We all think we know what being busy at work looks like: it’s the colleague who starts early and stays late, who has a work calendar full of important meetings and can always be found with their head in their laptop, typing furiously. But what if that person wasn’t actually preoccupied at all? What if it was all a pretence, designed to make it look like they were deep in Very Important Tasks when, in fact, they’re simply waiting for the clock to run down until home time?

If it sounds a bit far-fetched, I can assure you that it’s not. So-called performative productivity is on the rise, according to a recent Fortune article that warned bosses that Gen Z workers are using the increased focus on physical presence and pressure to appear engaged to look busier than they are. Known as ‘task masking’, it’s all about creating the illusion of being busy while not being very productive at all, eg typing loudly, pretending to take notes in meetings or frequently checking emails in place of actionable work.

It’s a telling indicator of just how strained our attitudes towards work are right now. Just 17% of British workers claim to love their job, according to a study from earlier this year, and in between mass return-to-office orders and the backlash towards hybrid working, we’ve seen an increase in trends like career catfishing, where unhappy employees are taking out their frustrations in the office.

Are you guilty of ‘task masking’ at work? Here’s what to do instead, according to a career expert