Something to readWorking with your manager
Bored People Quit
An 8-minute essay on how quiet boredom turns into resignations, and what a manager can do before it does
Why it’s worth your time
Boredom is quiet, easy to miss, and far easier to fix than a decision to leave. Michael Lopp, an engineering leader who writes as Rands, argues that many resignations begin as boredom a manager could have spotted, and he describes the signs and what to do about them. It's written for managers, and it's just as useful if the bored one is you.
How to spot a bored employee before they quit
The essay · 8 min · Free
How to get it
Opens their site. We don’t copy it here; we’d rather they get the read.
- Read the essay.
Watch for the ways he says boredom shows up, especially when someone tells you without ever using the word. The plan of action that follows is where the practical advice lives.
- Answer the two questions for each person on your team.
Write one line per person: where they want to go, and what you're currently doing to get them there. Any blank is your next 1:1 topic. If you don't manage anyone, answer them for yourself, and notice whether your manager could.
Good moments for this: before a round of 1:1swhen someone goes quietwhen you're bored yourself
Keep going with Truest
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- It actually happensWe’ll put it on your calendar and remind you before it starts.
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
The person quietly carrying the unglamorous work is often the last to raise it, out of loyalty. Saying out loud how long it will last, and when it ends, tends to matter as much as the work itself.
What might make this harder
Start with the people you'd least want to lose and the ones you know least. One honest answer per 1:1 adds up within a quarter.
Questions people ask
Why do bored employees quit?
Lopp's argument is that boredom compounds. Left alone, it can harden into a belief that nobody cares, and that belief is much harder to win back.
What are the signs an employee is bored?
Changes in someone's routine, a passing remark that they don't know what's next, and sometimes saying so outright. Lopp also suggests simply asking.
How do you keep a good employee engaged?
Keep at least one problem in front of them that they find genuinely interesting, protect time for it, share the dull work fairly, and tell them what you're doing about their growth.
I'm bored at work. Should I tell my manager?
Often, yes, framed as wanting to do more rather than as a complaint. Hearing it early gives a manager time to do something about it.
What it says, and how it holds up
Efforts to keep a good person can start the day they hand in their notice, and Michael Lopp's point is that by then it's usually too late. He has written Rands in Repose since 2002, mostly about managing engineers, and this 2011 essay opens on the scramble to save someone who has already decided to go. By the time someone quits, they've often stopped believing in the place, and before that, they were usually bored. Boredom, unlike lost faith, is something a manager can notice and fix.
He describes boredom as a clock that runs for as long as someone stays bored, with a limit that differs for every person, and the remedies he offers are mostly about attention and protected time rather than money or perks. The part most worth keeping is a pair of questions every manager should be able to answer about each person, about direction and about what's being done to help. If you can't answer them, you have a reason to ask.
It's a manager's essay from inside tech, and Lopp says plainly that he's protective of engineers. Most of it travels, since boredom isn't an engineering problem. Boredom is one reason people leave, not the only one, and he says as much. Pay, a bad manager, a life change or a company in trouble can all end a job no matter how interesting the work. In the comments, some of his readers also pushed back that the bored person shares the responsibility, and can usually say something first.
Boredom and exhaustion can look alike from across the room. Someone who is overloaded may seem checked out, and handing them a fascinating new project will make it worse; the fix there is less, not more. Someone who is already interviewing needs a direct conversation about what would make them stay, more than a new project.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.