@JOHNNY*A: I work for a company where being busy seems to be treated as the same thing as being productive. Some people on our team regularly leave at 8 p.m., even when the workload isn’t particularly heavy. They’ll order dinner, work with their laptops open, and joke about how exhausted they are. So now, even when I finish everything at 5:30, I sometimes stay until 6:30 just so I don’t look lazy. What frustrates me is that some of the people who appear the busiest aren’t necessarily producing the best work. What happens when your workplace rewards visible busyness more than actual results? What should I do without making myself look like I’m not a team player?
DJ: Welcome to one of the workplace’s oldest optical illusions. Some people have mastered the art of looking like they’re running a Fortune 500 company when, in reality, they’ve been answering the same email for 45 minutes. There is a difference between getting things done and looking like you have things to do. And unfortunately, some workplaces reward the second one.
Don’t look too relaxed. This sounds ridiculous, but workplace perception is real. If everyone is frantically typing at 6:30 p.m. and you’re sitting there calmly playing Sudoku, you’re going to look like you’re on vacation. You don’t need to fake work, but be visibly engaged in something meaningful. Review tomorrow’s priorities. Plan the next project. Learn something relevant.
Let people see you helping. If you’re the person who quietly solves problems for everyone, make sure your contribution doesn’t go unnoticed. Suggest process improvements. Don’t just quietly fix the problem every time. Turn it into a process others can use. That changes the perception from “I found a way to finish faster” to “I’m helping the team work smarter.”
Be careful with the efficiency flex, though. Don’t merely announce that it only takes you 20 minutes to finish a task. Frame it around quality and improvement. Now you’re an innovator. If you’re copying information between three spreadsheets every week, that’s probably a process problem, not a character-building exercise. Point out recurring bottlenecks. If everyone keeps creating the same document from scratch, create a template. Automate repetitive tasks. Measure the improvement. Numbers make your contribution much harder to dismiss.
Build a reputation around reliability. If you consistently meet deadlines, respond when needed, help teammates, communicate progress and produce quality work, people eventually stop needing to see you suffer. Your reputation becomes your proof.
What if someone thinks you’re not busy? Well, some perceptions are not worth fighting. Your job is to make your work clear to the people who actually evaluate your performance. Most people keep a to-do list. Try keeping a done list, too. Document what you completed, what problems you solved and what results you produced. Regularly submit a status report. Then you’ll have the receipts.
Your goal is not to look busy. Be reliable. Deliver good work. Communicate. And when you’ve done all that, go home. Don’t participate in the “who’s suffering more?” Olympics.
In a workplace that sometimes mistakes exhaustion for excellence, young professionals have to learn a different skill: managing perception without becoming performative. You don’t have to fake being busy. You just have to stop being invisible.
