Time for a workplace lift-off

By ANGELA McCARTHY

Are you bored with your job? Lost sight of the purpose of your work because you have so much to do, or the tasks have become tediously repetitive? How do people revive their interest in work to turn off the autopilot?

Robyn Pearce, time-management specialist and author, says you can look at boredom in two ways: as a problem, or as a wake-up call for change.

"Try doing things other ways," she says. "If you drive another way to work, you start seeing different things.

"Apply this to the work environment. Take a different approach and try to see if there are other ways to do the boring part of your job. Can you computerise some of it maybe, like signatures in an email?"

It's also important to communicate your needs to management, says Pearce.

She tells the story of a training session including a senior manager and his clerk.

When asked her biggest challenge, the young clerk talked of a set of reports that were repetitive and tedious and always put her behind with other tasks. Her manager was astounded - he had not needed the reports for months.

Consider passing part of your job on to someone else. People often don't do this because they're scared of losing the job altogether or being seen as superfluous, but that's short-term thinking, says Pearce. Managers don't want bored people who are not putting their best into the role.

"Once you become jaded you need to change or to leave. Resenting it doesn't do anyone any good. Discussing your need for new challenges often will lead to role changes and new opportunities."

If the job is compulsory and repetitive and you can't delegate it, then look for improvements in the process, suggests Pearce.

"You don't have to leave your brain at the door. It really depends whether you want to be proactive or sit back and take what comes."

What is boring to you could be fun for someone else.

"Something that is boring to a person with high energy levels and short attention span will not be to a quiet, linear person who likes detail and consistency."

Others relish mindless work because it leaves them mentally free for other aspects of their life.

For some people a change in attitude makes a big difference.

Pearce talks of a school secretary who would turn up to work with a list of "to-dos", then resentfully have to put it aside to spend the first hour dealing with tedious queries.

Once she recognised the first hour was important she began to enjoy the job again.

But your enjoyment at work will ultimately depend on how all your life is going, says Pearce.

"What really matters to you as a person? Are you currently living the life you want? If not, then which parts do you specifically want to change and is that change important enough to do in the next 12 months? "You can't improve what you're not clear about," says Pearce.

Training facilitator and business coach Jane Butler agrees.

When people are "bored out of their tinies", she suggests they step back and look holistically at the eight "sources of success" that provide balance in their lives: financial, emotional, recreational and social, family and close friends, spiritual (purpose), physical, mental acuity (intellectual) and career (vocation, contribution or/and work).

Butler talks of people's "drivers" or "motivators". For some people it is the possibility of what they could do that drives them, while others are driven by what they should do.

"Some people can end up in autopilot jobs because of what they think they should do, which is possibly not what they want to do or what really grabs them," says Butler.

Having a goal or a "well-formed outcome", as Butler calls it, makes all the difference.

For example, if you've taken a tedious job out of expediency - because of money, time factors, lack of qualifications and the like - but can see it as a step into something in the future, then you'll find it easier to avoid feeling down about autopilot syndrome.

"If you have a well formed outcome, then you can still maintain a focus and purpose that is positive for you," says Butler. "You can recognise the blocks, anticipate the hurdles, know the consequences and be totally committed to realising your goal."

Butler acknowledges it can be hard to follow through on decisions if management doesn't let you take the initiative. This happens when management is process or hierarchically driven rather than relationship-based, she says, and some managements actually encourage an autopilot syndrome approach to jobs because of their task orientation.

Not so with FlyBuys contact centre manager Jason Pascoe. FlyBuys has its own syndrome - the 3-F one of fun, focus and fulfilment.

"People spend a lot of time at work so the people, attitudes and environment around them are important," he says.

"We try to have fun in the workplace with dress-up days, pizza nights, movie nights."

He believes it works. Attrition rates are low - 6 per cent last year, which is remarkable in the contact-centre business - and a recent survey found 92 per cent of FlyBuys callers were pleased with service.

The 3-F syndrome includes new environmental themes in the centre every three months, changing seating plans so people aren't sitting next to the same staff, and offering an internal loyalty programme and career path opportunities.

The loyalty programme, Treasure Island, rewards staff on a daily basis with gold-covered chocolate coins, and on a weekly, monthly and annual basis with the grand winner getting a Treasure Island holiday.

"We do this to encourage employees to reach for higher standards and continually challenge themselves," explains Pascoe.

Providing career pathways shows staff they can move forward and not feel stagnant.

And it works both ways.

Two of the people in the team of 50 have indicated that they are happy with their current level and don't wish to move on, and that is fine, says Pascoe.

While such managerial tactics aren't necessarily the norm, some are transferable.

Take rewards, for example. If your management isn't going to give you rewards for a job well done - and have you asked? - you can reward yourself anyway. You can add meaning to your work by reassessing what you feel about the job and challenging yourself more within the regular and tedious tasks.

As Butler says: "Awaken the magic within."