Boredom is the new burnout, and it’s quietly killing motivation at work

Burnout and boredom are the two dreaded b-words of the modern workplace. We fear one, dismiss the other, and often fail to see how easily they trade places. Too often, boredom masquerades as burnout. To the untrained eye, exhaustion and disengagement can look identical.

Boredom is typically a form of cognitive under-stimulation, while burnout is emotional and physical overextension. Both can leave people feeling unmotivated and fatigued. But here’s the twist: in cultures that tend to glamorize busyness, many employees feel safer saying they’re burned out than bored. Burnout signals you worked “too hard.” Bored, on the other hand, signals the opposite.

Recent reports show 82% of knowledge workers across North America, Asia, and Europe have varying degrees of burnout. And if you’re in Australia, welcome to the burnout capital of the world. Burnout has a costly link to organizational issues such as attrition, absenteeism, lower engagement, and decreased productivity.    

But don’t underestimate the grim impact of a bored workforce either. When you don’t address it, it metastasizes into cynicism and passive sabotage. Given the higher prevalence of bored employees than burned-out ones, the distinction between burnout and boredom is too important to ignore.

Why does this matter? Because when we mistake boredom for burnout, we prescribe rest, when what we really need is challenge. We pull the wrong levers. We give rest to those who crave renewal and pressure to those who need pause. 

If you can’t figure out whether you’re experiencing burnout or boredom in disguise, the following are five signs to be aware of:

1. You’re feeling fatigued, but not stressed

Feeling constantly fatigued, even when sleeping and eating well? Irritated but not exactly stressed? That’s a boredom clue. If your fatigue is tinged by feelings of resentment or dread, you might be experiencing burnout. But if it’s laced with numbness, clock-watching, or a nagging wish for a fire drill just to break the monotony, that’s boredom. Both are crises of connection that are likely related to purpose, people, or growth.

2. Busy yet unfulfilled

Your calendar is filled to the brim with meetings, and the emails never end. Even when sleeping, your remit seems to increase exponentially, and there are endless deliverables. You keep going because everyone needs you, and you don’t want to let people down. But none of it lands anymore. You don’t experience meaning and satisfaction, and you feel somehow hollow. You’re on a track to burning out.

Boredom, on the other hand, may see you doing “busy work” but choosing less critical tasks. The challenge-reward loop fueling motivation has broken down, which leaves you mentally checked out.  Boredom can become problematic when it’s rooted in a deeper sense of purposelessness. And if you’re easily distracted and are distracting others, that’s also boredom.

3. You crave escape (any escape)

With burnout, you fantasize about quitting and disappearing. All you want is some peace and quiet. No emails, pings—zero contact. Just some silence. Even a trip to the dentist for a root canal becomes appealing if only for the escape and genuine, “out of office” experience.

When you’re bored, the escape looks different. You want a thrill. You scroll job ads, online shopping, airline specials, anything just to feel a flicker of excitement. Either way, you’re forming an exit strategy.

4. Quality of work slips

Maybe you’re noticing that your quality of work is slipping. With constantly increasing workloads and being overwhelmed for prolonged periods, it’s inevitable. That’s a clear sign of burnout, especially if it’s not your normal state of play.

What if the decreased quality of work is due to procrastination? Maybe it’s a missed deadline here and there. It’s not quite enough effort to make it a killer presentation, but it was passable. That’s boredom. It’s also a precursor to quiet-quitting, doing the bare minimum of one’s job and putting in no more time, effort, or enthusiasm than necessary.   

5. Emotionally flatlined

You used to get excited, be passionate, even push back. Now it’s just neutral, no irritation and no excitement. The highs don’t lift you, and the lows don’t move you. You stop reacting because it takes energy that you no longer have. It feels a bit like emotional autopilot. In burnout, that numbness is self-protection.

When you are bored, it’s detachment, not from energy depletion, but lack of stimulation. There is no challenge to rise to, no cause to push for, so you quietly disconnect. When disconnection feels better than engagement, that is a sign that something deeper needs your attention.

The key to distinguishing between burnout and boredom lies in tuning into the disengagement and understanding its source. For bored employees, it’s about restoring agency, novelty, inspiration, and purpose:

• Ask better questions: What parts of the job feel under-stimulating or misaligned with their skills? 
• Curate challenge: Provide opportunities for responsibility and problem–solving, not just task execution.
• Reinforce relevance: Help them see the impact of their work.
• Strong leadership modeling: It always comes back to who manages and leads. Purpose–driven leaders and relatable managers engage, connect, and inspire. 

Burnout says, “I gave too much.” Boredom says, “I stopped giving at all.” One makes you feel overdone, while the other makes you feel underwhelmed. Either way, it’s a signal that we’ve drifted from meaning, and it’s time to get back to being