Authors:
Ioannis Starchos
and
Anke Schüll
Affiliation:
Department of Business Information Systems, University of Siegen, Kohlbettstr. 15, Siegen, Germany
Keyword(s):
Boreout, Crisis of Meaning at Work, Crisis of Growth, Job Boredom, Connectivity, Home Office.
Abstract:
The main focus of this paper is on boredom and boreout perceived by working novices driven into home office due to the covid-19-pandemic. Because this situation is exceptional, the impacts on a crisis of meaning, job boredom and a crisis of growth manifest themselves more clearly. Young people are the unit of interest within this paper, as a boreout could be devastating for their professional career. Leaning on recent literature, a qualitative analysis was conducted, followed by an anonymous online survey to test the viability of the approach. Only spare indicators for a crisis of meaning were identified, clear signals pointing towards boredom and strong indicators for a crisis of growth as well as evidence for coping strategies relying on various communication tools to compensate the lack of personal contact. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by expanding research on boreout and by underlining the importance of its dimensions crisis of meaning, job boredom and crisis o
f growth. A moderating effect of IT-equipment and IT-support on establishing and maintaining connectivity in distant digital working situations became evident. This paper reports on work in progress, further research would be necessary to confirm the results.
(More)