Have you ever felt so numb at work you wonder if it’s depression—but know it’s not? In this episode, I answer a raw and honest listener letter from a high-achieving law partner who’s “bored to the back teeth.”

We dive into why career success often leads to chronic boredom, especially for smart people with a deep need for novelty and challenge. I unpack the hidden psychological toll of this emotional flatline and why it's not just something to push through.

If you’ve climbed the ladder only to feel emotionally dimmed, this one’s for you. I’ll walk you through why your clever brain is desperate for stimulation—and how to spot (and stop) the boredom spiral before it impacts everything else.

🔗 Mentioned in this episode:

• 🎧 A Joy At Work Experiment: Create Time to Think
• 
  
• 📥 Download the free worksheet: Get Clear on Your Kryptonite
• 
  
• 🧭 Join the Midlife Unstuck Community
• 
  

🎁 Share this episode with someone who’s quietly struggling. Boredom isn’t trivial—especially for the smart and successful.

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

Here's this week's question from a listener.

I'm a partner in a US law firm, and honestly, I'm bored to the back teeth.

I don't give a hoot about the work I'm being paid well to deliver.

Truth is, I've probably been bored for a decade.

It seemed to start when I was promoted.

Leading bigger teams, sitting in more meetings and using my brain less.

My wife asked me recently if I'm depressed, I don't think I am, but

the low mood I feel at work, it's starting to spill into everything else.

Work is the problem.

I just don't know how to start solving it.

First.

You are not alone.

About half the people I work with are in your shoes.

Smart, capable, and bored, senseless.

They've climbed the ladder that they first put their foot on.

Many of them tripped and fell into that ladder in the first place.

And because they are smart and they were able to work hard, they performed

well and moved onwards and upwards.

And if they work in corporations of any size, the way you climb

the ladder earn status, and salary is often by leading teams.

So they led teams and yet they're flatlining.

Why?

Because at a certain altitude, something strange happens to smart people.

They stop solving new problems and start managing people solving problems.

And for some, leadership can be fulfilling, if you're actually

leading, you know, setting strategy, defining direction, creating change,

not spending 50 plus hours a week in a maze of KPI reviews, milestone

chases and political maneuvering.

That is the gateway drug to extreme boredom and existential questioning.

Of course.

This isn't the same for every smart person I've ever worked with, but many tend to

have a deep seated basic need for novelty.

Their brains are designed for complexity and solving fresh new challenges,

not repeating the same mistakes in a different year, not tweaking the average

solution we implemented last time.

And when that need for mental stimulation gets starved over years, numbness sets in.

Things over time begin to feel emotionally flat.

You try to silence the one emotion skull crushing boredom, but accidentally turn

the volume down on all your emotions.

You disconnect.

You shut down a bit.

You're performing, but the lights are dimmed.

With long term boredom, you struggle to remember what joy felt like at work.

You might even start to question if you ever experienced it.

Excitement about what others call a meaty new problem gets a minimal

eyebrow reaction from you, and depending on a range of factors,

it sometimes doesn't stop at mood.

The stress from experiencing and living through chronic boredom for

years can show up in your body.

I've seen unexplained pain, headaches, immune weirdness.

I've seen migraines that start the second someone opens their desktop.

No joke.

Now let's talk about why smart people stay.

Well, the salary fairies keep dumping cash, medical, healthcare coverage, car

alliances, and bonuses into your lap.

You are smart, sensible, responsible.

You've maybe got a mortgage, maybe kids, and a healthy fear of looking

like a lunatic who left a well paid job just because they were bored.

Here's what I really want you to hear.

Long-term boredom is not low level stress.

It's high grade chronic stress, just sneakily packaged in a beige

folder named safety and security.

And yes, your clever brain will find ways to stay intellectually alive and sparky.

I see these a lot, uh, big athletic adventures like marathons or triathlons,

walking the Camino Trail or other such gigantic life trips that require intensive

and deliciously distracting training.

Goals like visiting every country on earth or building a YouTube channel

about your sourdough fetish because your brain needs a spark and when work doesn't

provide it, it'll find it somewhere.

Anywhere.

So what do you do?

Well, first, don't quit tomorrow, but do take this seriously if we

were working together in the Fierce Emporium, that's my career makeover

program for midlife professionals, In week one, this is how we'd start.

We'd diagnose your boredom.

In week one, we do an exercise called the Career Sculpture, which looks

at your entire career, and I'd show you how to map the moments when

the boredom began, spiked or faded.

There are flavors of boredom, lots of them, strategic, boredom,

interpersonal, boredom, creativity boredom, you know, your type.

We'd understand your needs still in the first week.

We discover the specific ingredients you need to feel enough satisfaction for you.

Whatever it is that you need, we figure it out and measure how

much you're getting right now.

Spoiler alert, it's probably not enough.

We'd spot the patterns.

Once you see them, you cannot unsee them.

These become the key to not repeating the patterns from the past in your

future career design strategy.

And that's only the first week after that.

I'd show you how to design a new career strategy that removes the boredom triggers

and build your days around work that actually excites the jeebies out of you.

That's when the fun begins.

Look, of course, I'm not saying boredom always leads to illness

and emotional burnout, but it can.

And by the time most people come to me, they're already on that slope.

So if you're hearing this and thinking, this is me, do not wait.

Take action today.

In the show notes, I've included a free tool from the Never Too

Old, never Too Late Community.

It's called Get Clear on Your Kryptonite.

I'll also include a link to a short podcast episode showing you

a simple joy at work experiment that can be started and finished.

In about 10 minutes to get you thinking more expansively about what work might

stop boredom in its tracks for you.

And finally, if someone you know is quietly dealing with boredom at work,

please share this episode with them, not as a fix, but as a droplet of kindness.

A you are not alone message in their inbox because boring work is serious.

And smart people deserve better.