Work Life Task masking
Working hard… or hardly working? Employees are ‘busy’ task masking these days, say experts
By Jason Walsh
A re the constant sounds of papers shuffling and keyboard tapping You may have a task-masker on your hands. Task masking is a term gaining traction in office circles to describe employees who appear busy, but rarely complete any meaningful work. Think of the guy who’s always running to a meeting that no one else seems scheduled to attend, or the girl who clearly wants to be seen with a laptop under her arm—are they corporate go-getters, or task maskers? emanating from the cubicle of an office colleague who doesn’t seem to produce much of value at your company? Workplace watchdogs believe several reasons are at play in the growing phenomenon. From return-to-office mandates for remote workers unaccustomed to staying productive all day to employees whose goals and priorities haven’t been clearly defined by management, the fear of being seen as unproductive has been replaced by merely “appearing” productive. Jeffrey Ditzell, a workplace psychiatrist, described it to Investopedia as a common trap where the “appearance of effort” is confused with actual value. But Ditzell doesn’t see
it as workers intentionally shirking their responsibilities—more a sign of fear or burnout. “It's often driven by fear,” he explained on the finance website. “[Fear] of failing, making mistakes, being judged by peers or supervisors, [or] feeling like [a] fraud.” Instead of taking on challenging, high-impact work, Ditzell says, the task masker clings to low- stakes tasks because they provide a sense of safety and superficial accomplishment. According to Amanda Augustine of career. io, a workplace site credited with coining the term, the rise in task masking fits in line with the general message companies conveyed when mandating return-to-office policies: Seeing people working equates to better productivity. Jenni Field, CEO of Redefining Communications, however, is less charitable. Instead of assigning responsibility to poor company management, she chalks task masking as little more than a new name for an old problem: lazy work ethic. “Disengagement and inefficiency can happen anywhere, whether in an office or
working remotely,” Field told Fortune magazine. “If people do not want to work, they won’t.” The problem with task masking, of course, is that’s it’s unsustainable in the long term. Sooner rather than later, managers will unmask a person’s general lack of results. And once that happens, the new task might be finding a new job.
4 signs you might be a task masker
• You’re constantly "busy" but can't cite recent accomplishments • You dread check-ins with your supervisor because there's nothing to show • You plan your day around being seen, not delivering results • You feel anxious at work—driven by the pressure to look busy and the fear of being “found out.” Source: Investopedia
October 2025
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