And finally…illegally bored

Frederic Desnard is seeking the damages for “bore out” - boredom’s equivalent of burnout – as a result of his 80,000-euro-a-year job as an executive at a perfume business which he says turned him into a “professional zombie”.

Mssr Desnard, 44, claims four years of menial tasks at a Paris-based company left him ‘depressed, destroyed and ashamed’ by what he describes as a ‘slow descent into hell’ that made him leave the firm, which he blames on the conduct of his former employers.

According to French media, it is the country’s first ever legal claim for ‘bore-out’.

Mssr Desnard said he was hired as a manager at Interparfums, Paris, but was swiftly stripped of his responsibilities until he felt he “didn’t exist”.

But Jean-Philippe Benissan, lawyer for the perfume company, said: “Mr Desnard never said anything about being bored during the four-year period.

“And if he actually had nothing to do over all these years, why didn’t he mention it?”

Workplace health and safety expert Jean Claud Delgenes said ‘bore-out’ occurs when an employee feels they have no been sidelined and have no chance of promotion.

He added: “We estimate that around 30 per cent of the French workforce is bored with their jobs, but most stay because of their fear of unemployment.”