Today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year.
Quiet quitting, bore-out, brown-out… negative workplace behavioral trends seem to grow year by year.
The latest addition: fakeductivity. A contraction of “fake » and “productivity,” fakeductivity refers to employees pretending to have a heavy workload.
It’s a kind of workplace masquerade that can impact a company’s overall productivity.
To analyze this phenomenon, an Anglo-Saxon study published last August shed some light on the subject.
The findings? 37% of managers admitted to faking their workload, compared to 32% of employees.
What lies behind the mask? Fakeductivity often stems from the need to reassure management in the face of overwhelming objectives, latent burnout, a lack of meaningful tasks, or poor work-life balance. Interestingly, 68% of employees engaging in fakeductivity claim that it doesn’t affect the quality of their work, unlike the deeper emotional distress they may be experiencing.
More a symptom than a pathology, this trend serves as a reminder of the importance of addressing quality of life and working conditions (QLWC).
Implementing policies to improve these aspects is, in fact, mandatory for companies with over 50 employees!
