Breaking boredom: Interrupting the residual effect of state boredom on future productivity

Boredom is an emotion that constantly fluctuates in employees of all ages and occupations. Here, we draw on functional theories of boredom and theories of emotion regulation to develop an episodic model of how boredom shapes employee attention and productivity over time. We argue that employees often suppress boredom at work to "power through" boring tasks and objectives, resulting in residual bouts of mind-wandering-and thus productivity deficits-during future performance episodes. However, following boredom on an initial task, the commencement of a subsequent task that employees perceive to be meaningful creates an attentional pull that breaks the link between boredom and future mind-wandering, preventing the effects of boredom from spilling over to inhibit future productivity. Study 1 draws on archival experience sampling data to test our hypotheses and examine whether boredom exhibits reciprocal relationships with mind-wandering and productivity over time. Study 2 uses an experimental design to determine whether boredom and task meaningfulness interact to exert a causal effect on future mind-wandering. Study 3 uses a time-separated single-day design to replicate Studies 1 and 2 and examine our contention that employees often suppress boredom at work which, rather than preventing the effects of boredom, puts them "on hold" until a later point in time. Our findings provide insight into how to mitigate the far-reaching effects of boredom at work; they also advance episodic accounts of emotions, attention, and performance in organizations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).