by Race in the Workplace special correspondent Erica Mauter

Manpower VP Melanie Holmes on being busy:

Here’s how I feel about busy vs. boredom:

• We’ve all heard the adage that if you give something to a busy person it will get done. I believe it!
• I get frustrated when people say they’re busy as if that is a bad thing.
• And you could consider busy a form of job security.

We should be grateful that we’re busy. That probably means we’re relevant to our employers and we’re making a contribution to the success of the company. On busy days I go home feeling much, much better about myself than when I don’t check off quite as many items from my ‘to do’ list.

My boss once told me, “the more you have to do, the more you get done.” This was great feedback to hear, considering I’m usually a terrible procrastinator. Extremely close deadlines are my greatest (external) motivator. I’m also the sort of person that will break a task down into ridiculously small parts and/or add things I already did to my to-do list just so I can cross them off.

I think I’m not alone here. Right?

But I’m never hurting for things to do. Good thing.

Although being overworked may lead to employee burnout, boredom due to poor job design or other factors actually may have more serious consequences, according to research by Sirota Survey Intelligence… Employees who express boredom because of too little work reported “far lower levels of job satisfaction, sense of accomplishment and pride” in their companies when compared with other groups of workers. The boredom has nothing to do with employees not having enough work. Rather, it stems mostly from two causes: employees occupying jobs for which they are not suited or trained, or jobs that are poorly designed…

So if you’re bored at work, ask for more to do. Or fill your time with an extracurricular that’s going to help you advance in your job. You need to be able to (honestly) tell your boss what (work-related things) you’ve been doing all week. It’s the best way to address a needy boss’s need for face time. Otherwise you’ll never score those newfangled Results-Oriented Working Hours.

Back to Melanie Holmes’ statement on job security… Imagine this scenario: You’re busy. Everyone else is busy. Someone quits and you all get busier. You’re high performers so you manage to handle it (and kudos to you for that). But unless the workload is really unmanageable, they’re going to realize maybe they don’t need to hire a replacement anytime soon. Which means maybe they could do without you.

So don’t just be busy. Just being busy is not a guarantee. You must also be relevant to the important parts of the business. And make sure you know what those important parts are.