Productivity Anxiety
Productivity anxiety used to be a fear of not being enough when it comes to being productive. It could arise when you feel you are not progressing or getting through your to-do list.
It has now taken on a new meaning. It is the fear that despite how hard you work, your manager will not perceive you as productive.
The productivity paranoia of bad managers and supervisors is driving productivity anxiety.
Productivity paranoia
Microsoft coined the term when they conducted a global workplace trend study in July and August 2022.
It found that most employees (87%) reported being productive at work. Meanwhile, 85% of leaders said that the shift to hybrid work made it challenging to have confidence that employees were productive.
Supposed leaders clearly demonstrated a lack of trust that employees were productive when working remotely at the start of 2020.
Top10VPN commenced monitoring the demand for employee monitoring software in January 2020. The global demand increased by 75% in March 2020 compared with the 2019 monthly average. Demand for the software the following month was also 61% higher than in 2019.
What was initially seen as a spike in early 2020 became a sustained demand. The graph from Top10VPN says it all.
In the first six months of 2023, demand was up 49% on average compared with 2019.
So, productivity paranoia has remained rife since the start of the pandemic.
“If I can’t see you because you are working remotely, then I will have to monitor your activity, such as keyboard strokes, to ensure you are working.”
Productivity anxiety
In May 2024, workhuman released their Global Human Workplace Index which delves into the intricacies of what the employee-employer relationship looks like.
It found that nearly 83% of respondents globally reported suffering from productivity anxiety, with 29% reporting feeling productivity anxiety multiple times a week.
Remote workers reported experiencing productivity anxiety more frequently than their hybrid and in-office counterparts, with 34% of fully remote employees saying they experienced productivity anxiety multiple times a week or every day (compared to 28% for hybrid employees and 29% in-office). Hybrid employees were almost evenly split on their productivity preferences, with 52% feeling more productive at home and 48% in the office.
It is ironic that productivity anxiety results in reduced productivity. It is detrimental to employee well-being and affects both physical and mental health. Employees can have difficulty concentrating, feel exhausted and tired, and suffer headaches and muscle tension. They worry, stress, and burn out.
So, what is driving this productivity anxiety?
Green Status Effect
In my last newsletter, I referred to the Green Status Effect. Employees, whether working remotely or in the office, are pressured to provide their productivity. They are taking action to increase their visibility, as this is what management equates to productivity. This pressure to demonstrate productivity has been dubbed The Green Status Effect. All employees are taking steps to demonstrate productivity, as the table below shows, but it is amongst remote workers that the term Green Status Effect has emerged. The term refers to the need to keep work messaging apps perpetually open, displaying a great “active” status, implying you are online and actively engaged in work.
BambooHR shared these employee behaviours in its report, “The New Surveillance Era: Visibility Beats Productivity for RTO & Remote.”
Whether you agree with these employee behaviours or not, there is no question that they are being driven by managers who firmly believe visibility equals productivity. Last month, Wells Fargo terminated over a dozen employees who allegedly pretended to work using simulated keyboard activity. They drive bad behaviours and then sack employees for them! Isn’t it time to look in the mirror?
Layoffs
There is a spectre of layoffs hanging over the workforce today. That is another cause for anxiety, but when employers issue a return-to-office mandate and then admit they did so in the hope that employees would quit rather than having to lay them off, that is just downright deception and an appalling way to do business.
The level of trust between employee and employer just disintegrates. This results in a lack of motivation, satisfaction, and low morale, which impacts physical and mental well-being. Anxiety increases as employees do not trust their employers to do the right thing, and that includes recognising them for the value they add, not the time spent in an office.
Proximity bias
The other thing causing employee anxiety is proximity bias. This is where a manager treats an employee in their vicinity more favourably than one remote from them.
Employees are being told that working remotely will negatively impact their career progression.
A Unispace 2023 survey, “Returning For Good,” across 9,5000 employees, 6,650 employers, and 17 countries worldwide, found that 84% of employers indicated that the chance to progress in their role will be limited for employees who are not in the office.
The 2023 Future of Work and Learning Report found that 71% of senior HR leaders and 62% of senior business leaders agree or strongly agree that in-person workers probably benefit from a proximity bias.
Proximity bias creates a two-tier system—those working in an office and those working remotely. It is fuelled by the deluded boss’s belief that employees they can see are more productive than those they cannot see, despite research showing that productivity is higher in remote workers than in their office counterparts. This increases productivity anxiety.
The fix
I have written and spoken about how to address these issues many times. The message is falling on deaf ears or the wrong ears! The most worrying aspect of this is that the leaders of these organisations are supposed to be looking after the well-being of every one of their employees. They should be caretakers who care for the whole needs of their employees. Instead, they are cowardly control freaks who do not have the courage or humility to admit that the skills they possess are no longer suited for leading in the 21st century. They were unsuitable before the pandemic and are even less so now.
Effective leaders do these things to avoid productivity anxiety. I am not going to reproduce what I have written in the past; rather, I will furnish you with links to related articles.
1. They measure the right things.
2. They trust employees to do the right thing.
Trust? You Want Me to Fix It? Pt 1.
Trust? You Want Me to Fix It? Pt 2.
3. They recognise and reward employees for the work they do.
If You Value Your Employees, You Had Better Show It With Recognition.
4. They check in regularly and provide feedback.