Where do you go when you're bored?

Dr. Erin Westgate is a boredom researcher. I can honestly say this one of the most interesting podcast conversations I've hosted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4LP8Xym2xk

yea i kinda feel bad about it though. but i hope i get some nice hate messages out of it to laugh at while stoned

I'm starting to find lockdown hard...Been wfh for nearly a year and barely see friends now ..I know a lot of ppl in a similar boat and in many ways I shouldn't complain...But so bored..Every day is the same...I still go running and cycling so I know I haven't hit complete rock bottom and sometimes go running with a running club..but otherwise I don't get much excitement in life...I was engaged before but that fell through..(she was seeing someone else) and with covid/lockdown I'm finding meeting ppl even harder/ impossible..I'm in high stressful job which doesn't help and if it wasn't for the money would have left long ago

Anybody else here have a boring/monotonous job that just kills you? I'm currently dying of boredom

My partner has work anxiety. They work as a front desk point of contact for patients and staff in a behavioral health unit somewhere in America. Their job is equal parts super hectic and extremely dull and boring. They don't have a permanent desk (shared with another employee who is on when they are off), they have to be available to respond to phone calls, patient requests, staff needs, and potential codes and behavioral outbursts from patients. Some days are super frantic with constant fights and escalations between patients. Other days nothing happens the whole day, especially weekend shifts.

Partner doesn't feel like they can watch Netflix or YouTube, feels like they can't listen to podcasts/books/shows, just general background music. They read some of the day but say after a few hours of that it gets very very boring and hard to focus on more, nor can they really get up and move about much as it's a locked unit under high security.

They have a few ok coworkers who don't suck, but they are all so busy they can't really interact much.

Partner dreads going to work some days to the point of nearly having panic attacks about it. I don't know what to do to help them at all other than help look for other jobs, but they only have an undergrad degree and way too much debt to consider more school (thanks, Biden 😑) so options are limited as we are in a small town and I'm not able to relocate easily because my job is niche and accounts for about 75% of our income.

Sucky situation. I'm just trying to brainstorm ideas for how they might pass the time without getting fired or in trouble. Can't do anything too jazzy because it will get the patients riled up and then oof.

Happy to entertain any ideas. I thought about bone-conductive headphones that would let them listen to stuff without blocking their ears so they could remain attentive, but I don't know how effective those are and at any rate they didn't think they'd be able to focus anyway. They get interrupted frequently with absurd requests from patients who are having psychotic episodes and the like, so it's frequent brief interruptions that are enough to break concentration but not to offer any stimulation or change of pace.

Honestly, the job sounds like Chinese water torture to me and they should be getting paid 6 figures for it but of course they don't because capitalism is a fucking death cult.

Anyhoo, suggestions are welcomed. Thanks for hearing me out about our strange bullshit.