The impact of digital on young people’s ‘bore-out’ at work: killer and saviour at the same time?
The world of work has been radically transformed by the advent of digital technology for several decades now. Today, it is former students/new workers who are faced with new challenges, including the emergence of a condition that is increasingly present in this profile: the state of ‘bore-out’.
For example, according to the recruitment site Qapa in 2019, we learn that 63% of French people are bored at work and 28% even consider it “very boring”. In this article, we’re going to explore how digital has influenced or even impacted the state of ‘bore-out’ among young people at work, looking at both the positive aspects of digital (how digital can cure this state) and the negative aspects of this development (how digital can encourage this state).
Part 1: How can digital help workers avoid boredom?
1.1 Expanding professional opportunities
Digital has, by definition, opened up new career opportunities for young workers. These include online platforms, social networks and digital tools. Thanks to all these tools made possible only by digital technology, young people have access to a multitude of new opportunities, such as freelancing, teleworking and even collaborative projects. This diversification of career options can help to prevent boredom by offering a greater variety of tasks and challenges, which will prevent boredom.
1.2 Flexibility and autonomy
Since covid, digital technology has enabled management to be structured in a different way. According to a Dares teleworking study published in 2023, teleworking now concerns 26% of employees. That’s over ¼ in just 4 years since it became widespread! Digital technology has made a major contribution to flexibility and autonomy in the world of work.
Young workers can now organize their schedules more freely as they wish (according to the company’s internal laws, of course), work remotely and manage their own workload. This increased freedom allows them to choose projects that match their interests, to take on new challenges, to imagine new futures that may suit them better, to be able to travel while working, to waste less time in transport, and so to maintain their motivation in the long term.
Part 2: How has digital technology encouraged ‘bore-out’?
2.1. Information overload and the death of attention
One of the main drawbacks of digital technology is the information overload that young workers face. Multiple communication channels such as email, instant messages and social networks can lead to fragmentation of attention, making it difficult to concentrate on specific tasks. This is known as infobesity when the overabundance of information creates a state of dependency in the internet user, which in turn creates a feeling of remoteness, and then demotivation in the workplace. This dispersion can generate boredom and frustration, contributing to a state of ‘bore-out’.
2.2. Task repetitiveness and lack of stimulation
Gone are the days of Taylorism, when people worked on assembly lines and eliminated unnecessary gestures; now these tasks are increasingly given to robots. And yet… Although digital technology offers many opportunities, some digital jobs can be repetitive and unstimulating. Especially nowadays, when young people want to achieve fulfilment at work and find meaning in their assignments. Ultimately, it’s a bit of a vicious circle: digital creates a state of lack, lack establishes a state of boredom, boredom establishes a state of boredom, boredom creates a state of lack, and so on. Young workers can find themselves caught up in a boring routine, doing the same tasks over and over again with no sense of satisfaction or professional development. Is this modern-day Taylorism? This can lead to a loss of motivation and a feeling of constant boredom, thus encouraging ‘bore-out’.
Conclusion
Digital has brought significant changes to the world of work, with mixed impacts on the state of ‘bore-out’ among young workers. While it offers new opportunities and greater flexibility, it can also present challenges such as information overload and task repetitiveness.
It is crucial for young workers and employers to be aware of these challenges and find ways of overcoming them. Because now, more than ever, mental health and well-being must be taken into account. A balance between the judicious use of technology, workload management and the creation of stimulating and varied environments can help prevent the onset of boredom.
In the final analysis, digital technology can be seen as the main danger that encourages boredom, but it can also be seen as a good solution for getting out of it… It’s up to us to use it wisely.
What about today??
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminating the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.
