Boreout vs Burnout: Why Being Under-Challenged Is Just as Dangerous

As someone who spends a lot of time talking to candidates, clients, and teams about how they feel at work, I hear a lot about burnout: exhaustion, pressure, and the sense of being “always on”. What we talk about far less is the quieter cousin of burnout: boreout. And yet, I am seeing more and more people in our industry quietly struggling with it.

I wanted to explore the difference between burnout and boreout, and focus on how we, as leaders and employers, can prevent people from slipping into that lonely, under-challenged space.

The difference between burnout and boreout

Burnout is driven by overload. It tends to show up when someone has too much on their plate for too long: long hours, constant urgency, emotional pressure, and a lack of recovery time. Over time, this leads to exhaustion, detachment, and a drop in performance.

Boreout comes from the opposite direction: underload. It is what happens when someone is chronically bored, underused, or stuck doing work that feels meaningless or far below their capability. They are not drowning in work; they are drifting.

In simple terms:

Burnout: “There is too much of everything and I cannot keep up.”
Boreout: “There is not enough that matters, and I am disappearing inside this job.”

The important thing is that both can lead to the same place emotionally: fatigue, low motivation, self-doubt, and a feeling of being stuck.

What boreout looks and feels like

Boreout is often misunderstood as laziness or lack of ambition, which makes it harder for people to talk about. In reality, it can affect highly capable, motivated people who simply are not being stretched or given meaningful work.

Typical signs of boreout include:

Constant boredom or emotional “numbness” at work; stretching simple tasks out to fill the day; a sense that your skills and experience are going to waste; feeling guilty or ashamed for “not being busy enough”, so you pretend to be; low energy not because you are overloaded, but because you are under-stimulated.

Over time, boreout can lead to anxiety, depression, and a quiet form of disengagement that is just as damaging as classic burnout for the person and the organisation.

Why employers need to take boreout seriously

In recruitment conversations, we often focus on preventing burnout: managing workload, offering flexibility, and supporting wellbeing. All of that is vital. But there is another question to ask:

Are we also creating roles that give people enough challenge, purpose, and variety?

Boreout tends to appear when roles are very narrow or repetitive, when talented people are overqualified for the work they are doing, when there is little room to grow, contribute ideas, or learn new skills, and when managers equate “quiet” with “fine” and assume no news is good news.

From an employer’s point of view, boreout is risky because it does not always lead to a swift resignation. Sometimes, people stay, mentally checked out, coasting, and slowly losing confidence in themselves. That is painful for them, and quietly expensive for the business.

How to prevent employees feeling boreout

The good news is that boreout is preventable if we design work thoughtfully and keep honest, human conversations at the heart of our leadership.

1. Create roles with real ownership

People are far more engaged when they can see the “why” behind what they do. Ask yourself:

Does each person own clear outcomes, not just tasks? Can they see how their work contributes to the wider business or customer experience? Has their role grown with them, or stayed exactly the same since they joined?

Even small additions, like giving someone responsibility for a project, a client segment, or a process improvement, can turn a flat role into a more fulfilling one.

2. Build in learning, stretch and variety

Boreout often creeps in when someone feels they have stopped learning. You do not always need a promotion to fix that; sometimes it is about variety and challenge.

You can offer stretch assignments outside their usual remit, rotate people across accounts, destinations, or product areas, involve them in projects, tenders, or new initiatives, and support access to training, mentoring, or peer learning.

Giving people room to grow sends a powerful message: “We see your potential, and we trust you.”

3. Talk about more than just “how busy are you?”

In one-to-ones, it is easy to focus on workload and deadlines. To spot boreout, we need different questions:

“Which parts of your job feel most energising at the moment?” “Where do you feel most under-used?” “Is there something you would like to do more of or less of?”

If someone quietly hints they are bored, take that seriously. It is not a criticism of the company; it is a cry for more purpose.

4. Make it safe to say “I can take on more”

Many people are afraid to admit they are underloaded. They worry it will make them look dispensable or ungrateful. Leaders can change that by actively saying, “If you have capacity and want more challenge, please tell me”, responding positively when someone asks for additional responsibility, and matching their extra capacity with meaningful work, not just extra admin.

Psychological safety is not only about raising problems; it is also about being able to ask for more.

5. Add variety, even in operational roles

Not every job can be redesigned from the ground up, but almost every job can include more variety. For example, you can combine routine tasks with customer contact, project work, or data and analysis, involve team members in process improvements and “how we do things here”, and create small “champion” roles for onboarding, wellbeing, sustainability, or DEI.

Variety helps people feel they are growing, not just repeating.

6. Look again at “quiet quitting”

When someone withdraws a little, delivers the bare minimum, and stops bringing ideas, we often assume burnout or classic disengagement. Sometimes, though, they are simply bored and under-challenged.

Asking, “Are you feeling overloaded or under-used?” can open up a very different and far more productive conversation.

A more honest way of thinking about work

In the end, both burnout and boreout tell us the same thing: something in the balance of work is not right. One is about too much demand, the other about too little meaning, but both are deeply human responses to a mismatch between what a person needs and what their role is giving them.

As leaders, we have a responsibility to look at both sides. It is not enough to avoid overloading people; we also need to make sure they are respected, stretched, and able to use their strengths.

If you are noticing signs of boreout in your team, or if you are feeling it yourself, it is not a failure. It is a signal. With honest dialogue, thoughtful job design, and a bit of creativity, we can turn underused potential into renewed energy and contribution.

Warmest wishes,

- Elena Ktori, Founder, Antella Recruitment