"In the real world, employees don't have a mental switch to flip, but they've found subtler, and potentially more insidious, ways to disengage. The latest trend, dubbed "task-masking," has taken over Instagram and TikTok. It's all about looking busy without actually being productive: charging around the office with a laptop, pretending to be on an urgent call, or typing furiously with no real purpose. According to recent research, more than a third of U.K. workers admit to faking productivity."
"Task-masking isn't born of laziness or lack of ambition—it's a fear-based response to productivity pressure and "always-on" work cultures. Research from Workhuman found that strict time-tracking exacerbates the problem: When workers strongly agree they are expected to respond immediately to Slack, Teams, or other instant messages, the rate of fake productivity shoots up to 51%. To free employees from the sense that their time card matters most, leaders should clarify what the company truly values."
Severance's premise mirrors a real workplace trend where employees mentally disconnect from repetitive jobs and adopt task-masking to appear busy. Task-masking includes behaviors such as rushing with laptops, faking urgent calls, or purposeless typing while avoiding substantive work. More than a third of U.K. workers admit to faking productivity, and the behavior reduces meaningful progress, hinders promotions, and erodes leader confidence. Fear of constant responsiveness and strict time-tracking fuels task-masking; when employees feel pressured to answer instant messages immediately, rates of fake productivity rise sharply. Leaders should clarify values and measure outcomes instead of face time.
Read at Fast Company
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