Talking Dutch: Are you stressed out – or just bored out?
A new book by “boreout coach” Frouke Vermeulen takes on the biggest ailment of working life
Derek Blyth on the modern malaise
Frouke Vermeulen, who describes herself as a boreout coach, believes that boredom is a bigger problem than we think. She has just published a book on the topic – Vechten tegen verveling – Fighting Against Boredom.
On her website, she describes the symptoms of boreout. Als je door een bore-out geveld wordt, is je interne vlam erg verzwakt – If you’re hit by boreout, then your internal flame is dimmed, she writes.
Sleep je jezelf elke ochtend naar je werk? – Do you have to drag yourself to work every morning? Voel je je vaak uitgeput en futloos? – Do you often feel exhausted and listless? Misschien zit je met bore-out – then maybe you are suffering from boreout.
Does this sound like you? Mensen die op het werk onvoldoende uitgedaagd en geprikkeld worden – people who feel they aren’t challenged or inspired enough at work – zouden wel eens te maken kunnen krijgen met een bore-out – can sometimes be struck down with a boreout.
Am I boring you?
Doordat de activiteiten op het werk niet genoeg voldoening, energie en afwisseling bieden – Because the work you’re doing isn’t challenging, demanding or varied enough – zal het werk je fysiek en mentaal gaan vervelen – then the work is going to have a negative impact on your physical and mental wellbeing.
And the problem with a boreout is that people are often afraid of mentioning it to the boss. Wat opvalt zijn de grote schaamte en taboe die nog op het thema rusten – It’s striking how much shame and taboo is still attached to this subject, she said in an interview with VRT.
But not everyone was impressed with this theory. Nog nooit dergelijke onzin gehoord – I’ve never heard such rubbish, one angry man wrote to her. Bore-out: laat me niet lachen!!!! – Boreout: don’t make me laugh!!!! U geeft de mensen die de ziekteverzekering willen melken de pap in de mond – you’re giving the perfect excuse to people who want to scrounge off the welfare state.
Er moest hem dringend iets van zijn hart – he must have had an urgent need to get it off his chest, Vermeulen wrote on her blog. Zo dringend dat er geen tijd was voor een ‘Beste Frouke’ – so urgent that he didn’t have time to write ‘Dear Frouke’.
Maybe he was suffering from boreout.
