Understanding and avoiding fake work: How to create real productivity

Many companies invest time and energy in tasks that appear productive externally, but hardly create any added value internally. Meetings, reports and coordination pile up, while actual value creation stagnates. This phenomenon is known as fake work and describes work that keeps people busy but does not deliver any real results. Especially in times of hybrid work and flexible working models, there is a high risk that teams will put their resources into activities that do not contribute to strategic goals.

This article looks at what fake work actually means, how it arises in modern organizations, what consequences it has for productivity and employee satisfaction and how companies can avoid it through clear structures, transparency and a focused way of working.

Contents

• What is fake work?
• Why fake work occurs

• Fake work in practice: typical scenarios in hybrid work

• How to recognize fake work: 7 checkpoints
• Countermeasures and strategies
• Conclusion

What is fake work?

Fake work describes activities that look like work at first glance, but do not create any real added value. They cost time, energy and often motivation without contributing to the strategic goals of a company. It is typical that tasks are completed but neither improve results nor support decisions. This can happen in any area, from marketing to IT to management.

The term was coined by the book "Fake Work: Why People Are Working Harder Than Ever but Accomplishing Less" by Brent D. Peterson and Gaylan W. Nielson . The authors show that many people are working more and more without actually achieving more. The reason for this is not a lack of motivation, but structures that make activity appear more important than results.

In German, the term "Scheinarbeit " is often used, i.e. work that keeps you busy but does not deliver any tangible results. It usually arises when goals are unclear, processes become unnecessarily complex or success is measured by how busy someone appears rather than what is actually achieved.

Real work is the opposite. It creates value, drives projects forward and strengthens a company's competitiveness in the long term. Fake work, on the other hand, slows down progress because it ties up resources without creating benefits.

Why fake work exist

In order to reduce fake work, we first need to understand why it occurs in the first place. Various factors in companies, teams and management structures encourage this phenomenon.

Lack of clarity about strategy and goals

If employees do not know what is really important, they often deal with tasks that seem tangible but do not make a contribution. Many projects or reports are created without any connection to the actual company goals.

Organizational and management logics that reward activity

In many companies, if you do a lot, you will be seen. Looking busy is equated with commitment. This creates a culture in which activity seems more important than impact, which further promotes fake work.

Micromanagement and the need for control

When managers want to control every step, there is a need to visibly do something, even if it does not bring any real value. Employees react to this with activity in order to create security or avoid control.

Fear of idling and bureaucracy

Many organizations are characterized by reporting obligations, documentation or complex processes. These tasks can make sense, but lose their usefulness if they only serve as a formality. This creates work that keeps you busy but doesn't change anything.

Ineffective structures and a lack of coordination

Unclear responsibilities, duplication of tasks or communication gaps lead to work being done more than once or being unnecessarily complicated. Instead of focus, friction arises that blocks productivity.

Remote and hybrid work as a booster

In hybrid working environments, the line between work and real performance often becomes blurred. People who are not visibly working in the office want to show that they are present through activity. Lots of emails, messages or meetings create the impression of productivity, but often lead to information overload.

Fake work in practice: typical scenarios for hybrid work

Here are some examples of what fake work can look like in modern, hybrid companies:

• A team organizes weekly coordination meetings that are less productive in terms of content and more disruptive.

• Employees develop elaborate evaluations or dashboards that nobody looks at.

• A team introduces a new tool ("for more transparency"), but spends more time optimizing the tool than working with it.

• In remote phases, many short check-ins are scheduled to "see that everyone is active" - instead of asking for clear results.

• "Slack activity" is used as a viral performance indicator (many messages, many reactions), although it says nothing about the output.

These scenarios are ideal points of attack when trying to identify fake work in organizations.

How to recognize fake work: 7 checkpoints

Recognizing fake work is often more difficult than avoiding it. Many tasks appear useful at first glance, even though they do not make a real contribution. Structured reflection helps you to find out which activities really make an impact. The following seven checkpoints will help you to systematically uncover fake work.

1. Check the focus on results
   What specific results or impact should this task achieve? If this cannot be clearly defined, it is most likely fake work.

2. Check the strategic connection
   How does the activity relate to the strategy or goals of your team or company? Work that has no connection to clearly defined goals rarely brings real progress.

3. Ensure measurability and feedback
   Real work is measurable or at least generates feedback. Tasks without feedback, metrics or visible impact are an indication of low relevance.

4. Clarify recipients and benefits
   Who benefits from this work? If no one reads, uses or processes the results, the effort is usually not justified.

5. Check alternatives
   Is there an easier, faster or more direct route to the goal? If so, you should check why the more time-consuming route was chosen.

6. Schedule regular reviews
   Tasks and projects that run unchanged over a long period of time without results being evaluated run the risk of becoming an end in themselves.

7. Analyze the use of resources
   How much time and budget is being invested in the task? If the effort is significantly higher than the benefit, you should question whether the work is fulfilling its purpose.

These questions help you to differentiate between real work and pure employment. The more clearly you know your goals, results and responsibilities, the easier it is to avoid fake work.

Countermeasures and strategies

Recognizing fake work is the first step, reducing it is the next. Real work is only created where goals are clear, responsibility is taken and processes are geared towards impact. The following approaches will help you to avoid fake work in your everyday life and work more productively.

Set clear goals and OKRs

A good target system is the basis for real work. Objectives and Key Results, OKRs for short, provide orientation and make progress measurable. If everyone knows what is important, it is difficult to deal with tasks that do not make a contribution.

Rethinking leadership

Rather than activity, managers should make results visible and recognize them. Instead of asking how much someone has done, the question should be what the work actually achieves. This creates a culture that rewards impact, not activity.

Design meetings consciously

Every meeting needs a clear goal and a clear agenda. Only those who can make a contribution should attend. Fixed meeting-free times or bundling several short appointments can also help to regain time and focus.

Keep reporting lean and purposeful

Reports should always fulfill a specific purpose. Avoid creating reports just because it is routine. Fewer but meaningful dashboards and key figures create more transparency than many unused reports.

Use agile working methods

Short cycles with clear interim results, for example in the form of sprints, promote real productivity. They help to maintain focus, obtain feedback at an early stage and quickly identify low-impact tasks.

Promote responsibility and ownership

When teams and employees take responsibility for entire topics independently, there is automatically more focus on results. Ownership means not only completing tasks, but also taking responsibility for the success of the entire process.

Establish transparency and feedback

Regular feedback meetings, reviews and retrospectives help to identify and change ineffective routines. Open communication, in which it is also possible to question whether something makes sense, is crucial in order to avoid fake work.

Reduce complexity

Too many tools, processes and approval loops promote fake work. Regularly check which structures are really necessary. Fewer systems and clearer processes create space for focus and impact.

Conclusion

Fake work is a symptom of modern work cultures in which activity is often confused with productivity. When tasks have no clear purpose or results are not measurable, the impression is quickly created that a lot is being done without any real progress being made.

Real work is created where goals are clearly formulated, responsibility is taken and feedback is used to improve. Teams that regularly question what contribution their tasks really make not only work more efficiently, but are also more motivated.