大家都知道，工作過度會生病，但是你可知道，工作太無聊也會生病？研究人員指出，對工作提不起精神、覺得工作毫無意義的“悶爆”現象和過度疲勞一樣會危害你的身心健康，甚至會引發抑郁癥。

Being chronically bored at work can have damaging consequences – and we need to talk about it more, say experts.

專家指出，長期對工作感到厭倦會帶來有害后果，需要我們更多地進行探討。

We all know what burnout is and why it’s bad. But fewer of us have heard of ‘boreout’ – a related phenomenon that’s arguably just as pernicious.

我們都知道什么是過度疲勞以及過度疲勞的危害性，但是了解“悶爆”的人就沒那么多。“悶爆”是一種同樣有害的職場現象。

While burnout is linked to long hours, poor work-life balance and our glamourisation of overwork, boreout happens when we are bored by our work to the point that we feel it is totally meaningless.

過度疲勞與工作時間過長、工作和生活失去平衡以及社會對工作過度的美化有關，而悶爆則是對工作厭倦至極，甚至覺得工作毫無意義。

Boreout doesn’t get as much attention as its workaholic cousin, but experts say that this phenomenon – which occurs across industries – can result in some of the same health problems for workers. It’s also bad for companies, because a workforce with boreout can lead to high staff turnover.

悶爆得到的關注沒有過度疲勞那么多，但是專家表示，這一發生在多個行業的現象可以和過度疲勞一樣導致員工產生一些類似的健康問題。員工悶爆對公司也有害，因為悶爆的勞動力隊伍會引發較高的員工流動率。

何為“悶爆”？

"Boreout is chronic boredom. That sums it up,” says Lotta Harju, an assistant professor of organisational behaviour at EM Lyon Business School, France, who has studied boreout for years.

研究“悶爆”現象長達數年的法國里昂商學院組織行為學副教授洛塔·哈留指出：“一言以蔽之，悶爆是長期的厭倦。”

A number of factors can cause chronic boredom, including working in a demoralising physical environment like a cubicle farm, or feeling under-challenged over a prolonged period. But Harju says the fundamental experience of boreout is meaninglessness – “the experience that the work doesn’t really have any purpose, that there’s no point”.

多種因素都可能導致長期厭倦，包括在一個讓人泄氣的實體環境下工作，比如辦公小隔間，或者長時間干缺乏挑戰性的工作。但是哈留表示，悶爆的基本體驗就是無意義感，“感覺工作沒有任何目的，也沒有意義”。

Ruth Stock-Homburg, a professor of human resources management at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, says she’s witnessed the phenomenon across multiple industries. “I started observing people in quiet hours in retail stores, and people are just standing there bored. Or taxi drivers that have to wait sometimes for hours in quiet times in the countryside.” Tech workers in Silicon Valley have also told her they feel the same way, she says.

德國達姆施塔特工業大學人力資源管理學教授露絲·斯托克-洪堡格稱，她在許多行業都目睹了這一現象：“我觀察到，在零售店生意冷清的時候，店員們無聊地站在那里。還有出租車司機有時候在鄉下趴活，一等就是好幾個小時。”她表示，硅谷的技術人員告訴她，他們也有同樣的感覺。

Stock-Homburg and her colleagues have identified three main aspects of the boreout phenomenon: “being terribly bored, having a crisis of growth and having a crisis of meaning”.

斯托克-洪堡格和她的同事們指出“悶爆”現象的三個主要方面：“感到非常無聊、陷入成長危機和意義危機。”

Although it’s normal for everyone to get bored at work occasionally, being chronically bored for days on end may indicate that you need to address the issue, says Harju, because failing to do so can have consequences. In 2014, she worked on a study, looking at more than 11,000 workers at 87 Finnish organisations. She found that chronic boredom “increased the likelihood of employees’ turnover and early retirement intentions, poor self-rated health and stress symptoms”.

哈留稱，盡管每個人在工作當中偶爾都會感到無聊，但是連續多日的長期厭倦感意味著你需要解決這個問題，因為如果不重視起來就會產生不良后果。2014年，哈留在一項研究中調查了87個芬蘭機構的1.1萬名員工。她發現，長期厭倦感會“增加員工流動和提前退休的意愿，并且更有可能導致自我評估健康不良的情況和應激癥狀。”

Other research backs this up. A 2021 study showed that 186 government workers in Turkey who suffered from boreout also dealt with depression, and high rates of stress and anxiety. Studies show depression from boreout can follow workers outside the office, and lead to physical ailments from insomnia to headaches.

其他研究也證實了這一觀點。2021年的一項研究顯示，土耳其的186名“悶爆”的政府職員大多遭受著壓力和焦慮的困擾，還有人患上了抑郁癥。研究顯示，悶爆引發的抑郁癥在工作之余會繼續困擾著職員，并會引發失眠、頭痛等身體不適。

“悶爆”怎么破？

"Boreout is different from burnout in the sense that bored-out employees rarely collapse out of exhaustion. Bored-out people may be present physically but not in spirit, and people can keep doing this for a good while,” says Harju.

哈留稱：“悶爆和過度疲勞的不同之處在于，悶爆員工很少會因為筋疲力盡而倒下。悶爆者可能人在心不在，而且這種狀況可以持續很長時間。”

Workers who realise they’re experiencing boreout may also be reluctant to flag it up as an issue to line managers or human resources. While the behaviours that feed into burnout – overwork, drive – are appreciated and rewarded by employers, boreout “reflects a lack of interest, a lack of motivation”, says Harju. “These are very much taboo in organisations.”

意識到自己悶爆的員工可能也不愿向直線管理人員或人力反映。哈留指出，盡管導致過度疲勞的工作過度、自我驅動行為會受到雇主的欣賞和獎勵，但悶爆卻“反映出缺乏興趣和動力”，“這在組織里是很忌諱的。”

There are some quick fixes, like taking on work tasks that are more interesting to you. But a 2016 study Harju and her colleagues worked on showed that people who had boreout were less likely to engage in constructive activities like trying to find new, interesting challenges at work.

應對“悶爆”有一些權宜之計，比如承擔自己更感興趣的工作任務。但是哈留和她的同事在2016年開展的一項研究顯示，悶爆者不太可能從事建設性活動，比如試圖在工作中尋找有趣的新挑戰。

What happens more often, she says, is that people will just show up at their desks and spend time shopping online, cyberloafing, chatting with colleagues or planning other activities. She says that these people aren’t lazy, but are using these behaviours as “coping mechanisms”.

她指出，更常見的情況是，悶爆者會在工位上網購、摸魚、和同事聊天或計劃其他活動。她指出，這些人不是懶，而是將這些行為作為“應對機制”。

Fahri ?zsungur, an associate professor of economics at Mersin University, Turkey, who was behind the 2021 study on the health effects of boreout, points out that combatting the phenomenon isn’t just down to the individual.

土耳其梅爾辛大學的經濟學副教授法赫里·奧茲孫古爾指出，抗擊“悶爆”現象不能只靠個人。法赫里在2021年研究了悶爆對健康的影響。

"Giving meaning to the job is not just up to the employee,” he says, instead it’s up to management to create an office culture that makes people feel valuable.

他表示，“賦予工作意義不能只靠員工”，管理層有責任打造一種讓員工感覺有價值的辦公室文化。

If you think boreout is seriously affecting your health (either physical or mental), it may be valuable to ask yourself how you might be able to repoint your career path toward something healthier for you. Seek the advice of mentors, career counsellors or friends and family.

如果你認為悶爆已嚴重影響你的身心健康，你可能有必要問問自己要如何重新定位自己的職業道路，選擇一份更有利于你健康的工作。你可以向導師、職業咨詢師或親友尋求建議。

“Boreout can mark a transition into something else: a different career entirely, or a different role in the organisation,” Harju says. “If people only take its cue.”

哈留說：“悶爆可能標志著一個轉折點：完全不同的職業道路或組織中的不同職位。但愿人們可以領會這個暗示。”

英文來源：BBC

翻譯&編輯：丹妮