Yeah, looking busy is way more important than being productive a lot of the time. You always need to be doing something, so you just go through the motions of doing things because otherwise you'll get shit from your employers. Waiting in good faith for more real tasks to emerge isn't enough, so you must invent chores.
At least, that was very consistently my experience in retail.
Can confirm, not in retail but a fully remote programmer, managers are still very often concerned that "everybody has something to do" much more than "everything gets done".
Yeah, looking busy is way more important than being productive a lot of the time. You always need to be doing something, so you just go through the motions of doing things because otherwise you'll get shit from your employers. Waiting in good faith for more real tasks to emerge isn't enough, so you must invent chores.
At least, that was very consistently my experience in retail.
Can confirm, not in retail but a fully remote programmer, managers are still very often concerned that "everybody has something to do" much more than "everything gets done".
"idle hands are the devil's work" but also "god rested on the seventh day".... uh oh my brain is short-circuiting....
Walking somewhere looking focused while holding something is a great tip I picked up from a coworker.
Yeah. Most of what I did was fake organizing, straightening, tagging, etc.
Pretty sure I heard from Seinfeld once. Also huff, sigh, and look visibly annoyed doing stuff - to give the impression you are working under pressure.