‘Fake work’ is on the rise: How employees are faking their presence in the home office.

A green dot means the person is online and available. An orange dot indicates inactivity, and a gray or red dot indicates absence. These status colors are the new hard currency of daily office life. Employees use this to their advantage. Employees now schedule their emails the night before for the early hours of the morning to make the boss think they woke up early. Extreme examples include devices such as mouse movers, which prevent the computer from going to sleep and accordingly keep the status indicator green. No matter how clever these tricks are, one thing is clear: They hurt the company, and managers try to track them down as much as possible.

Difference between fake work and unnecessary work

But right now it’s nothing new. Swedish sociologist Roland Paulsen described simulated work and the illusion of busyness in his 2015 book “Idle Labor.” However, fake work does not only mean fake work. It is also unnecessary participation in an online meeting where you neither have to listen nor contribute. This is equally damaging to a company: “On the one hand, fake work is the act of pretending to work. On the other hand, it can also identify completely unnecessary work that is given to you,” explains Matthias Mölleney, founder and managing director of human resources management agency Peoplexpert. Fake work, reports that no one reads, online meetings without a clear structure and results, documentation requirements and just time and effort. They are bureaucratic obstacles that consume resources.

Mölleney says the difference between the two subtypes of fake work (i.e., fictitious work and unnecessary work) lies in the person doing the work. In the case of fake work, the supervisor does not know that the employee is only pretending to be actively working. Conversely, the employee often does not know that the task the boss assigns to him does not benefit anyone and only limits resources.

So why do people delegate unnecessary work? “I think most superiors who do something like this want to make sure they can definitely answer their next superior’s questions,” Mölleney suspects. For example, managers are happy to submit research orders for questions that will likely never be asked. I wish they were prepared. According to Mölleney, the following applies to both types of fake work: It does not advance the company and does not hinder productivity.

Inconsistency in productivity measurement as the reason

Going through long reports or sitting silently in meetings is considered unproductive. So how do you measure efficiency? The results of workplace messaging service Slack’s current State of Work report show a clear difference between managers and employees when it comes to perceptions of productivity.

The company, which is part of Salesforce, asked nearly a thousand office workers and software development managers how they measure their performance. 33 percent of executives surveyed said they rely heavily on activity and visibility indicators, such as hours spent in the office, as well as a green status indicator. In contrast, 27 percent of developers said they measure their performance against goals previously set by the team. Slack Director of Customer Success Nina Koch sums up the results succinctly: “IT leaders must create a culture that measures performance based on results rather than hours worked or emails sent.”

In the survey, 59 percent of employees said they felt they had to respond quickly, even to messages sent outside working hours. Additionally, more than half of developers feel pressure to constantly show their team members and managers that they are productive. This inconsistency creates fertile ground for fakes. “In many companies, productivity loss is often self-inflicted,” adds Koch. “It’s no surprise that developers surveyed felt like they always had to respond to messages, even outside of working hours.”

A research conducted by Deloitte also supports this development. It is stated that although the number of online meetings has increased since the end of the pandemic, their duration has decreased. HR expert Matthias Mölleney says this is not a positive development: “The blocking threshold for calling a meeting has decreased significantly.” This also means that employees are constantly on call and cannot concentrate on their work.

Transparency is very important

The only way to ensure that the flood of fake studies and meetings does not increase is through transparency. “Managers should always clearly communicate what the strategy and goals are,” says the HR expert. Thus, employees will know what they need to focus on and will be able to better evaluate whether the work assigned to them will actually achieve results in this regard.

“Psychological safety is also very important in this situation,” says Mölleney. Through transparent communication, the employee can see whether their work is important, but they should also be allowed to express these concerns to the manager. If you, as a manager, create an environment of trust and reassure employees that they will not be punished if they express themselves critically, then, according to the expert, this is the best way to eliminate fake jobs in the company.

Once established in a company, this culture counteracts both false ways of working. “Leaders across all departments need to understand how employees feel about their work and workload, and whether employees have the right environment to be productive,” says Nina Koch. If this is not the case, employees should be allowed to express their needs and feel that they are taken seriously. Pretending to work and “acting busy” can also be a result of being pushed hard enough. If, as a manager, you give employees the opportunity to express their desires and develop, they will no longer have to hang their jackets over the chair or operate the mouse mover. Or you may prefer to take a nap instead of being motivated to study.