Working hard to look busy: Why Gen Z employees are 'task masking'

Young workers' particular twist on slacking could signal an insecurity about their job.

- Srinidhi Balakrishnan

You stride across the office, laptop in hand, heading to the first of many meetings you have lined up for the day. Back at your desk, piled with print-outs, company pens and empty Huel bottles, you hunch over your screen, keyboard clattering. A scowl breaks into a loud sigh.

Such behaviour may resemble that of a junior analyst hard-pressed to meet a deadline. According to social media, however, these are also the hallmarks of Gen Z's latest coping mechanism: task masking, or acting like they are working hard, while hardly working at all.

As employers from BlackRock to the Trump administration tighten demands on office working, influencers on TikTok and Instagram are showing followers how to trick their bosses into thinking they are busy.

Advice ranges from classic tips such as always carrying something around - once a battered binder, now a battered laptop - to the modern technique of swiftly switching between Chrome tabs. Some recommend George Costanza of Seinfeld's artful stratagem of looking permanently irritated, or the more obscure challenge of curving your back into a prawn-like C-shape, because nothing says intense concentration like bad posture.