The managerial obsession with 'busywork'

When employees are on the clock, most managers expect them to keep busy through the workday.

This may mean either completing tasks within their remits, or finding ways to make sure their hands are in some work-related project.

Even when workflows deliver some downtime, the message from management is generally clear: find a way to keep working. 

If workers appear to twiddle their thumbs, some managers step in with ‘busywork’ to keep their employees occupied.

“Busywork is something that doesn't have a purpose,” says leadership and development trainer Randy Clarke, based in Indiana, US.

“It doesn't lead towards reaching any goals, it doesn't improve the person, the operation or the culture.” 

Examples of busywork might include compiling a pointless report, colour-coding a spreadsheet or proofreading a presentation that has already been checked.

One 2016 study of 600 knowledge workers showed they spent just 39% of their workdays doing their actual jobs, with the rest dedicated to meetings, emails and busywork such as writing status reports for managers. 

In the office, managers might assign busywork based on a quick visual check of what employees are doing.

But the switch to remote work during the pandemic has changed that, as many managers can no longer easily monitor their employees. While studies suggest many remote employees are significantly more productive, they are also working significantly longer hours.

Does this mean that managers are assigning more busywork? And would it really be so bad if employees took a break when there was nothing to do? 

Keeping control 

Part of the busywork problem is some managers equate business with productivity. 

The perception is not just that a busy worker is engaged and making an effort, but even that their industriousness gives them a higher moral value than their less busy colleagues.

This sets up a dynamic in which two office workers completing identical tasks can be judged on their busyness, rather than their results.

Who appears to be more engaged: the busy worker who skips lunch to get things finished, or the efficient worker who finishes early and uses the time saved to buy groceries online?

From the bosses’ perspective, the busy worker is often a more reassuring sight.

“People feel like they're paying you for a reason if they see you’re busy doing work," says Susan Vroman, lecturer in management at Bentley University, Massachusetts. 

This is heightened in organisations where work culture dictates that managers operate in a more traditional, authoritative style, discouraging autonomy among employees.

In these organisations, managers may also feel under pressure from their own superiors to prove that their team is busy and productive.

“Managers are saying, ‘I need my employees to keep generating work so that I know they’re earning their salary, because somebody is watching me to make sure that I'm managing them well’,” says Vroman. 

Remote work has, in some cases, exacerbated this pressure. When employees first switched to remote work, many managers found the inability to visually monitor their employees unsettling.

“In the immediacy of Covid, bosses felt that if they couldn’t see employees working, then they weren’t working,” adds Vroman.

“They didn’t think employees were being productive, even if they were still delivering results.” 

At the same time, managers reported a widespread loss of trust in their employees. July 2020 research in the Harvard Business Review showed 41% of managers questioned their employees’ motivation, and almost a third doubted that their employees had the right knowledge or essential skills to make remote work successful. 

When higher-ups doubt employees’ work ethic, one solution is to micromanage their time with an endless list of tasks to keep them chained to their desks – even if some of those tasks are pointless.

“Managers may not even know if an employee has finished their core work, but they are giving additional busywork to ensure that they don't finish [for the day],” says Barbara Larson, an executive professor of management at D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University, Massachusetts.

“It’s work that is literally just being given to ensure that employees are working, so the manager has a sense that they are still in control."

‘We definitely make ourselves look busy’ 

It is not just managers who equate industriousness with good performance, however. One study showed knowledge workers spend an average of 41% of their time at work on self-assigned busywork that could be delegated to others, in order to appear busier and more important at work.

“We definitely make ourselves look busy, because we know people are watching,” says Vroman. 

Online, the pressure to look busy remains, even if that means adding extra tasks to the workday, like sending messages to prove we are logged on.

And even though many workers are able to complete their work in less time in remote-work environments, many still feel the pressure to assign themselves busywork.

“We feel bad about [not working] because we know we're being paid to work all day,” says Vroman.

Indeed, a 2021 study showed that guilt around taking breaks is so high that 60% of US remote workers don’t take any time to themselves during the workday. 

Temptation to self-assign busywork can be even higher among employees who fear being assigned busywork from their bosses instead.

Vroman says people will start doing things to make themselves look busy, “so that the bosses will lay off”. 

Some managers report lulls in work during remote set-ups have made employees uneasy.

“When some of our staff were working from home, I noticed that they felt a bit guilty when there was downtime,” says Niall John Lynchehaun, the managing director of building-supplies company Midland Stone, based in Ireland.

He started assigning busywork so his employees still felt useful in these quiet periods. “It's simply the easiest way to deal with the situation.” 

But assigning too much busywork to mitigate guilt might mean swapping one set of negative feelings for another.

A 2018 study showed 42% of workers were spending half of their time on busywork, and 71% said that doing too much busywork “made them feel as though their lives were being wasted”.

The ripple effect of pointless tasks 

In the long-term, frequently assigning tasks designed primarily to keep workers occupied can damage the relationship between managers and their workers. 

“It can be very demotivating to the remote employee,” says Larson.

“It's a sign of lack of trust and lack of care. The real tragedy of busywork is in the opportunity that is lost. There’s so much that could be done within that time that would be beneficial to both the employee and the firm.”

Such opportunities could include assigning the worker meaningful tasks or opportunities for growth that often get put on the backburner, such as training.

It could also mean letting employees take a breather. Numerous studies have proven the benefits of taking regular breaks during the workday. Among them are reduced stress and improved focus, creativity and productivity – all positives for employees and their organisations. 

But especially when remote workers are putting in increasingly long hours, piling on endless busywork will have the opposite effect.

“The primary risk is that employees burn out and their mental wellness is impacted,” says Vroman.

“This Great Resignation is the result, in part, of exhausted people who are not managed effectively in their remote work because it wasn't flexible enough.” 

Breaking the cycle 

Of course, not all managers are proponents of busywork. Larson believes in “outcome-based” tasks instead of time-based ones.

If her employees finish early or have time to take a break, she says, “then, frankly, that flexibility is part of the reward for their performance”. 

This approach relies on giving teams autonomy, something Larson describes as “extremely motivating”.

“Typically, what happens is that creates a virtuous cycle, where people want to do a good job.” 

Randy Clarke suggests that managers need to think harder about the kind of tasks they are handing out.

When he trains managers and leaders, he advises they keep employees busy during work hours, but avoid busywork. Instead, they should plan for slow periods, and “look for tasks they can give that will add value".  

Ultimately, managers who feel caught in a cycle of assigning busywork should take a step back and think more broadly about what their managers want from them – rather than scrambling to keep people busy.

“They're probably looking for you to generate good results and, hopefully, retain people who are happy working for you,” suggests Vroman. 

Remote work may not have finished off the idea that workers on the clock have to be kept busy, but changing attitudes towards management offer some hope.

If the flexible schedules now in demand swap work hours for outcomes, they could take busywork with them, and leave healthier, happier workers in their wake.