Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Working Conversations podcast, where we talk all things leadership, business, communication, and trends in organizational life. I'm your host, Dr. Janel Anderson.

Picture this. You're staring at your screen, toggling between apps, sending a flurry of emails, and hopping into one Zoom meeting after another. But deep down, you know the truth. You haven't actually done anything substantial all day. It's not because you're lazy. It's because you're stuck in a cycle that so many of us are trapped in.

“Fauxductivity”, it's that sneaky game of looking busy while not necessarily being productive. And in today's work environment, whether it's remote or in office, it's easier than ever to fake it. Let's dive into why this happens and how we can break free from the illusion of being busy at our jobs.

So today we're talking about fauxductivity, a word that the media coined by smashing together the word faux, meaning fake, and productivity-- fauxductivity. It's all about those little tricks that we use to look busy without actually getting real work done. Maybe it's checking into meetings just to be seen, sending emails at strategic times, or keeping your status light green on slack or teams even when you're doing something else entirely. This fauxductivity has been amplified in our hybrid and remote work environments, where it's harder for supervisors to see what we're up to.

And let's be honest, sometimes it just feels easier to fake it or phone it in than to dive into meaningful work. But here's the catch. Fauxductivity isn't just an individual problem. It's a systemic one, tied deeply into something I covered last year on the podcast, the productivity paradox. That was episode 109, productivity paranoia, obsessing that your colleagues aren't working, and the idea still holds true. It's when managers feel like employees are slacking and employees feel like they're doing all they can, but they feel like they're hitting a wall and potentially burning out, and everybody's suspicious of everybody. And if you want more of a deep dive on that productivity paradox and a bunch of examples, be sure to check out that earlier episode, episode 109. We've linked that up in the show notes, but today we're going to focus less on the paradox and more on the tricks that people use to appear busy, how this phenomenon has evolved over time, and what we can do to break free from it.

So, first of all, what is fauxductivity? Well, let's start by getting really, really clear on what fauxductivity looks like. And of course, this is not new. It's been around for years, decades even. But it's gotten a fresh twist thanks to all of the technology that we're using. So in the office, it might be something like keeping papers scattered all over your desk so it looks like you're swamped when your boss walks by or strategically walking with a file folder to create the appearance of being on a mission or on your way to a meeting. Today with remote work, it's things like leaving Slack on active while you run an errand, hoping that everyone thinks you're still working, or hopping onto every available zoom call that you're invited to show your face. Or again, sending out a flurry of emails just before bed so it looks like you're working late into the night. Now, I bet you've done it at least once.

I know I have. Not so much in these past 15 years since starting my own business because there's really nobody for me to impress or look busy for. But when I was in a corporate role, there were certainly days when there was just nothing left to do. And I whiled away the time looking busy until it felt like a respectable time to leave the building. So that's another version of it in the building. Now let me be clear. Fauxductivity is not just about gaming the system. Often it's a defense mechanism.

Many employees feel like they have to look busy even when their real work is done, because the expectation in many workplaces is that constant activity equals productivity. Again, not necessarily the case, but it feels that way. Now, this might be harmless in small doses, but when it becomes the norm, it leads to bigger problems, especially burnout. Because when you're spending so much time maintaining appearances, how much energy is left for the actual meaningful work that needs to get done? So let's look at some of the consequences of fauxductivity. And this is where it gets serious. Isn't just an annoying workplace quirk, it has real consequences.

So let's start with employee burnout. If you’re constantly juggling the need to appear busy with the need to actually get your work done, that is a recipe for exhaustion. You end up working more hours, feeling more stressed, and still not accomplishing whats truly important. And guess what? Burnout doesn't just happen because people are overworked. It happens when they feel out of control, like they're stuck in a never ending loop of tasks that don't really matter. So while productivity might seem like a clever way to protect yourself, it's actually doing more harm than good. Now, on the flip side, productivity erodes trust between employees and their managers.

If managers and supervisors can't figure out how to measure real outcomes, they rely on monitoring activity instead. And let me tell you, when the boss starts focusing on who's sending the most emails or attending the most meetings, it's only natural that people will start playing the game, you know? And this creates a cycle of distrust where employees feel pressured to perform busy work and managers feel like they can't rely on their teams. And in the long run, this damages morale and productivity alike.

Now, productivity might feel like a modern issue, but let's take a quick detour into history. The need to look busy has been a workplace staple for decades. Think back to the corporate culture of the 1980s and 1990s. This was the area. This was the era of cubicles, buzzing phones, and a whole lot of paper pushing.

The expectation was that being present, that is, sitting at your desk, staying late, shuffling papers, coming in early, was the same thing as being productive. In fact, it was almost a badge of honor. The earlier you got there and the longer you stayed, the more important you seemed. It didn't necessarily matter how much work you actually did. What mattered was that you looked busy while you were doing it. Now fast forward to today's knowledge based economy, where the lines between real work and looking busy are blurrier than ever. Unlike factory work, where productivity is easy to measure. How many widgets did you produce? Today, knowledge work is much harder to quantify.

And with remote work, it's even harder for managers to measure who's truly contributing and who's just playing that fauxductivity game and maybe winning at it. Now I can't talk about photo activity without mentioning technology. After all, it's the tools we use, like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Zoom and of course, email, that can either help us be more productive or tempt us in into productivity. So here's the thing. These tools were designed to make work easier and more efficient, but when they're misused, they end up doing the opposite. It's easier than ever to create the appearance of productivity, sending out instant messages, toggling your status to available, or responding to emails right away, all without getting any real work done. And it's not just communication tools. Monitoring tools like time tracking apps or keystroke monitoring have made this even worse.

Way back in episode 76, I talked about productivity monitoring, and we'll link that episode up in the show notes if you want to do a deeper dive on productivity monitoring, I also talked about most jigglers in that episode and all the things that people are doing to look busy and to try to trick the productivity monitoring software that may be watching them. Now, at the end of the day, when tools like these are used, managers may think that theyre holding people accountable, but often theyre just pushing employees to prioritize looking productive and busy over actually being productive and creating something useful.

When your activity is constantly tracked, its hard not to get stuck in a mindset where every move has to count, even if that move is totally, totally meaningless. Okay, now that we've dug into the problem, let's talk about solutions. How do we break free from this fauxductivity and get back to real, meaningful work? Well, first off, we need to shift from measuring input to measuring output. You see keystrokes or how many hours you put in or how many team meetings you log into. That's input.

Output is the substantial work that you create in your profession. So it's not about how many hours you're logged in or how many meetings you attend. It's really about the results that you're producing. More and more companies are catching on to this and focusing on outcomes rather than activity.

If you're a manager, seriously consider whether you're rewarding employees for the right reasons. Are you focused on the work they're doing or just how visible they are? Is it about having a butt in a seat? Or is it about what that butt in that seat produces when they're actually doing work now? Secondly, we need to build trust. Trust between employees and managers is the key to reducing the pressure to perform. And to do this productivity, employees should feel safe to say, hey, I've finished my work for the day, without needing to fill the rest of the hours with performative tasks.

And some people worry that if they were to tell their boss or supervisor that they finished their work for the day, they would just get more work piled on. And for many, this is a legitimate fear, because in an age where when one employee retires or leaves the organization, the organization is seriously rethinking whether they need to backfill that person or whether they can just distribute that person's responsibilities over several other people who are still there, again predisposing them for burnout. So sometimes there is a real cost to admitting that you've finished your work for the day. But if there is that strong trust and a good culture between the employee and the manager. There should be some workarounds for that.

Now, finally, if you're feeling stuck in fauxductivity in that cycle yourself, here are three things that you can do to break free from photo activity. Number one, prioritize your high impact tasks. Focus on what really matters and let go of the tasks that are just for show. And as you think about organizing your workday and scheduling that focus time in your calendar, you really want to think about what are the things that I am most known for? What are the things that I can do to use my subject matter expertise and the skills that I have to make the most impact in my role and for our clients, whether they be external clients or internal clients.

And then number two, communicate transparently. Be honest with your manager about your workload, whether it's too much or too little, and don't feel the need to examine exaggerate how busy you are. If you listen to the podcast regularly, you heard a couple episodes ago when I talked about the busyness epidemic and how pretending to be busy or complaining about being busy actually does the opposite of what you hope it will. What a lot of people do when they're complaining about being so busy is they're trying to communicate their value. But oftentimes it makes people feel like they're incompetent or they're not able to prioritize their work and communicate about their work effectively. So, communicate transparently wherever your workload may lie.

And then number three, set boundaries. You don't have to respond to every email or every slack message instantly. Give yourself time to do meaningful work, even if that means going dark for a bit. So that also includes scheduling focus time on your calendar, making really good use of white space, and insisting on having some white space in your calendar so that you're able to focus on what matters most and set some boundaries around it. Again, I don't have my email turned on all day. I don't have my phone turned on all day. I have a lot of focused time on my calendar when I'm doing the important work of my business. And so there's times when I'm reachable and there's times when I'm not reachable. My clients know that.

And again, I want to really encourage you to set those boundaries for yourself and make sure that your colleagues and your clients and your manager know what those boundaries are so that you can get your focus work done and you can prioritize and work on the things that matter the most. All right, my friends there you have it.

Fauxductivity. It's that sneaky game we all play to look busier than we are, but in the long run, it's hurting us more than helping us. It leads to burnout, it erodes trust, and it wastes time on tasks that just simply don't matter. But the good news is, we don't have to stay stuck in this cycle. I encourage you to take a look at your own work habits. Are you prioritizing real productivity, or are you caught up in the game of fauxductivity? If it's the latter, don't worry, you're not alone.

And now you've got some very specific tools to start breaking free. And don't forget, if you want a deeper dive into the productivity paradox I mentioned earlier, or any of the other episodes I mentioned earlier, check out the show notes for links to the other episodes related to this one, and you will be better equipped to overcome that disconnect between managers and employees needing to fake their productivity.

Remember, the future of work is not only about technology, it's about the values we uphold, the communities we build, and the sustainable growth we all strive for. We need to keep exploring, keep innovating, and keep envisioning the remarkable possibilities that lie ahead. As always, my friends, stay curious, stay informed, and stay ahead of the curve. Tune in next week for another insightful exploration of the trends shaping our professional world. If you learned something on this episode or you simply enjoy the content, please subscribe to my channel on YouTube, subscribe to the podcast on your podcast platform of choice and follow me on social media.

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