66% of Young Workers Admit to Faking Productivity at Work: Survey

Two-thirds of employees are quietly clocking hours they are not really working, according to a new survey highlighted by the New York Post. The findings raise fresh questions about return-to-office mandates, monitoring software, and the productivity software stack corporates keep paying for.

What the survey found

The poll of full-time U.S. professionals found that 66% of employees acknowledged faking productivity, while 73% of managers admitted doing the same.

According to the study from Software Finder, 80% of Gen Z workers admit to faking productivity at work, a significant margin over every other generation. Millennials came in at 68%, Gen X at 58%.

How much time is actually burned

The survey, which polled 1,003 full-time American workers, found that 66% of employees overall have stayed online or remained active after finishing their actual work to avoid appearing unproductive, burning nearly 5 hours a week maintaining appearances, which adds up to around 32.5 days, or almost 7 full workweeks, per year.

More than half of those who admit they pretend to be busy say they complete their work at least an hour before quitting time, while 22% finish two or more hours early.

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The tactics workers are using

Moving the mouse periodically was the most common tactic (56%), followed by keeping a decoy document or browser tab open (56%) and responding slowly to non-urgent messages to simulate activity (43%).

Mouse jigglers, devices that keep a cursor moving automatically, were nearly twice as common at companies with monitoring software than at those without.

Why it is happening

The pretense is rooted in burnout, exhaustion and intense micromanagement from executives who value “visibility over results,” per the findings.

Nearly half (49%) of workers who fake productivity said the pressure to appear busy contributed to burnout or exhaustion, and burnout rates climbed to 56% at organizations with more than 1,000 employees. Working under surveillance also puts a damper on employee spirits, as 63% said monitoring software made them more likely to fake activity.

Options market and stocks to watch

The productivity theater problem cuts across enterprise software, HR tech, and monitoring platforms. A few names traders may want to keep on the radar:

• MSFT: Microsoft owns the Teams and Viva productivity stack that many employers use to track engagement. Watch for reactions if enterprise customers pivot toward outcome-based tools.
• CRM: Salesforce sells workflow and Slack analytics tied to visible activity. Watch for commentary on AI-driven productivity measurement.
• NOW: ServiceNow benefits when firms try to automate task tracking. Watch for continued enterprise spend on workflow automation.
• ZM: Zoom’s hybrid-work exposure keeps it tied to the RTO debate that is fueling the fake-productivity trend.
• TEAM: Atlassian sells the Jira and Confluence tools where a lot of this decoy activity happens. Watch usage metrics tied to engagement.

For more on labor trends and market impact, see other news from Unusual Whales.

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