Love her or hate her, Emmalee Bauer is getting her 15 minutes of fame for, well, doing nothing.

The media — from Fox News to some newspaper in New Zealand — are all in a tizzy over the Elkhart, Iowa, woman's 300-page tome detailing the minutia of her daily attempts at avoiding work.

Terri Deems, executive vice president of WorkLife Design in Ankeny, Iowa, said she had a chuckle when she first read about Bauer.

"But what I couldn't help but wonder is why no one was paying attention to her performance," said Deems, who also is an adjunct professor at Drake University.

Bauer enjoyed the "freedoms" of her job, but she eventually was fired for taking those liberties.

When workers are in dead-end jobs but believe they have no choice but to stay, Deems said, "We have to start ourselves on fire."

First is the choice to have a negative or positive attitude toward work.

"Part of it is being honest with ourselves and being able to recognize that maybe our attitude is more a part of it than we think," she said.

Workers can also engage themselves more mentally and socially, Deems said — from coming up with creative ways to get things done to developing friendships among colleagues.

While people may have heard this time and time again, it bears repeating: Peel away from work to take occasional breaks. Remember, too, to strike a good balance between time at work and personal life.

For people who have exhausted those possibilities and are still unhappy, it may be time to leave what's truly a toxic environment, she said.

Bosses, too, have roles in helping employees who appear unhappy with their work.

"The employee either can't do it or doesn't want to do it," said Doug Hotek, associate professor of industrial technology at University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. "You have to decide which or if both of those is the problem."

The solutions can range from providing training and incentives or improving the environment of the workplace, Hotek said.

The Bauer case also brings to light a question Deems said employers may need to give more thought: "To what extent have we as an organization encouraged this?"

Sometimes, just one worker seems unhappy, becoming increasingly silent or withdrawn, she said. In those cases, a supervisor should have a conversation with the worker. That could include saying things like: "You're not as productive as you used to be," or "You're not performing like you have in the past."

She said: "We can't give motivation. If anything, we're looking for what's getting in the way of their motivation and taking steps to remove that if we can."

On the other hand, a whole department that's discontented might be the result of the company culture, Deems said. That's when "bosses" have to become "leaders."

The difference: Bosses are dull. Leaders are more inspirational. They tell people their work matters and tell them how.

The leader's goal is to eliminate fear and cultivate pride in the workplace, Deems said.

"Unfortunately, a lot of our workplaces don't work to engage people, but they alienate people," she said. "It's like they siphon off people's energy that way.

"Look for a way to make this fun. It all comes down to making this a place where people want to be."