This episode is a little different.

I’ve been experimenting again, and this time, I teamed up with my younger brother to bring a long-simmering idea to life — a short film about one of the most overlooked emotions at work: boredom.

We talk about how stress gets all the attention in work dissatisfaction stories, but boredom — quiet, creeping, and often ignored — is doing damage in the background. And if we miss its early signals, we often end up with a combo of burnout and boredom that’s hard to escape.

I share a personal story, a client vignette, and an invitation to notice boredom earlier — when it can still guide us to something more joyful.

🎬 Want the visual version? Watch the 3-minute video here: The Most Dangerously Overlooked Emotion at Work

If you’re suffering from chronic boredom and want help to redesign more enJOYment into your work life, go to MidlifeUnstuck.com to learn how.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• A special thanks to Brendan and Sam at Kaios Media for bringing this to life.
• The Derailed Diagnostic: A 30-minute life satisfaction assessment

This is the Joy at Work podcast, and I'm Lucia Knight.

If this is the first time you've joined us.

This episode is a little different.

I'm always experimenting, and today I'm going to share with you a little

creative project that I've been working on with my younger brother.

At a family dinner one evening, a little while ago, I was talking to him about

a story I was struggling with that was difficult to explain and high I'd invested

a decent (i.e an awful lot of) time crafting the story of what happens when

midlife professionals ignore boredom.

But I told him I was struggling with the I imagery.

He said, you need a movie, Lucia.

My expressive eyebrows reached my hairline.

Do I?

Tell me more.

It turned out that this new little side business for my brother.

Was helping people tell stories visually.

A few weeks later, and chronic boredom, the three minute movie was born.

If you're listening, I don't know how this will land in your ear

holes, but let's experiment together.

If you are more visual and you're not driving a car, there's a link in the show

notes to watch the three minute movie.

After we launched it in my little, Never Too Old, Never Too Late Community.

We launched it publicly on LinkedIn and it was wonderful to see the response.

Check it out.

If you can't take your eyes off the road.

Here's the audio version of the movie.

Thank you to Brendan and Sam from Chaos Media.

If you are listening and you think you or your business could benefit from their

kind of visual storytelling, message me.

And I'll share their details with you.

This was a tiny but very, very joyful piece of my work life,

and I hope it resonates with you.

If I was building a dream team, Jenny would be my first pick.

She's in her late forties, five, two.

Big brain, big job in tech.

But you'd never know because she never.

Ever talks about work after work.

She runs fast uphills for fun, conjures up family dinners from three dusty mushrooms,

and even if your hair was on fire, she'd still find a way to make you laugh.

A while ago, Jenny, let me in on a secret about her Sunday night.

Dinner done, kitchen cleared, diaries crosschecked.

Then with the house quiet, she runs a bath every single Sunday night.

As she settles in Jenny counts the exact number of work days

until she can stop working.

Then she asked herself, can I keep doing this work for that long?

And it turns out she's not alone.

I've spent a decade studying work happiness, especially in

the second half of our careers.

Last year I studied a thousand people over the age of 35 who didn't enjoy their

work enough to want to do it forever.

I needed to understand why.

The usual suspect.

You guessed it stress.

When we recognize stress, we move straight into problem solving.

We change jobs, bosses, companies, even industries.

Quick fixes aimed at reducing stress, but when I dug deeper,

a different story appeared.

Hiding behind the loud spotlight loving big sister, let's call her

stress, was a quieter one, her overlooked little sister, Boredom.

We don't notice Boredom's whispers.

We brush her off.

Not now.

I haven't got time to play, but boredom doesn't leave.

She shouts and cries for attention.

Until work that was once just dull becomes unbearably difficult.

Your spark fades.

You start relying on other people's sparks, deadlines, guilt,

bonuses, just to keep going.

And if you ignore her long enough, boredom calls for backup.

Who does she call?

Her loud, shouty sister Stress, and together they become an unmissable

force, a terrible twin combo.

Super stressful, boredom.

And at that point.

You can kiss goodbye to thriving at work.

It's all about surviving work day after day after day.

What if you tuned in sooner when boredom was still whispering,

Hey, maybe this isn't for you.

Let's go play with the idea you had last night.

Noticing boredom early is a gift, a gentle invitation to rediscover what sparks

your curiosity and what dulls your flame.

If you want work that feels enjoyable, not just bearable, especially in the

second half of your work life tune into boredom early when you still have the

brain power and energy and imagination to design a new work life strategy.

So you get to do work you enjoy potentially forever.

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my life satisfaction assessment.

It's a 30 minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas

of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you down.

I call it Derailed.

It's a fabulous place to begin at joy at work redesign.