Nearly 8 in 10 Employees Fake Busyness, and Nearly Half Run Side Hustles on the Clock

For many, task masking is a direct response to the mounting pressure to do more with less.

Almost 8 in 10 employees admitted to faking productivity at work. Gen Z workers were the most likely to engage in task masking, with 86% saying they do it, followed by 80% of millennials. The trend was not limited to just once in a while: half of all employees said they pretend to work a few times a week or more.

That time adds up. While 60% of workers spend up to three hours a week task masking, 1 in 5 said they do it for 4 to 6 hours. That’s nearly a full workday lost to looking busy instead of getting things done.

Burnout and pressure could be driving the trend. About 75% of employees said unrealistic demands at work push them to focus more on appearances than actual output.

Managers are catching on and taking action: 67% said they’ve suspected their teams of task masking. When employees seemed busy but aren’t delivering, here’s how managers have most often responded:

• Issuing a warning (72%)
• Starting monitoring employee activity (47%)
• Reducing remote privileges (12%)
• Terminating the employee (5%)

While some workers are faking productivity, others are using work hours to pursue passion projects or bring in extra income.

Nearly half of employees (46%) said they work on a side hustle during their regular job hours. Among them, 25% have blocked off calendar time or created fake meetings to work on side gigs without getting caught.

One-tenth of employees said they feel there’s no risk in juggling side hustles during work hours. But managers didn’t feel the same: more than 1 in 3 said they’ve suspected an employee of working a side hustle on the clock, and 33% said no side projects should be allowed during downtime at work.

Return-to-office mandates don’t always result in more productivity. For many employees, the shift simply means more surveillance and stress.

A majority of employees (80%) said they feel more closely monitored when working in the office. Nearly 73% have also felt increased pressure to appear productive while there. That feeling might not be all in their head: some companies are taking surveillance pretty far, and 10% of managers said their workplace uses webcam monitoring to track productivity. Only half as many employees reported the same, which suggests some may not even know it’s happening.

When it comes to where people feel most productive, 41% of employees said remote work helps them get more done. Only 31% said the same about the office. For 25% of workers, location hasn’t made a difference in their productivity.

We surveyed 988 Americans who were currently employed either part-time or full-time to explore how workers use task masking, manage side hustles during work hours, and navigate growing pressures around productivity and perception, as well as how managers are responding to these behaviors.

The average age of respondents was 39; 49% were female, 49% were male, and 2% were nonbinary. We also compared perspectives of individual contributors to managers; 79% were individual contributors, while 21% were in management roles. The data was collected in May 2025. Any percentages that don’t total 100 are due to rounding.

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