New report warns employers against rewarding visibility over actual hard work
Performative busyness is emerging in many workplaces as employees believe being highly visible at work is more rewarded, according to a new report.
Findings from a recent MyPerfectResume poll show that 70% of employees believe highly visible workers are rewarded more than workers who quietly produce strong results, initiating changes in how they behave at work.
A quarter of employees (25%) admitted that they have delayed simple tasks to appear busy longer, while 17% said they have stretched out tasks or revisited completed work.
Another 16% of employees have taken on visible busy work, while 13% said they have pretended to multitask, take notes or stay highly engaged during meetings.
"Performative busyness in the workplace can take many forms, from spreading tasks out to creating additional signs of activity that aren't necessarily tied to increased work output", the report read.
Employees are also interpreting responsiveness as a means to appear visible at work, with 84% admitting that they've responded to messages immediately at least rarely, primarily to signal attentiveness, with 68% doing so frequently or occasionally.
This pressure to appear productive at work is taking up employees' time, where 65% said at least some portion of their average workday is spent on productivity theatre instead of meaningful work.
Some one in five workers even confessed that they spend at least one-quarter of the day doing so.
What's behind the performative busyness?
The top driver behind performative busyness in workplaces is the perception that being more performative means more reward, according to the findings.
But the report argues that the reasons leading to this behaviour are much bigger, as it found that 50% of employees feel pressured to constantly prove their value.
More than a quarter of employees (30%) also said companies are focusing too heavily on surveillance and monitoring, while others (28%) said they don't feel trusted by management.
More than half of workers also said they frequently (17%) and occasionally (40%) worry that appearing "too idle" can negatively impact their job security or career growth.
"Together, the findings suggest that performative busyness can be tied to questions of job security, trust, and how workers believe their value is measured", the report read.
Rewarding visibility over impact
The findings reflect the persistent issue among employers of rewarding optics over outcomes.
Findings from the 2025 Connext Global KPI Confidence Gap Survey showed that 66% of employees are engaging in performative behaviours to make themselves seen more at work, such as accepting extra tasks or staying late in the workplace.
The Connext report previously said addressing this performative behaviour from employees will require employers to stop rewarding optics over outcomes.
"That means replacing 'always on' availability with clear, outcome-based goals, trading performative busyness for real execution, and holding leaders to consistent standards instead of moving targets", the report read.
"Organisations that embrace this shift will do more than lift morale — they'll unleash creativity, sharpen their competitive edge and build workplaces where trust and performance reinforce each other instead of being drained by rituals."
Madison, a global employee recognition firm, said there is "nothing inherently wrong" with leaders noticing highly visible employees.
"But there is an increasingly important question leaders should be asking: Are we recognising employees for the value they create, or for how visible their effort happens to be?" it said in a recent blog post.
It urged employers to recognise not just visibility but also employees' perseverance, sacrifice, resilience and efforts.
"Today's workplace increasingly needs employees who can combine accountability with adaptability, experience with curiosity, independence with collaboration, and effort with intelligent use of technology. That requires leaders to broaden what they notice and what they celebrate", it said.
"Recognise activity, and people learn to look busy. Recognise constant availability, and people learn to remain available. Recognise individual heroics above everything else, and people learn to become heroes."
