Why there’s nothing wrong with having a ‘boring’ job

There’s a common phrase you’re likely to hear most nights when you come home from work. As you’re chopping the vegetables for dinner with your partner, or serving rice to your flatmates around the table, I bet you that someone is going to innocently enquire: “So, how was work today?”

If you’re anything like most people, your answer is usually somewhere on the scale between “OK” and “fine” because the truth is that most working days are not the earth-shattering, purpose-driven, cup-filling moments that career counsellors once led us to believe.

Bored at work? Lucky you.Credit: Louie Douvis

According to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, only 21 per cent of Australian workers said they were engaged at work, slightly lower than the worldwide average of 23 per cent. It’s a startling statistic that lays bare a reality that we rarely discuss: many of us have boring jobs.

But rather than view this as a negative that we need to instinctively rectify, it’s time to admit that there are lots of underrated positives to having a typically “boring” job.

So that we’re clear, by “boring” I mean the types of jobs that are predictable and stable, where you know exactly what you need to do, often repeat it until closing time, and do the same most days.

They might be considered unsexy or uninteresting by some, and once you master exactly how to do it, there are few thrills left in learning new things. The polar opposite of a boring job is one where each day is unpredictable, requiring every ounce of your energy to dodge your way around new challenges.

Another benefit of being on repeat most days is the mental freedom it gives you to pursue hobbies and side hustles on your own terms.

I often help people identify their core values at work, as part of a process to improve how they feel about their job. I like to call these “anchors” to separate them from work values, and they are basically three or four words that sum up your priorities as succinctly as you can.

Two of the most common anchors that come up again and again are “stability” and “family”, and they are actually often indicators that someone might benefit from having a boring job.

Instead of chaos of the unknown, “stability” means you enjoy getting a steady income from a job that doesn’t mentally exhaust you, and “family” means that you want to focus on important things outside the workplace.

There are various accidental benefits that come from being a bit bored at work. An Australian Community Survey last year found that about half of all people scored themselves seven or above out of 10 when asked how stressed they felt in the past month.

But you know who’s typically among the least stressed people in a workplace? Yep, you guessed it, those with boring jobs who can complete them without fuss of fanfare.

Another benefit of being on repeat most days is the mental freedom it gives you to pursue hobbies and side hustles on your own terms. This could be a creative project that needs extra space to percolate in your mind, or a small business to bring in some extra cash outside work hours.

It’s very difficult to do either of these well when your job is packed with high pressure and tight deadlines.

Of course, there will be times in your life when you’re going to crave the thrill of a job where you’re so engaged that everything else gets blocked out, but it’s also perfectly OK to enjoy the banality of work if that’s all you want right now.

So the next time you arrive home after a long day of staring at the clock waiting for the day to finish, and someone asks you, “How was work today?” you can simply reply “boring” with a large, knowing grin.

Tim Duggan is the author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com

Get workplace news, advice and perspectives to help make your job work for you. Sign up for our weekly Thank God it’s Monday newsletter.