70% of employees feel bored or disengaged

Robin Madell recommends tips to combat boredom and stress, so you can achieve workplace equilibrium in an article for usnews.com

Nearly 70 percent of U.S. employees are bored or disengaged at work, according to a 2015 Gallup study.

Boredom and stress create different types of problems for employees. Studies have shown that feeling bored can lead to disengagement, sabotage, withdrawal, abuse of other team members and intentional failure – all of which can result in decreased productivity. Chronic workplace stress can lead to serious physical and emotional health problems, including heart disease and depression.

Another survey by Everest College found that 83 percent of Americans are stressed out by at least one thing in their workplace.

So, which is worse for your career? An informal polling of career experts reveals that more believe boredom tops stress in terms of the most damage you can suffer as an employee. “I firmly believe boredom is worse for employees than stress,” says Elle Kaplan, CEO and founder of LexION Capital. “While you don’t want your office to become the next Amazon, some levels of stress are good for a business.”

Tips on how best deal with said stress and boredom:

Break it up: Carolyn Betts, founder and CEO of Betts Recruiting, explains that her organization combats stress by having employees create daily plans for exactly what they want to accomplish, broken into 15-minute increments.

Practice task matching: Psychologist Sari Shepphird explains that both boredom and stress interfere with job success. “If a task challenge outweighs someone’s skill, anxiety results, and performance declines,” she says. “If skill outweighs the challenge, apathy results, and performance declines. The key is to match the type of task and the level of intensity for that task.”

Try to change it: “One of the most important things an employee can do in managing boredom or stress is be proactive,” says Val Matta, vice president of business development at CareerShift. “If you’re feeling underwhelmed by your job, ask your superior for more responsibilities. When it comes to stress, know when to ask for help, be it from co-workers or your support network at home. This isn’t a sign of weakness; It’s using tools at your disposal to do a good job.”

Read the full article here: http://goo.gl/70LZyJ