Whether you’re leaving your laptop open so your Slack status stays green while taking a break or you’re pretending to read an email when your boss saunters by in the office, some days are just about putting in the work to look like you’re working.
At least, that’s the case for the nearly half (43%) of employees who say they spend more than 10 hours a week engaging in “productivity theater,” according to a survey of 1,000 U.S. workers from Visier. The software company defines “productivity theater” as performative work that gives off the appearance of being busy, rather than actual work that creates value. It's the result, it says, of widespread layoffs, increased surveillance of workers, and employers’ concerns over remote work, which have created the perfect visibility paranoia cocktail for employees to adopt a busy bee act to prove their worth.
