I asked Theresa Carling, Associate in our Employment Law Team to give her thoughts on this latest news - 'Bore Out':
"With stress recognised as the most common reason for long term sick leave from work, you would probably think, as an employer, that you have covered all the bases by removing the more challenging parts of a person’s role, and perhaps dumbing down elements of the job which they find more difficult.
Across the continent in France, one employee is now alleging that his employer caused him to be depressed as a result of the boring position which he was in leading to what has been snappily entitled ‘bore out’ (the opposite of ‘burn out!’)
It will be interesting to hear what happens in this case, as employees on these shores might consider calling in sick with this ‘new’ reason for not coming in. I would love to hear from any employers.I have yet to meet one-who have had an employee using boredom as a reason to take time off work!"
A Frenchman is suing his former employer for "bore out" - boredom's equivalent of burnout - which he says turned him into a "professional zombie". Frederic Desnard wants 360,000 euros (£300,000) for being "killed professionally through boredom" by his 80,000-euro-a-year job as an executive in a perfume business. But is "bore out" real? "It was just so boring. I felt ill knowing I had to go back on Monday morning," says Steve Coster about his time as an insurance broker.
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