Trying to look busy is a wasteful, but often necessary, part of many jobs

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Workers are putting a lot of energy into looking busy in the wake of return-to-office (RTO) mandates, but those efforts may ironically be distracting them from accomplishing meaningful work.

According to a recent survey of 1,500 American workers by human resources software provider BambooHR, most are employing tactics to appear busy at work, regardless of whether they’re in person, remote or hybrid. Eighty-eight per cent of remote workers and 79 per cent of those who work in person say they’re taking actions to prove they’re on the job. Meanwhile, 42 per cent of hybrid workers say they come into the office just to be seen. On average, employees spend about 76 per cent of their eight-hour shift working, and 2 hours focused on something other than work.

“[The ways workers try to look busy] varies from just walking around so co-workers will see them to planning meetings with other co-workers who are also in office, to showing up earlier or leaving later,” says Anita Grantham, BambooHR’s head of human resources. “Then there’s what’s called the ‘green status effect,’ where we see 64 per cent of remote workers admitting to keeping work messaging apps perpetually on, no matter where they are, so it looks like they’re actively working.”

Silly as it may sound, the research suggests employing such tactics may be necessary, as nearly a third of managers admit that tracking employee’s whereabouts was their primary motivation for implementing an RTO mandate, which Ms. Grantham says is akin to treating workers like children.

“It’s like saying, ‘you don’t know how to do your work, and I’m not going to create clear expectations, I’m just going to force you to exchange your time for dollars, and make you come in and sit here,’” she says. “I just see a huge opportunity for stronger leadership in determining what objectives the role is designed to deliver and how do we best deliver them.”

Ms. Grantham says in an ideal world managers would set clear expectations and work with staff to come up with objective metrics to measure their performance and let them work when and where best suits them. Instead, most default to an oversight strategy of “seeing is believing,” and reward those who do the best job of demonstrating their efforts, rather than those who deliver the most value.

Ironically, putting extra time and effort into looking busy can make it harder for workers to get their work done, according to Rotman School of Management professor John Trougakos.

“The more time that employees have to spend being performatively busy, the less likely they’re doing things that are actually translating to outcomes,” he says, adding that trying to look busy often requires dedicating extra time to getting things done. “The more people get busy, the more they get worn out, the more they get burnt out, stressed out, and that can have negative consequences for well-being in the long run.”

Though it may feel more necessary since the rise of remote work, which made it harder to observe people on the job, Mr. Trougakos says there’s always been an element of “impression management” in the workplace, especially in sectors where day-to-day performance is hard to measure.

“That’s part of the game in offices that has always been a factor [in advancement decisions], probably as long as offices have existed,” he says. “You work hard at managing your impression, understanding the politics of the office, understanding your manager and understanding what’s going to be perceived as performing well.”

At the same time, Mr. Trougakos warns that those who spend too much time faking it and not enough time delivering will eventually run into trouble, while those who achieve results are more likely to be recognized for their efforts in the long run.

“People’s performance will catch up to them,” he says. “[Performative busyness] is something that can help you if you’re also doing your job well, and it can be something that covers you for a certain period if you’re not, but the outcomes that you produce will eventually catch up to you.”