24020: Another Perspective on Well-Being at Work: Profiles of Job Boredom, Burnout and Work Engagement

Job boredom, a deactivated and unpleasant affective state experienced at work, can become persistent, leading to negative consequences for individuals and organizations. traditionally, it has been studied from a variable-based perspective, alongside burnout and work engagement as key indicators of workplace well-being. However, the possible co-existence of job boredom with these workplace well-being indicators is still poorly understood, prompting a person-centered approach. Toaddress this knowledge gap, our research employs a longitudinal person-centered approach to investigate combinations of job boredom, burnout, and work engagement over time through two studies. We aim to identify the most salient configurations (latent profiles) of job boredom, work engagement, and burnout over time, and examine job demands and resources as predictors of profile membership. Findings revealed distinct well-being profiles, including expected high-burnout/low-engagement profiles, alongside bored-and-burned-out and mixed profiles. Hindering job demands were found to predict unfavorable profiles, while job resources and challenging demands were linked to more favorable combinations. This study advances understanding of job boredom and its associations with other key aspects of workplace well-being, such as burnout and engagement. A person-centered approach offers novel insights into how these aspects can be experienced simultaneously and inform strategies to foster employee well-being by promoting the favorable configurations.

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