FORTUNE, 28th Feb 2025: ‘Gen Z is ‘task masking’ to look as busy as possible in the office. Experts warn they’re self-sabotaging’
Victoria McLean, CEO and founder of the career consultancy City CV stresses that task masking should be a wake-up call for managers.
“If employees feel the need to task mask, the question isn’t ‘Why aren’t they working harder?’ It’s: ‘Why don’t they feel their real work is valued?’ When people are putting more effort into appearing productive than actually being productive, there’s likely a trust or engagement issue at play.”
Task masking may be the sign of something more sinister
In reality, task masking is probably not actually as big of a productivity killer as you might expect. Afterall, there’s only so much time you can waste rushing around and typing loudly
In fact, many workers have been doing this for the better half of 2024—long before the trend had a name to it. Managers: Did you even notice?
The article can be read in full here.