Are you maintaining the illusion of being always busy at work? One survey suggests ‘productivity theater’ is widespread in workplaces today, with a majority of employees, and an even higher proportion of more managers, doing exactly this.
Two thirds of employees admit to faking productivity: 22% regularly and 43% occasionally, and among managers it’s closer to three quarters. That’s according to a May 2026 survey of 1,003 full-time US professional workers commissioned by Software Finder.
Methods used to maintain the appearance of tasks being done after work is complete include keeping decoy documents or browser tabs open, or responding to non-urgent messages.
But it’s not necessarily idleness pushing people to maintain the appearance of busyness. In many cases, it’s running out of things to do. Around half of workers who perform productivity say they finish their actual work at least one hour before the work day officially ends and another 22% finish two or more hours early.
And studies do suggest AI tools that make workers more efficient are freeing up time. One 2025 survey of almost 3,000 workers and 240 executives globally by LSE, published in October 2025, revealed professionals using AI were saving an average of 7.5 hours per week. But less is being reported on what’s happening to all that extra time.
Productivity theater masks AI efficiency gains
Finlay Wellington, founder of web design studio Wellington Web Co, is concerned businesses aren’t adapting their cultures to benefit from AI finishing tasks in a fraction of the time they used to take. Because most companies still pay for hours, rather than results, that saved time becomes a threat instead of a reward.
He explains: “If you admit you are done early, you either get handed more work or you get questioned, so people hide the gap with open tabs and strategic Slack messages. The tools got faster, the incentives did not. You get the behaviour you reward.”
And businesses may be seriously underestimating the value of freeing up their people to have new ideas. That’s a sentiment shared by Akshay Ruparelia, co-founder of startup Brdge, who believes the most valuable thing a sharp person can do with spare capacity is think, and that this is a resource companies should be desperate for.
He explains: “AI has collapsed the time it takes to execute, which means the scarce resource is no longer effort, it is ideas. The person who finishes early and spends that hour spotting a problem worth solving, sketching a new product angle, or questioning why you do something the way you do, is worth 10 people performing busyness. We should be desperate for that, not suspicious of it.”
