A new workplace trend known as “Task Masking” is growing among TikTok users. Simply put, “Task Masking” entails office workers openly exaggerating that they’re working hard in the office and going overboard with performative tasks to give the illusion they’re being productive.
TikTok’s Advice On ‘Task Masking’ In The Office
TikTok users are flooding the social media platform with ways to look busy at work. Although videos offering tips for giving the illusion of productivity are nothing new to the platform, recent uploads in the last six months—following corporate giants like AT&T and Amazon enforcing a return-to-office (RTO) mandates—garnered up to 1.1 million views. Here are a few suggestions I watched Gen Zers giving on the social media platform to look busy in the office:
1. Type furiously and loud.
2. Walk fast with your laptop to any destination in the office.
3. Make frustrated noises to give the illusion you’re frustrated with work.
4. Call your friend or partner while using business hand gestures to make it look like you’re talking business.
5. Make extraordinary serious facial expressions.
6. File through the pages of your notebook from beginning to end furiously and continuously.
7. Always carry your laptop with you when you leave your desk.
8. Walk through the office quickly with your cell phone to your ear as if you’re talking business.
9. Look at a blank screen and mouse shuffle–moving your mouse around as if you’re working on a project.
Why ‘Task Masking’ Has Become A ‘Thing’
Many people are asking why young employees are spending so much time pretending to be busy when they could actually get the work done. Popular Gen Z work trends such as “quiet vacations” and “micro-retirement” are also appearing as passive-aggressive reactions to the rigidity, power and control of big corporations.
These trends have some business leaders describing Gen Z as “professional loafers” and difficult to manage. This unproductive mentality, dubbed “the ultimate productivity killer,” is affecting both small businesses and large companies nationwide. So what are the root causes? Here are several speculations.
1. Showcasing their values. Gen Zers have a reputation for resisting the traditional churn-and-burn workplace culture. Instead they prioritize flexibility, well-being and work-life balance. They refuse to accept burnout as a “normal” aspect of the work world, which is viewed as a healthy message to all workers.
2. Resisting corporate America.”Task Masking” is a reaction in a string of resistant trends. Younger employees resist the pressures, power and control of big business. In the past, trends like productivity theater–workers prioritizing tasks that make them appear productive and visible to management was fear based. And “quiet quitting”—when younger employees get the bare minimum done on the job due to burnout and feeling they’re underappreciated–is resentment based.
3. Reacting to RTO mandates. The “Task Masking” trend is a way remote workers are resisting the RTO mandates, which they consider a direct assault on flexibility. The recent deluge of 1.1 million TikTock views is a reaction to the enforcement of RTO demands. According to Amanda Augustine, career coach for career.io, “Companies demanding employees to return to the office imply that presence equals productivity, however, the latest TikTok trend indicates this is not the case.”
4. Proving a point. Augustine acknowledges that the “Task Masking” trend results from a reaction to RTO demands, however, she insists that, “it’s important to recognize that this reflects young professionals’ beliefs that time and being physically present at work isn’t equal to their outcome and impact.”
5. Expressing hostility. “Career Catfishing”—the trend of job seekers accepting a job and refusing to show up on the first day—is a reflection of simmering gripes from a new generation of workers. It’s one way Gen Z is trying to take back power in their professional lives, but it’s also a sign of a deeper and growing quiet divide between big business and the younger workers.
A Final Wrap On The ‘Task Masking’ Trend
The troubling trends of “fauxductivity” and “mouse shuffling”–fake productivity even among managers–shows that leaders could be faking it more than their employees, highlighting how misaligned perceptions and top-down pressures are creating a toxic culture of performative work.
Augustine suggests that Gen Z might not be faking productivity after all. She cites a Workhuman survey, concluding that most employees are not faking productivity, with 67% denying fake work. Of those employees who report faking work activity, 69% say it doesn’t impact their outcome, and 48% say they are still above-average workers.
Augustine concludes that these findings indicate the key reasons for “Task Masking” may not be due to a refusal to do work, but rather from feelings of burn-out from being in the office or not having enough work to fill their hours in the office.”