:  “an unpleasant, transient affective state in which the individual feels a pervasive lack of interest in and difficulty concentrating on the current activity.” (as defined by C. D. Fisher.)

Unfortunately, being bored with worked in my current cultural environment also means not having anything to do at work. With the exception of one person that I’ve discussed this with, almost everybody has this misconception, and start to solve my problem by telling me to what to do with my “spare time.” … annoying, huh?

I think the simplest definition I would use of boredom within work-life is: The lack of intellectual challenge.

So now that we have that out of the way, I can say what I really want to say … I’m bored.

Although I’m considered a well paid professional working for one of the most respected high-tech company in the US, and in a consulting/“knowledge worker” position, I feel really bored with work. And have been for most of the past 4 years that I have been working for this company. The intellectual challenges that I face during work are few and far between. Interestingly, when I was NOT working for such a prestigious organization I was not as bored. Although the work load might have been less, there seemed to much more room for innovation, creativity and free thinking. This seems to be very contradicting to me. I would expect that such an organization that is often considered a leader in business and technology would have more intellectual stimulation for its employees. But that is not the case.

I’ve analyzed this a lot in the past few years to try to understand what the issue might be. Some of the ideas that I think might be the root cause of this predicament:

• Workload too high to allow for self-improvement and creativity. I rarely have the time to do something that I feel is a good job. I feel that I almost everything I do is just enough to get by. This is dissatisfying, given that I am somewhat of a perfectionist and take pleasure in doing things right.
• A smaller cog in a bigger engine. Such companies are structured in a manner where innovation has clear specific sources/departments, and basically everybody else does what their supposed to do mechanically.
• That I work for a predominately sales division, where management usually does not value independent thought. Simply making the immediate sales numbers is all that is required, or noteworthy. How the numbers are achieved is a side note.
• Racy sales culture, where everything is urgent and important. And I mean everything. But planning and strategy seem to take the back burner.
• Unclear sense of achievement. Given that I’m part of a sales organization, as mentioned, basically an achievement is a sale.  There are few problems that I see with having a sense of achievement here:

1. Sales cycles can be very long, so it be a long time before you see any fruits of labor.
2. When we get a PO or LI, people start to party. Yet, while others are celebrating, the work is not done yet. The design might need to be revised (or not exist), or there still might be issues that might cause use to lose the win.
3. In sales you often lose deals, which can feel that you have wasted a lot of time. What is much worse than losing is not knowing that you have lost and continue to put effort, while that account team are not clear with you about the situation.

• Unclear team role boundaries. This isn’t apparently a problem, but it is something that I miss from my previous job. In my current company job role boundaries are not as clearly defined. When I say boundary I mean there is a clear line of who’s role this certain task belongs too. Depending on who I work with I’m asked to do different tasks, which in my opinion might not be mine to do.

Still, I have no conclusion yet as to why I am bored exactly. I’ve also had the idea that this role is not suitable for me. But I quickly discard that thought. There are many aspects of my job that I love and believe that I do well, such as presenting technical information, disseminating knowledge, coaching Engineers, etc. I also love the business aspects.

If I had to bet what the culprit of my disatisfaction is, I would say it was the workload, racy urgency culture and unclear achievements.

What do you think?