The term productivity theater refers to efforts aimed at trying to look busy and productive while not actually

accomplishing anything of value. Said another way, it is performative rather than practical

work. This term has long been used to describe the sort of frantic on the ball, sitting up straight

and working on a spreadsheet tizzy that people go into when their manager walks into the room,

or when they're otherwise trying to visually demonstrate their value to their employer.

But it's taken on a new angle with the increase in remote work situations.

It's more difficult to show your manager or whomever you directly report to that you are busy and good at

your job and should therefore be retained and may be promoted rather than marked for firing

when you are in different places. On the other side of that effort, it's becoming more difficult

for managers to keep tabs on their direct reports the way they would generally do when those reports are working in the same physical space as they are.

Consequently, a cottage industry of remote worker surveillance technology has sprung up, fed and amplified by the desire of these higher-ups, to keep tabs on those they are managing,

even from several time zones away, if necessary.

One of the more hands-on methods of keeping tabs,

which could itself be construed

as performative labor by managers for their bosses,

is holding a lot more virtual meetings

and making sure everyone participates in online conversations via Slack, Zoom, and similar platforms.

The numbers are all over the place here, but one analysis by the Harvard Business Review found that there are now about 60% more virtual meetings per employee than before the pandemic, and many of the benefits of working

from home would seem to be disappearing because of the increased time and presence demands

associated with all these check-ins and virtual meetups. There's a lot more burnout and less

work-life balance due to this increase in virtual checkups.

A sort of moral panic centering on the concept of quiet quitting,

...