Dive Brief:
- Even more than the employees they oversee, leaders themselves are culprits of “fauxductivity” — faking work activity on the job, according to Workhuman’s 3Q Global Human Workplace Index survey.
- Nearly 4 in 10 of C-suite executives (38%) and 37% of all managers admit to faking activity, compared to 32% of non-managers and the 33% average of all respondents, Workhuman’s survey of 3,000 full-time employees in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland found.
- “Managers and leaders are the stewards of company culture,” the workplace technology and services platform stated in an Aug. 29 report. That they’re faking productivity more than non-managers suggests “the pressure to perform might be coming from the top-down,” Workhuman said.
Dive Insight:
Mouse jiggling? Falsifying timesheets? Workhuman’s findings about “fauxductivity” tap into what business and HR leaders say are the top two issues they face: dipping productivity and toxic work cultures.
“With trends like quiet vacationing and the Great Detachment top of mind,” it’s no wonder CEOs are concerned, the platform said.
A previous analysis by leadership consulting firm EY-Parthenon showed that in the first quarter of 2023, workplace productivity fell by 2.7%, the fifth consecutive quarter in which worker productivity dropped.
Concerns followed into the new year. In a January survey cited in the Workhuman report, Fortune 500 CEOs ranked low productivity as their biggest organizational challenge for 2024.
Meanwhile, HR Dive’s Identity of HR 2024 survey, released in April, found that the biggest challenge for HR professionals — surpassing hiring, training and compliance — is being able to maintain a supportive and positive work culture where employees feel engaged and motivated.
The Workhuman survey sheds light on a connection between productivity and work culture: Of the managers who admitted to faking activity, 69% said it’s a common issue on their team; only 37% of managers who don’t fake activity found it to be a problem.
“This shows fauxductivity might be a symptom of poor culture, creating a toxic cycle of performative productivity and productivity anxiety,” the platform said.
The top two reasons employees said they feel the need to fake activity — to get a better work-life balance and heal from burnout — point to another symptom of poor culture: low well-being, according to the report.
“The impulse to fake activity due to well-being-related reasons indicates that employees aren’t in a culture where they feel comfortable to voice when they need to get away,” Workhuman noted.
One solution, the report recommended, is to emphasize the quality of work and results over the quantity of hours spent online or at a desk. That can be key to taking some of the pressure off employees caught in a “fauxductivity charade,” the guide said.
Manager involvement is also key: Of the respondents who said their managers are extremely involved, 61% said they are always engaged at work. That number drops to 26% when managers have little to no involvement in their employees’ work, the survey showed.
Of concern, more than half of the respondents (54%) said that when they’re not engaged, their coping strategy is to do the bare minimum to get through the day and complete what they can.
To improve that unsettling situation and boost efficiency, HR and business leaders may want to consider redesigning jobs to align with evolving organizational needs, an August guide from McLean & Co. recommended.
Jobs aligned with company goals can improve productivity, such as minimizing the risk of error, the guide said. They can also boost employee well-being by improving job clarity and autonomy, removing or streamlining redundant tasks and addressing workload imbalance, the guide said.
