Not too long ago, depressingly, we had someone leave the business.
Someone we didn't actually want to lose.
When we asked why they were leaving, they said they'd become 'bored' in their job.
-- Cue lots of introspection about what we doing to make someone feel that way, and how we could put it right.
But what it also did was get us thinking about how we could put an end to workplace boredom for good, from both an employer’s and employee's perspective.
And we're not just talking about having to do the odd tedious little task. Everyone has to do that.
We're talking full-on, mind-numbing boredom that crushes your soul.
Which gave us a little blog idea...
We mused over what we thought might be the most boring jobs in the world. The kind of mundane job you'd do anything to get out of.
So we did a little digging (it's amazing what you can find on the web!)
And it would seem that these 40 jobs fit into that description... what do you think?
The 40 Most Boring Jobs in the World (Apparently)
1. Frozen Pea Tester.
The person who tests the temperature of frozen peas on a production line.
2. Bookmark String Threader.
The person who threads the string through the end of a bookmark.
3. Printer Paper Feeder.
The person who sits in the printer room and refills the paper trays when they run out or jam.
4. Lift Operator.
The person who opens the lift, greets you and presses the buttons for you.
5. Milk Bottle Squeezer.
The person who squeezes all the milk bottles to make sure they’re not leaking.
6. Pork Scratching Spotter.
The person who makes sure no hairy pork scratchings make it into the packet.
7. Cheese Slicer.
The person who slices up the cheese before it gets packaged.
8. Bitumen Tester.
The person who tests the viscosity of the bitumen.
9. Tablet Picker.
The person who picks the broken tablets out before packaged.
10. Label Sticker.
The person who sticks labels on boxes and envelopes.
11. Fax Operator.
The person who sits to watch and make sure the fax machines don’t over-heat.
12. Stapler.
The person who staples all the documentation.
13. Un-stapler
And the person who un-staples all of it.
14. Box Packer.
The person who packs boxes.
15. Almond Grader.
The person who loads almonds into a machine so they can be separated by size and packaged.
16. Beetroot Pickling Line Cleaner.
The person who has to clean up the rotten beetroot bits off the floor, when they’ve been picked out from the production line.
17. Washing Powder Weigher.
The person who had to make sure 500g of washing powder goes into the box.
18. Night Security Guard.
The person who has to stay awake all night in an empty factory, in the middle of nowhere.
19. Envelope Stuffer.
The person who stuffs hundreds of envelopes a day.
20. Envelope Sticker (or Licker).
The person who closes the envelopes, once stuffed.
21. Post Opener.
The person who filters through the post, opening each and every piece.
22. Trophy Polisher.
The person who polishes trophies, all day.
23. Tour Guide Operator.
The person that does the same tour, at the same time, every day.
24. Step Attendant.
The person who stands by the step and warns you to “mind the step.”
25. Sign Holder/ Human Sign.
The person that holds or is dressed as a sign with directions to a restaurant, take away or event.
26. Sausage Flipper.
The person that flips sausages on a production line.
27. Disney World Ride Attendant.
The person that has to say the same (scripted) greeting to everyone as they get on the ride.
28. Toll Booth Operator.
The person who collects cash at the toll.
29. Box Maker.
The person who makes hundreds of boxes, from templates every day.
30. Paper Counter.
The person who must count 50 reams of paper, and put them in separate packages.
31. Soil Infiltration Tester.
The person who watches water infiltrating soil through a pipe – measuring how much sinks each hour.
32. Waking Night.
The person who has to stay awake in a dark, warm room all night in a hospital.
33.Car Park Ticket Dispenser.
The person who has to manually let people out of the carpark, because the ticket machine is broken or too far away for people to reach.
34. Canal Guard.
The person who has to hang around the canal, in case anyone falls in.
35. Manual Un-subscriber.
The person who had to manually unsubscribe thousands of people from a mailing list.
36. Paint Watcher.
The person who literally has to watch paint dry.
37. Questionnaire Coder.
The person who has to write big numbers next to answers on a completed questionnaire, so it’s easier and faster for data inputters to input into their computer.
38. Scanned Documents Typist.
The person who has to type up old and scanned documents.
39. The Fire Checker.
The person who has to walk around an old building, to make sure it’s not on fire.
40. Social Media "Likers."
The person who likes your Facebook page etc. to make you look more popular.
Could you hack it?
I know what you’re thinking; have I made some of these up? Well, I wish I had!
These are the weirdest and most wonderful boring jobs I could find across the web (surely they should be automated?!)
Of course, one man’s meat is another man’s poison – and to a certain extent a job is what you make of it.
Recruiter Pro Tip We jest, but boredom in the workplace is actually a pretty big deal. Think about it; no one can feel truly happy, healthy and productive if they spend the majority of their day bored out of their mind. If you’re an employer, worried about staff members, click here to read our article: 12 Ways to Stop Your Employees Getting Too Bored at Work. If you’re an employee who’s sick of being bored at work, click here to read our article: 7 Things You Can Do to Avoid Getting Bored At Work.
Or if you’d just like to read more slightly silly, light-hearted stories like this one, click here to subscribe to our weekly Friday Funnies blog!
Want to read more?
Want to read more about weird, wonderful and utterly boring jobs? Check out these articles from around the web…
- Are these the world's most boring jobs?
- The 100 Oddest Job Titles
- Some of the world's most boring jobs.
- What is the most boring job?
- The most boring jobs in the world.
Happy Friday!
