Working Thoughts, Part 1
Time wasting, boredom, and meaningless tasks characterize the entry-level or administrative job that newly minted college graduates in Washington work from 9-5 every day. I am of the opinion that boredom at work is one of the greatest factors in poor performance and poor quality of life. Conventional wisdom says that this is "paying my dues," but I still want something more from my work than administrative tasks and document formatting. Rather than be a punk young Millennial who won’t be satisfied until she’s saving the world or serving as a CEO by the age of 25, I want to be proactive in workplace change that will make the best use of my generation’s skills and talents.
In high school, I had a friend who was brilliant. He’d been reading Dante since seventh grade, engaged teachers in conversation about books, picked out all the mistakes teachers made on the blackboard, performed complicated math, and developed computer programs in his spare time. I haven’t kept up with Jim since high school, but I’m convinced in a measure of raw brain power, Jim is more intellectually gifted than I am.
Even given deep talent, Jim got straight Cs in all of his classes and was known to act up in class through either inattention or misbehavior. Why?
He was bored.
I won’t blame all of Jim’s academic results on our public school teachers and their inability to provide tasks that could stimulate his beyond-average intellect. I think that Jim* could have used his talents to make the best of the situation in school if he’d wanted to.
Still, I think that teachers could have helped. Teachers could have engaged Jim -- and other gifted students in class -- by giving him independent projects and knowing what his strengths and goals were both inside and outside of the classroom.
Just like Jim, I sometimes act out at work, and it’s because I’m bored. It’s not that I run around the office screaming or playing pranks on anyone or giving surly glances from a back corner. However, I do spend my time surfing the internet, looking at graduate programs, playing internet Scrabble with friends, or reading my favorite blogs and updating my own. Sometimes, I’m guilty of doing that even when I do have work to complete.
I read somewhere that office workers waste up to two hours of work per day in addition to scheduled breaks and lunch. It seems that their must be an alternative to this sort of workplace where workers are both happy and productive. Happiness, stimulation, and productivity shouldn’t be at odds all the time, like they seem to be in many American workplaces.
The problem, as I see it, is two fold. On one hand, as adults rather than students, workers need to identify their talents, ask for more meaningful projects, and then be committed to completing them rather than wasting time. When we know a situation is a bad match, we should do ourselves a favor and discuss the steps to workplace improvement with our bosses, even if that means leaving out current job/field to look for more suitable work. Workers also need to have a positive attitude toward boring work because every job contains some boring work. Sometimes workplace change really means change in a worker’s attitude and values.
On the other hand, bosses and managers should respect workers enough to allow them to serve the company as more than just a function that keeps the wheels turning. Part of good leadership and good use of company resources is understanding that not everyone fits into the same mold, even if they have the same job description. For the most part, people want to use their talents in the workplace, and I’m convinced that given stimulating and meaningful tasks in addition to mundane ones, workers will do their best to achieve.
