Should you be worried about ‘fauxductivity’ in your team?
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How to tackle the work trend.
If you’re a manager losing sleep thinking about your employees skiving off work, this one’s for you. Writer Alyssa Jaffer explores the ‘fauxductivity’ work trend to find out whether it’s worth worrying about – and the truth might surprise you.
Are you still on the fence about remote work, secretly convinced that your direct reports, colleagues and even your boss are faffing about at home, getting in a workout or even off on a cheeky unofficial holiday while still on the clock? Or maybe it’s you who’s feeling the pressure to stuff your calendar full of meetings, maintain a neverending to-do list and constantly remind your manager how busy you are.
From quiet quitting to coffee-badging and quiet vacationing, this year’s work trends popularised by TikTok have become misunderstood to stereotype Gen Z workers as lazy, entitled or stubbornly unwilling to work hard. And the newest term to describe modern workers echoes the same misconception.
It’s called fauxductivity.
What is fauxductivity?
Fauxductivity means fake productivity, referring to workers who feign or exaggerate how much work they’re getting done during the workday, without actually contributing value.
“Fauxductivity is when individuals engage in surface-level tasks, excessive meetings or constant email replies to give the impression of productivity, often at the expense of meaningful work,” career coach Kristy Weterings tells Stylist. “People at all levels – managers, individual contributors and even C-suite executives – can fall into the trap of fauxductivity. It stems from a culture that rewards activity over results, where employees feel pressured to look busy to gain approval or avoid being checked on.”
Nearly half of managers say that their employees faking work activity is an issue, according to new research by Workhuman. And with the rise of presenteeism in the workplace and accelerated by unpopular post-pandemic return-to-office mandates following years of remote work during Covid-19 and the digital tools that have made it possible, it’s no surprise that fauxductivity is now permeating the workplace.
It’s OK to focus on meaningful work over appearances
So how concerned should you be about your team indulging in a bit of mouse jiggling or taking advantage of remote work, only to be binge-watching Netflix during working hours?
Not very, according to the research. Two-thirds of workers deny faking work activity altogether. But here’s the surprising thing: it’s not your junior employees you should be worried about. The study found that 37% of managers and 38% of C-suite executives admit to faking their productivity – both at higher rates than the 32% of non-managers who practise fauxductivity.
Which raises the question: why are we faking it at work?
The reasons behind fauxductivity
There’s not one simple answer behind why you, your colleague or (more likely) your company leadership might be working fauxductively. Weterings shared five key drivers behind the fauxductivity phenomenon.
The pressure to appear busy
In many workplace cultures, there’s a general belief that busyness equates to value. Employees feel the need to constantly prove their worth through visible actions, even if those actions don’t drive meaningful results.
Unclear objectives
Without transparent goals or priorities and how these align with the bigger picture, workers may turn to low-value tasks or busywork that looks productive but doesn’t actually move the needle.
Fear of judgment
Employees may fear that they’ll be judged as lazy or uncommitted if they aren’t visibly working, especially in remote settings where visibility is limited to digital interactions. And the effect of workplace bias is real; with proximity bias and authority bias to contend with, the fear of judgment at work becomes even more pervasive.
Misalignment between incentives and productivity
When organisations reward effort over outcomes achieved, employees tend to engage in performative work instead of impactful tasks. For example, if your success metric is maximising your billable hours, rather than completing your client’s project most efficiently, you’re more likely to indulge in fauxductivity.
Digital overload
The constant and distracting influx of emails, messages and meetings can create a cycle of reactive, surface-level work rather than deep, focused productivity. Plus notifications like emails and Slack or Teams messages tend to disrupt you from deep focus or creative work, a state of flow that’s difficult to re-enter once interrupted.
How to fight fauxductivity in your workplace
There’s a lot you can do to tackle fauxductivity head-on and unlock a more productive work cycle. Weterings shared ways managers, workplace leaders and individuals can break down fauxductivity.
If you’re an individual contributor…
Invest in impact
Use the Eisenhower matrix to identify and prioritise important work – things align with your company’s key objectives and make a significant impact over urgent but less valuable tasks.
Protect your priorities
Limit the time you spend on low-value activities like excessive email checking or back-to-back meetings. Setting personal boundaries like ‘no meetings Fridays’ or establishing service-level agreements (SLAs) for work deadlines can help push back on false urgency at work. Prioritise focused work and professional development to learn new skills that can boost your value at work and keep you engaged.
Communication is key
Check-in regularly with your manager to make sure your weekly workload aligns with team and company goals that will have a material impact. Ask for feedback continually and adjust as needed, especially if you’re falling back into fauxductive patterns.
If you’re a manager…
Go for the goal
Define and set clear, specific objectives that focus on outcomes rather than activities to help your employees prioritise meaningful work that drives results.
Create a safe space
To help you identify and eliminate low-value tasks, foster a culture where employees feel safe to share their workload challenges, including when they feel overwhelmed by busy work.
Show, don’t just tell
Model real productivity yourself and show your team that it’s OK to focus on meaningful work over appearances. Cut down on performative tasks and encourage your team to do the same.
To meet or not to meet
Streamline and reduce unnecessary meetings and emails; instead, prioritise concise, purposeful communication to free up time for your team to focus on high-impact work.
Outcomes over effort
Shift recognition and rewards towards achieving results, not just visible effort like hours worked, and celebrate accomplishments that align with strategic goals.
If you’re a leader of your workplace…
Reward results
Emphasise and celebrate the quality of work and results achieved over time spent or the appearance of busyness throughout the organisation. Align employees’ performance metrics with impactful outcomes, particularly during performance reviews and reward your teams accordingly.
Flexibility is a flex
Allow your employees to have autonomy over how they achieve their objectives. Flexibility reduces the need to be visibly ‘on’ all the time, which allows for more authentic productivity.
Share skills
Equip your employees to work more efficiently and less fauxductively by investing in professional development and training on time management, prioritisation, people management and strategies for deep work.
Balance is more than a buzzword
Conduct regular reviews of overflowing workloads or weak processes to identify and eliminate inefficiencies across your organisation. Promote work-life balance and wellbeing by encouraging all levels of your workforce to take breaks, disconnect and recharge. Rest is proven to result in better work outcomes and leaders should set the example.
Images: Getty; Adobe