Work should be enjoyable. People are increasingly looking for job satisfaction, yet a third of employee’s claim to be bored at work for most of the day. Boredom leads to accidents, errors, increased risk taking and stress related health problems like heart attacks. It contributes to a lowering of staff morale, absenteeism and staff turnover as experienced employee’s look elsewhere to escape the monotony of the same old routine.
People should get a buzz out of work. As a manager, you need to ensure not only that people are busy and productive, but that they have some new experience, some tasks that will interest and stretch them to compensate for the boring routine stuff that everyone has to do.
We all spend in what are often unproductive meetings, we all have to wade through an endless stream of unimportant emails, we all resent time spent on “necessary” form filling and we can all feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tasks to be completed. Because being bored is not the same as having nothing to do. There is lots to do, the trouble is too much of it is dull and routine, or we haven’t time to do a good job on that potentially more demanding piece of work because of the ridiculously tight timescale.
Employees are reluctant to tell their managers they are bored, in case they are given more of the same. Of course, an employee can ask for something more challenging, but again this could be misinterpreted or seen as volunteering for extra work. The problem is, managers have large teams and lack the time to consider each individual’s role and their potential. This is increasingly an issue as the workforce becomes better educated.
Recognising someone has the ability to do more, is the starting point but giving them an interesting piece of work may mean giving them your interesting work, something you might have enjoyed doing yourself. But then again, managers shouldn’t just delegate the boring stuff. Delegating an interesting project will also involve you helping the individual, not simply abandoning them to get on with it. Delegating appropriately always involves a short term investment for a long term pay off.
The next issue is capacity. As the manager it is down to you to decide the priorities and which task can be left till later or not done at all in order to create the space and time for that interesting piece of work. You can of course re-allocate some of those routine tasks to another member of the team. You can imagine how well that will be received unless it is part of a recognised trade-off. You may also have to lead by example and take on a boring, routine task and do it yourself, in order that you can delegate the more interesting task.
The issue of helping people enjoy their work by giving them something satisfying to do operates at all levels within the organisation. I have recent experience of finding appropriate challenges for an eager young admin assistant, a very able PA and an enthusiastic senior manager. Inevitably this comes down to the manger deciding what does not get done and taking responsibility for the consequences.
Blair McPherson www.blairmcpherson.co.uk