Boredom

Boredom, not surprisingly, is simply tedium or a lack of excitement in your job. Boredom (or lack thereof) plays a big role in job satisfaction. Nobody wants to go to work and face eight or ten dull, monotonous hours every day.

What a lot of people fail to recognize is that there is significant waste associated with boredom at work. Bored employees may get the job done, but they are not as effective and productive as they could be.

Boredom Saps Productivity

Workers that don’t have that pep in their step rarely keep fresh improvement ideas coming. They also tend do the bare minimum and become reluctant to go the extra mile—all of which is noticed during interactions with discriminating Lean customers.

Boredom and subsequent lack of employee engagement impacts the value stream and the company’s bottom line.

One of the side effects of Lean, especially Standard Work, is that it can exacerbate boredom. (See Chapter 9 in my book Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean? for specific ways to combat this particular problem).

If savvy managers know how to treat Lean side effects, continuous improvement can have the opposite effect. It can reduce boredom and increase creativity through having a voice in company changes, kaizens, job rotation, and the like.