Even high-paying jobs in some of the most exciting fields can apparently feel like a slog.
In October, PlayUSA—an online casino news and information site—analyzed 2.4 million Glassdoor reviews for every U.S.-based Fortune 500 company, in search of the most boring ones.
The roundup was a tongue-in-cheek way for PlayUSA to promote their online gaming offerings. Still, their extensive analysis of Glassdoor reviews provided some interesting results.
PlayUSA narrowed in on Glassdoor’s “cons” section, and tracked a handful of keywords relating to boredom:
- Bored/Boring/Bore
- Monotonous/Monotony
- Stagnant
- Tedious
- Repetitive
- Dull
- Mundane
- Uninspiring/Uninspired
- No excitement/Not exciting
- Same old routine
- Disengaging/Disengaged
- Uninteresting
The most boring company to work for—with a “bored score” of 98.26 out of a possible 100—was RTX, the Arlington, Va.-based aerospace and defense company formed in the 2020 merger of Raytheon and United Technologies Corporation.
RTX’s overall Glassdoor rating came out to 3.7—not the worst, but nonetheless the Fortune 500 company with the most bored employees. Albertsons Companies, the supermarket chain behind Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, and Jewel-Osco, came in second place, and insurance giant Progressive came in third.
These are the companies rounding out the top 20
1. RTX
2. Albertsons Companies
3. Progressive Corporation
4. U.S. Bancorp
5. PACCAR
6. The TJX Companies, Inc.
7. Fannie Mae
8. Liberty Mutual Holding Company Inc.
9. Travelers
10. Elevance Health
11. Spectrum
12. Freddie Mac
13. Allstate
14. Tyson Foods
15. USAA
16. Nationwide Mutual
17. Northrop Grumman
18. Boeing
19. General Motors
20. BNY
Five of the top 10 companies on the Fortune 500 made the boring list: Apple (third on the Fortune 500) came in 87th place; UnitedHealth (fourth on the 500) came in 24th place; ExxonMobil (seventh on the Fortune 500), came in 80th; McKesson (ninth on the 500) came in 33rd, and Cencora (tenth on the 500) came in 29th.
To be sure, PlayUSA, a site about gambling and casinos, ended their report with an appeal to bored workers to “refresh their brain” with PlayUSA’s “free online slots” or “other online casino games.”
Fixing the boredom problem is mission-critical
Boredom—as with any kind of persistent discontent—can actually be quite impactful to a company’s bottom line. Putting aside the fact that bored, uninspired workers are unlikely to be producing their best work, they are also most likely to look for new work that consistently piques their interest.
The industries with the largest share of bored workers are aerospace and defense (in first place), followed by automotive, banking, energy, and finance. Often, roles in these industries are fairly well-compensated, dispelling the notion that high pay is all it takes to keep an employee engaged or passionate about their work.
While PlayUSA had a clear motive in releasing the study, its findings echo the cultural shift of the Great Resignation, when—shortly after pandemic lockdowns lifted—workers began to leave their jobs en masse, in search of a more fulfilling, flexible career path that truly appealed to their interests.
“The favorable job market created by the Great Resignation, and to an extent by the pandemic, reset what employees expect from their employer. After watching others’ careers benefit greatly, employees have much higher expectations for what a great job looks like,” Ben Wigert, a research director at Gallup, told Fortune earlier this year. He called the change, characterized by disenchantment and disengagement all the way from entry-level workers to bosses, the “Great Detachment.”
In the past few years, Wigert said, “employees have become progressively less satisfied with their job and less committed to their employers.”
But not all hope is lost. Disengaged—or bored—workers can become excited again if they feel their company is committed to change and communicative about their plans. “Pep rallies and empty promises will only further frustrate them,” Wigert said. No mention of how free online slot games might shift the balance, too.
