The hidden cost of workplace rustout

For years, conversations about workplace well-being have centered on burnout—employees overwhelmed by too much work. But for a growing number of workers, the problem looks very different. Their jobs are not too demanding but not demanding enough, leaving them disengaged, underutilized, and frustrated.

Psychologists say this experience has a name: rustout. Unlike its more commonly studied opposite, burnout (overwhelm from excessive job demands), rustout (also called boreout, or chronic workplace boredom) is an area ripe for more research. The effects on people and organizations can be disastrous: Rustout is persistent and can leave employees feeling disengaged even when they have plenty to do.

“It’s more a symptom of work activities lacking meaning,” said Lotta Harju, PhD, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Emlyon Business School in France. “People might have loads to do but still feel bored if these activities are not sufficiently challenging, or if they don’t make sense and feel worthwhile to the people doing them.”

At its core, boredom is not simply the absence of activity but a failure to connect with the activity itself. “Boredom is wanting but failing to engage with the world in a meaningful way,” said James Danckert, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

In the workplace this disconnect is “not a fringe experience but a surprisingly common condition,” said Erin Eatough, PhD, an organizational psychologist, professor, and consultant to Fortune 500 companies. Recent research led by Eatough shows that more than 40% of workers experience stagnation angst, a chronic sense of being underchallenged, stuck, and unable to grow.

 From the outside, rustout can be hard to spot. Employees may look productive and busy, but internally the experience is very different. Instead of feeling stressed, they often feel a quiet sense of disconnection. This can mean wanting to care about one’s work but struggling to focus or feel interested in it.



Over time, a lack of engagement can take a toll. “Bored workers often struggle to maintain attention, which can show up as mind wandering, daydreaming, or procrastination,” Harju said.

Some employees begin to withdraw, doing the minimum required to get through the day or looking for ways to mentally disengage from their work.

Rustout is often more than a reaction to boredom; it’s the result of how work is designed and structured. Decades of research in industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology finds that job design plays a central role in employee engagement, with job resources such as autonomy, meaning, and task variety consistently linked to higher motivation and well-being (Hakanen, J. J., & Kaltiainen, J., Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Vol. 13, 2026opens in new window).

One key factor is the nature of the work itself. Jobs that are overly routine or low in complexity can limit opportunities for employees to use their skills. “There’s just not enough to do, or the work is too simple or repetitive,” said Frederick Morgeson, PhD, an I/O psychologist and Eli Broad Professor of Management in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. He added that jobs lacking autonomy, variety, and intellectual challenge are especially likely to lead to disengagement.

A lack of control over how work is done can increase feelings of disengagement. “Constraint is one of the key drivers of boredom,” Danckert said. “Any situation where you find yourself having to do something but not really wanting to is a great recipe for being bored.” Without autonomy, employees have fewer opportunities to shape their tasks or make their work more engaging.

Rustout is also closely tied to a mismatch between employees’ needs and the demands of their roles. Research from consulting firm Fractional Insights suggests that growth is one of the most important psychological needs at work, yet it’s often unmetopens in new window. When opportunities to learn and develop are limited, even stable jobs can become disengaging.

Organizational practices and broader workplace trends can reinforce these conditions. Many modern jobs still follow old methods that focus on efficiency instead of engagement. “The way work is designed today is still heavily influenced by early ideas of breaking jobs into small, repetitive tasks,” said Sharon Parker, PhD, a professor of organizational behavior at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and director of its Centre for Transformative Work Design. In these systems, responsibility and decision-making are often concentrated at the top, leaving employees with narrowly defined tasks and little room for initiative.

Larger shifts in the nature of work could also be making rustout more common. As expectations for meaningful, stimulating work have increased, not all roles have kept pace. “Working conditions have improved, but our expectations always rise even more beyond that,” said Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, PhD, a professor of organizational psychology at University College London. “Because people have spent a lot of money and time getting educated, they have really high expectations about careers that should be fulfilling and stimulating. And then when those expectations meet reality, you have a bit of a reality check.”

Plus, advances in technology, including AI, are reshaping jobs in ways that can either reduce or intensify boredom. “AI won’t automatically make work more interesting—it depends on how it’s designed and implemented,” Parker said. In some cases, employees find themselves doing less complex, less engaging tasks even as technology becomes more sophisticated.

Taken together, these factors point to a common theme: Rustout is less about a lack of work and more about a lack of meaningful, challenging, and well-designed work.

Although rustout can appear less urgent than burnout, its effects are just as significant for both individuals and organizations.

“The more often workers feel bored, the more stress symptoms and mental health issues they are known to report,” Harju said. Consistent with this, studies have linked chronic workplace boredom to a range of mental health concerns, including depression and anxiety (Özsungur, F., Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2020opens in new window).

Emerging research also points to potential physiological effects. In a recent study, employees who reported higher levels of job boredom showed signs of poorer autonomic nervous system functioning, as evidenced by reduced heart rate variability (Seppälä, P., et al., Stress and Health, Vol. 40, No. 3, 2024opens in new window). Boredom at work is not a neutral state; psychologists describe it as an aversive experience that signals to the body a low-level but persistent threat to its well-being. Over time, this state of chronic emotional distress leads to parasympathetic withdrawal and a reduction in vagal tone. The resulting long-term health risks include systemic inflammation and cardiovascular disease.

Beyond its impact on health, rustout can also affect how people see themselves and their work. “Intense boredom is demoralizing, especially when we spend a third of our lives working,” Chamorro-Premuzic said. When employees are unable to use their abilities or feel that their work lacks meaning, it can diminish motivation, confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of professional identity.

Organizations also bear the cost. Employees who feel underchallenged are more likely to disengage and reduce their effort, and research has linked lower employee engagement to reduced productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction, and retention. In a meta-analysis of nearly 8,000 business units, Gallup researchers found that business units with higher employee engagement consistently outperformed those with lower engagement across a range of key business outcomes (Harter, J. K., et al., Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 87, No. 2, 2002).

These findings show that rustout is more than just boredom; it can harm workers’ health, performance, and long-term career growth.

If rustout is rooted in how work is designed, psychologists say it can also be addressed through intentional changes to that design. Research on work engagement has consistently found that job resources—including opportunities to use one’s skills, learn new things, receive feedback, and exercise discretion at work—are associated with higher levels of engagement and well-being (Hakanen, J. J., & Kaltiainen, J., Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Vol. 13, 2026opens in new window). When people have autonomy, they can organize their work in ways that make it more engaging, Parker said. For example, instead of assigning employees a fixed set of tasks, managers might allow them to decide how to approach a project or choose which problems to prioritize. These kinds of changes give employees more control and a clearer sense of purpose.

One of the most effective levers is growth. Even modest improvements in growth opportunities can significantly reduce the risk of disengagement, Eatough said. This might include expanding roles to incorporate new challenges, creating clearer pathways for advancement, or providing access to learning and skill-building opportunities. In practice, that could mean giving an employee the chance to lead a small project or take on responsibilities outside their usual role.

Job design itself also plays a central role. Increasing task variety, complexity, and opportunities for problem-solving can help ensure employees can use their skills. When that isn’t possible, psychologists point to other ways of redesigning work. “If you can’t change the work itself, one powerful way to redesign jobs is through the social environment—who you do the work with,” Morgeson said. Team-based work, collaboration, and feedback can all help make otherwise routine tasks more engaging.

Organizations should also reconsider long-standing assumptions about efficiency. While certain approaches, such as structuring work into narrowly defined, repetitive tasks, can improve efficiency, they can also limit employees’ ability to engage meaningfully with their work. “If you don’t give people opportunities to do interesting and challenging work, you never discover what they’re capable of,” Parker said. As technology advances, some psychologists say organizations have an opportunity to rethink this balance—for example, by using AI to take over routine tasks while allowing employees to focus on more complex or creative aspects of their work.

Addressing rustout can be tricky for individual workers, especially in a tough job market. Some may want to find new responsibilities or talk to their supervisors about taking on more challenging tasks. But as Harju noted, boredom is often difficult to discuss openly. Employees could hesitate to raise concerns for fear that it will reflect poorly on them or lead to more undesirable tasks.

Psychologists emphasize that rustout is not a personal failing but a signal—one that points to a mismatch between employees and their work. Boredom reflects an unmet desire to engage. Addressing it requires shifting the focus from keeping employees busy to ensuring that their work is meaningful, challenging, and aligned with their abilities.

For organizations, that shift can be essential. As workplaces continue to evolve, the challenge will be to both manage overload and prevent underload by designing jobs that keep employees engaged.