The Art of Appearing Productive

‘Productivity’ is increasingly being made synonymous with longer working hours and seemingly busier schedules. There is, however, an interesting paradox. Employees are working harder to ‘appear’ productive than actually working towards adding value.

This trend has given birth to a new workplace term, ‘ghostworking’, which refers to the phenomenon of employees pretending to be busy while doing little meaningful work during the day.

Recent studies from Forbes have revealed that at least 58% of employees admit to frequently pretending to work, while 34% do it occasionally, often out of pressure to show effort rather than delivering impactful results (Robinson, 2025).

A study conducted on a sample in Asia found that 43% of employees reported spending more time appearing to be busy rather than being productive (Buchholz, 2023). India ranked at the top of this list. These are not just mere habits but point towards deeper cultural underpinnings that perceive busyness as honourable, despite it being accompanied by low-impact work (Buchholz, 2023).

This is often seen in over-busy calendars with unnecessary meetings, meaningless email threads, and increased digital activity, which may lead to no outcomes. Productivity metrics like performance reviews are often designed to measure visibility instead of impact. Thus, what might look like dedication on the surface may in fact be a sign of misaligned incentivization. The need of the hour is not increased output, but better outputs. Organizations must be able to differentiate between them.

The Perception of Productivity
Productivity cannot be measured by the number of hours employees are logged in or the number of meetings they attend in a day. It is rather defined by the quality, consistency, and extent of impact of the output produced. Research also highlights that increasing hours on the job does not necessarily mean proportionally higher output. In fact, when employees work beyond the threshold of 40–50 hours per week, their productivity per hour begins to decline (Golden, 2012).

This is a result of physical and mental fatigue, which reduces cognitive performance. Over time, this results in reduced average productivity, which is inversely related to increasing working hours, providing evidence for diminishing returns from extended working hours (Golden, 2012).

As extended working hours persist, they lose their effectiveness as employees respond not by working less but by changing how their work is displayed. When hours spent at work are perceived as a measure of productivity, employees are driven to be visibly active instead of substantially active.

This ultimately presents itself as a pattern of ghostworking, wherein employees appear to be busy through constant online presence, rapid email conversation threads, and frequent, long meetings, even if these tasks may be contributing to little meaningful outcomes. Thus, busyness is often an unconscious and perhaps rational evolution to sustain flawed measures of productivity, which reinforce the inefficiencies that organizations want to eliminate for greater profits.

The Illusion of Busyness
If a greater amount of effort defined productivity, workplaces would be bustling with high outputs today. Several studies on workplace behaviour have shown that employee presence and activity do not necessarily translate into actual productive performance. Constant presenteeism is often a result of job pressure, unrealistic and unclear expectations, and toxic attendance norms in workplaces. Research points to significant productivity loss owing to constantly appearing to be present (Chandrakumar et al., 2024). This reduces both individual and organizational outputs.

There have been several negative consequences linked to presenteeism at individual and organizational levels. Individuals caught in the cycle of presenteeism are prone to reduced job satisfaction and motivation, an increased risk of burnout, and deteriorating physical health. For organizations, this results in increased healthcare costs, lower productivity and motivation, along with high turnover rates (Chandrakumar et al., 2024).

The lack of accurate performance measurement metrics in workplaces is one of the prominent reasons for performative busyness gaining prominence today. When performance criteria remain heavily dependent on visibility, employees adapt to the environment by prioritizing the creation of an ‘appearance of effort’ over outcomes (DeNisi & Smith, 2014). Studies on performance appraisal intervals have explained that vague metrics often act as encouragement for impression management tactics rather than productive contribution (DeNisi & Smith, 2014).

Employees often tend to remain present despite low engagement or cognitive fatigue, resulting in reduced work quality and slower progress, which becomes harder for team leaders to detect (Chandrakumar et al., 2024). When organizations reward this constant visibility instead of impactful outcomes, they in fact become catalysts favouring theatre over substance. Businesses need to reform measurement to be more result-oriented and move away from the comfort of measuring busyness.

Redefining Productivity
The answer to improving organisational productivity does not lie in longer working hours, strict surveillance, or packed calendars. It lies in modifying what is incentivized. As long as productivity is measured through online presence and quick response times, employees will continue to work towards appearance rather than outcomes (DeNisi & Smith, 2014). Redefining what is rewarded is crucial in order to break free from this vicious cycle.

The foremost vital shift is to move towards outcome-based performance measurement criteria. Clearly defining goals, ensuring role clarity, and establishing measurable deliverables can significantly help reduce ambiguity surrounding what is expected from employees, thereby reducing impression management. Clear expectations and constructive feedback are directly linked to higher task performance. Reducing unnecessary meeting hours to allow for uninterrupted, focused work time can help improve efficiency and work quality (DeNisi & Smith, 2014).

Managerial efficiency is equally important. Team leaders who prioritise progress and trust instead of constant visibility build working conditions where employees feel empowered to direct their energy towards meaningful output generation. When organizational focus shifts from time spent at work to the value created at the end of the day, productivity and engagement see an upward boost (Spaeth et al., 2010).

Ghostworking practices don’t point towards employee incompetence but organizational system failure. Until organizations redirect their focus towards meaningful output over the facade of busyness, productivity will continue to remain performative, visible, yet exhausting and largely ineffective.

Authors: Prisha Khanna, FLAME Undergraduate Student, and Prof. Moitrayee Das, Faculty of Psychology, FLAME University.