L’ennui est l’impression de vide intérieur causée par le désœuvrement, le désintérêt ou la répétition d’une tâche, la lassitude, et peut susciter des sentiments d’inutilité, de découragement, voire d’abattement. Il peut être la cause de nombreux troubles mais aussi motiver à diversifier son quotidien. Plusieurs auteurs en relèvent les méfaits au travail : il majore l’insatisfaction ainsi que les risques d’accidents par une baisse de la vigilance, conduit à l’absentéisme ou aux baisses des cadences. Il diminue la motivation à réussir mais conduit aussi à développer des activités alternatives. Toutefois l’ennui au travail peut conduire à un sentiment d’épuisement profond – le bore-out – qu’il convient de pouvoir repérer, prévenir et traiter.

Boredom is distinct from depression (Merrifield and Danckert, 2014). In psychopathology it is defined, on one hand, cognitively, as a state of relatively low excitement or arousal, attributable to an internal or external situation perceived as being inadequately stimulating (Mikulas and Vodanovich, 1993), and, on the other hand, emotionally, as the consequence of a situation perceived as frustrating, giving rise to dissatisfaction. Boredom can take different forms (Clive, 1965) from inhibition to inertia. Acedia, or spiritual boredom described by philosophers and mystics, is caused by both a lack and an excess of stimulation and can lead to a real distaste for life: taedium vitae (Sénèque, in. Charpentier and Lemaistre, 1860), which can be expressed in a lethargic or agitated way (Fénichel, 1934). It can also be a subjective indicator of the flow of time (Zakay, 2014). Susceptibility to boredom is a sub-dimension of the search for sensations (Zuckerman et al., 1974; Cloninger et al., 1991), a risk factor for impulsive behavior, for dependency (Willging et al., 2014) and for risky sexual practices (Miller et al., 2014). Boredom at work can be the cause of numerous difficulties: decrease in performance, slowdown in pace, increase in impulsivity, professional tensions, increase in the risk of accidents. Boredom also favors an increased risk of absenteeism or resignations (Guglielmi et al., 2013), taking early retirement, the feeling of being in ill health or being incompetent. It contributes to team turn-over and can lead to burn-out or to professional alcoholism (Harju et al., 2014). At the other extreme, boredom can encourage alternative solutions to an unpleasant activity, for example, taking advantage of a commute to work to cycle or meet new people on public transport (Ollson et al.,2012; Bench and Lench, 2013). Bore-out, which is caused by a lack of professional activities (Rothlin and Werder, 2007; 2008), consists of three elements: boredom, lack of challenge and professional demotivation. A functional analysis can be formulated (Bourion and Trebucq, 2011) to consider therapeutic approaches: create new challenges or envisage professional retraining (Rothlin and Werder, 2008), avoid overstimulation and work more on the behavioral consequences than on the feelings of boredom (van Hooff and von Hooft, 2014). Cognitively, boredom can be fought by focusing on planning and better time management (Wang et al., 2012). An original perspective would be to work with the feeling of nostalgia (Van Tilburg et al., 2013) as, even if it is the regret of a bygone era, it could bring comfort and meaning to life by reinforcing self-determination (Routledge et al., 2012): it associates pleasant memories with success in overcoming challenges in the past (Hepper et al., 2014).