When Taylor Goucher was in the Army, he joked with his colleagues about a lieutenant colonel who would scan parking lots at the end of the day to see whose cars were still there.
If he saw you there, he would think you were working hard.
A few years later, Goucher saw a corporate version of the same phenomenon unfold. This time, the number of emails your employees send early in the morning or the number of meetings they attend could be a sign of their efforts.
Productivity theater, the act of demonstrating busyness as a way to look good, has always existed. But rolling layoffs, a stubbornly tight job market, and growing concerns about losing workers to AI are forcing some workers to make their 9-to-5 more visible.
Concerns about AI and tools to track worker productivity “are amplifying the pressure on people to appear more productive,” Gaucher, vice president of sales and marketing at offshore company Connext Global, told Business Insider.
“Moving forward”
Long Island sales consultant Joe Fontana sees a similar pattern. Sales teams with task automation tools can help employees send more emails and conduct prospect research faster. This could mean sending 500 messages to 50,000 people in three minutes, he said.
“You showed me how busy you are,” Fontana told Business Insider. However, he says that these auto-generated messages are —“Longer than three Bibles” — It may not actually drive sales.
Simply rushing through tasks or checking more items off a list doesn’t necessarily mean a salesperson is having a substantive conversation with a potential customer.
“They’re just showing they’re progressing,” Fontana said.
Teams that focus too much on volume-related metrics don’t necessarily identify the true decision-makers, understand what’s keeping them up at night and how the product can help them, he said.
Still, Fontana said the high volume of work can fool bosses.
“‘Billy makes 100 dials a day. Billy makes 50 emails a day. Billy spends two hours on Slack and an hour on LinkedIn. Look at how busy he is. The numbers will come eventually,’ he said. “The numbers will never come.”
set better goals
Goucher has also experienced that even when the engine revs up within the team, it’s not as productive as it seems.
One employee suggested goals centered around demonstrable outcomes. The idea was to send 1,000 targeted messages to this demographic, sign up 100 people to a newsletter, and attend a certain number of conferences.
Goucher said employee activity levels were high, but commissions and results were lagging.
“She felt she was being very productive, but she wasn’t seeing results,” he said.
Goucher directed her to focus more on quantitative goals that would ultimately benefit the company, such as acquiring three new customers through an email campaign. Goucher said the worker reported feeling more focused and organized.
“It’s really hard to get into an outcome mindset instead of an activity mindset,” he said. “This is something that we had to spend a lot of time working on with our team.”
send email late at night
Layoffs have become commonplace in some industries, including tech, and some companies have hired more workers during the pandemic, increasing workers’ desire to show they’re on track.
Prolonged fear can undermine morale, causing some workers to stay away from work, at least temporarily, while others may work harder. If survivors of a layoff become trapped, they may experience burnout and become susceptible to presenteeism. This is the tendency to go to work, log on, or overexert yourself when you’re sick or not operating at 100%.
In an environment where layoffs and concerns about AI feel ever-present, visibility can be a survival strategy. Fully remote workers may feel especially pressured to show they’re fully committed, as more companies have employees come into the office full-time or part-time.
Amanda Augustine, a career coach at TopResume, said fears about layoffs and the impact of AI are not new, but they have intensified among clients in the past six months.
“I hear that voice every day at every level,” Augustine told Business Insider.
In 2025, U.S. layoffs rose to the highest level since the pandemic began in 2020. Headlines about layoffs no longer tend to shock people, but they still take a toll, she said.
“It’s draining people,” Augustine said. “Hence, job hugging, and therefore task masking, and productivity theater are born.”
Augustine said the constant layoffs have left some workers feeling emotionally drained, leading to questions that haunt the workday. How secure is this company? How stable is my role?
Connext Global’s Goucher said she has long felt pressure to prove her productivity, but she tells herself to focus on results, not just activity or length of work.
“I’ve never been the type to leave my car in a parking lot,” he says.
Do you have a story to share about productivity theater or the pressures of performance at work? Contact this reporter at: tparadis@businessinsider.com.
