Kicking performative work to boost UK productivity

Eamon O’Doherty at Logitech argues that “performative work” – the act of doing small/menial tasks that prove to others you are online, but which add little business value – is an important part of why the UK’s productivity is so poor

 

As the hybrid working model persists, employees are enjoying the advantages of an enhanced work-life balance, and with this increased mental wellbeing and higher job satisfaction. However, hybrid has also spawned some new quirks in the way that people work – one of these being the emergence of what’s called “performative work”.

 

Bound by the green icon that shows their ’available’ status, employees unnecessarily fear they are constantly being monitored from afar, contributing to an unhealthy culture of presenteeism. To signal their online presence and busyness, employees can find themselves engaging in trivial tasks such as acknowledging emails and replying to messaging threads when it’s adding minimal business value.

 

This is of course a drain on time and productivity. In fact, existing research suggests that a third of a UK employee’s average day is lost to performative work. Some find that work is now doubled as a social performance, leading employees to over communicate in replying to unnecessary emails, the rise of meeting mania, and visibility bias – all contributing to extended periods of faux industriousness.

 

The truth is that whilst employees are focusing efforts on proving they’re online; they are actually losing out on valuable time to get the work done. 

 

Trust between employers and employees 

Successfully implementing hybrid working and making it as productive as possible requires employers to put their trust in their employees’ work ethic. However, in practice, employees fear that if their calendars are not visibly filled with meetings, they risk being seen as idle.

 

To counter this, organisations should instil a culture where their employees do not fear going extended periods of time without back-to-back virtual meetings or constantly sending emails, so they can focus on more meaningful business contributions. Ultimately, a lack of trust negatively impacts employee’s levels of focus and productivity, as they subconsciously want to look ‘present’ to their colleagues.

 

The conversation should instead be shifted to promoting purposeful presence in the workplace. Initiatives such as set focus hours and being able to avoid meetings for the sake of it can help reduce the hours wasted to performative working.

 

The bottom line is that, whilst of course employees are an integral part of a wider team, and communication and visibility is important, they equally need to be given the freedom and autonomy to develop their own skills and reach their own objectives within the working hours they’re given. 

 

Technology to facilitate focus & productivity

Whilst instilling this culture of trust is a good place to start in bucking performative work, organisations can go a step further and enhance the productivity of this uninterrupted working time by providing the right tools to improve comfort, enhance collaboration, and ultimately increase output.

 

Remote employees can feel distant and excluded if they have a poor video meeting experience, and this can add to an employee’s urge to engage in performative behaviours to prove they are online. At the office end, employers should look to adopt intelligent video conferencing systems that promote meeting equity – for example AI-powered meeting room table top cameras. Working with the camera at the front of the meeting room, these cameras provide intelligent multi-participant framing, giving the best front-and-center view of the room and its participants from anywhere.

 

At home, noise-cancelling headsets are a great way of guaranteeing focus for employees who might be challenged with noisy and distracting home working set ups, helping to block out noisy children or barking dogs and helping to maintain focus.

 

Ergonomic peripherals, such as ergonomic keyboards and vertical mice, can also help to reduce strain on wrists and shoulders. In turn this can help employees to work more comfortably and for longer without fatigue, whilst also ensuring their long-term physical well-being. 

 

The benefits of these tools not only support remote productivity but create more initiative for employees to get involved when they need to, instead of succumbing to the burden of performative work pressures. 

 

Shifting the perspective

Ensuring that organisations can reap the full benefits from their employees requires a cultural shift from performative to productive. Realistically, it is not about how you work, it is about what you produce. The key lies in leaders understanding that online visibility does not instantly equate to productivity. Instead, leaders should ask employees to manage their own time in a way that suits them, and with the support of the right tools. 

 

Despite initial concerns that flexible hours may lead to a decline in productive work, a Slack study revealed that 39 percent of workers reported that they were more productive when given the choice over what hours they worked. Arguably, this comes down to redefining how success is measured.

 

Moving forward, focus should shift to pursuing the quality and efficiency of work, and to harness new technologies to maximise productivity. 

 

---

 

Eamon O’Doherty is Portfolio Director - Europe at Logitech. Smart table top cameras like Logitech Sight can transform the productivity of mixed office-based and remote meetings. 

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com