boreout

Boreout is burnout’s quieter cousin: the drained, unmotivated feeling that comes from being bored and unchallenged at work, not from being overworked.

What boreout means

Dictionary.com defines boreout as dissatisfaction and demotivation caused by being bored and unchallenged at work, and notes it can apply to school too. Where burnout comes from too much, boreout comes from too little: tasks that don’t use your skills, long stretches with nothing meaningful to do, and pretending to look busy.

Dictionary.com notes it’s thought to lead to apathy, frustration and other negative effects. From the outside it can look like an easy job, which is part of what makes it hard to explain.

Examples

• “I finish my work by 10 a.m. and spend the rest of the day pretending. Total boreout.”
• “She left a well-paid job because the boreout was killing her.”
• “Burnout or boreout? Honestly, a bit of both.”

Where it came from

It’s modeled on burnout, swapping in bore. Dictionary.com says the term is thought to have been coined by authors Philippe Rothlin and Peter R. Werder, who used it in the titles of books published in 2007 and 2008. Usage picked up in 2021 and 2022, when worker boredom was sometimes cited as one reason for the Great Resignation.

Related terms

• Quiet quitting: doing only what’s required.
• Sunday scaries: Sunday-night dread.
• Lazy girl job: an easy, well-paid job.
• Great Resignation: the pandemic-era quitting wave.

See more terms like this in our work and money slang guide.