What is “ghostworking”, and what can you do as a manager to prevent it?

Ghostworking may sound like something new to you, but it really isn’t. It’s just the good old pretending to be busy to trick your boss. You know—walking quickly around the office, typing random stuff on your keyboard, acting like you’re on a call when there’s no one on the other end of the line…

Guilty.

I was 20 and had just landed my first office job as a salesperson. I hated selling, especially in a language I barely spoke (yes, I also lied on my resume). Even more so, I couldn’t care less about the company and its products. But as a fresh graduate, I needed to get my foot in the door of the corporate world. And then survive in it.

So, very often, I would sit at my desk pretending to be on the phone with a potential client, mumbling something in French. Though no matter how hard I “tried to land new customers,” they never actually placed any orders. My boss encouraged me to keep trying. “It takes time,” he said. But oh, little did he know…

Now, nearly 20 years later, ghostworking is a trend again. And not just among the youngsters, but employees of all ages. 

A 2025 study by Resume Now found that 58% of Americans admit they regularly play busy at work, while another 34% say they ghostwork occasionally. The report states that 23% of employees have walked around the office with a notebook to appear busy, 22% have typed randomly to seem engaged, and—my personal favorite—15% have faked a phone call.

Why do employees ghostwork—and what can managers do about it?

People ghostwork for many reasons. Let’s take a look at the most common reasons and what you can do as a manager to prevent this useless activity.

1. Ghostworking because of a lack of motivation

A common reason people ghostwork is that they feel their jobs lack real meaning or purpose. When daily tasks are uninspiring and goals are unclear, it’s hard to stay motivated.

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Sometimes, it’s not just the work itself—people also feel undervalued and underpaid. Low pay, low effort, so to speak. As a result, employees lose motivation to do any extra work and instead choose to do the bare minimum to keep their jobs, while fake-working for the rest of the time.

Such a lack of motivation, for whatever reason, is a real productivity killer and, according to a Gallup study, the problem is present at most US workplaces. In 2024, only 31% of Americans said they felt engaged at work—the lowest in the past decade. Meanwhile, 17% were found to be actively disengaged, meaning their lack of motivation could be harmful to their team or company. 

What to do?

When employees lack motivation, managers need to create reasons for them to care. Show how their work connects to bigger goals and why they matter. Offer growth opportunities, more interesting tasks, or chances to develop new skills to keep work from feeling dull. And make sure people feel valued. If you can’t boost their salaries, think of other ways for them to feel rewarded—it can be a one-off monetary bonus, new work perks, an extra day off, or something else.

2. Poor management can lead to ghostworking

Ghostworking is rarely the employee’s fault—the root of the problem often grows from bad management and a lack of clear communication. 

Do your employees know what is expected of them?

Do they know what success looks like?

Does your team know where to get help if they feel stuck?

If managers don’t give clear direction, people are left to figure things out on their own. This often leads to confusion, wasted time, and employees pretending to be busy just to fill the hours.

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What to do?

Regularly check in with your employees to ensure they understand their tasks and know where to get help if needed. Make sure they have a clear idea of what successful performance looks like in their role. Discuss what tasks or projects they take on in case they run out of work—there’s always something to do, no matter the business! But just as important, agree on how that extra effort will be noticed or rewarded. When these things are clear, employees are less likely to ghostwork and more likely to be proactive.

3. Employee burnout and ghostworking

Burnout is a growing epidemic in workplaces worldwide. A 2025 study found that job burnout in the US reached 66%—an all-time high.

What’s more, younger generations reported higher rates of burnout than older generations. 81% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 83% of 25- to 34-year-olds said they had experienced burnout, compared to 49% of those aged 55 and above.

The physical and mental exhaustion that comes with burnout can lead to ghostworking. People still show up at work physically, but are mentally checked out. They “play busy” to avoid scrutiny and still receive a paycheck at the end of the month. And while this may look like laziness, it’s not—it’s a survival mechanism.

“It’s extremely draining emotionally and mentally when it’s busy, and I can’t shake the burnout feeling from busy seasons because I’m still sitting in the office all day when it’s slow.” 

– r/hatemyjob (Reddit)

What to do?

Watch for signs of quiet overload. Time tracking can be a useful support tool here, helping managers spot when someone’s constantly working long hours or rarely takes breaks. It can also reveal when employees are stretching simple tasks across entire days—not because they’re inefficient, but because they’re drained and feeling tired at work. Used the right way, time tracking isn’t about catching misbehaviours—it’s about giving managers the chance to rebalance workloads before it’s too late.

4. Ghostworking out of fear of losing one’s job

Ghostworking to keep one’s job may sound contradictory, but it does make sense. 

It’s no secret that today’s job market is tough. There are layoffs across industries and fewer entry-level job opportunities, while AI is changing how we work and how many people are needed to do a job. 

To avoid drawing attention to themselves, employees mimic busyness. They fear that if they’re caught idling, their value to the company might be questioned, and they may lose their jobs. And while they may not care about the job itself, they do care about the paycheck—hence, the pretending.

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What to do?

When employees ghostwork out of fear of losing their jobs, it’s often a sign of a lack of trust and transparency. Focus on building a culture where employees feel safe to be honest about their workload and aren’t forced to fill time just to look valuable. Use time tracking to spot when employees might be stretching tasks or overfocusing on low-priority work simply to look busy. If so, have a chat to find out why.

5. Toxic work culture that rewards busywork encourages ghostworking

Many companies encourage ghostworking with their broken cultures that reward looking busy rather than actually getting things done. What the boss wants, the boss gets—employees are putting on a “productivity theater”, filling time with low-value tasks or just constant online presence to avoid trouble.

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Many organizations still rely on visible effort as the primary measure of productivity, pressuring workers to always be “on” and appear busy, even if they’ve finished their tasks. This results in one-third of office workers in the US prioritizing work that is most visible, regardless of whether that work is actually valuable to the business. In such environments, ghostworking becomes a rational coping strategy.

What to do?

Shift the focus from “looking busy” to actual outcomes. Let your team know that you value quality over hours logged and encourage them to prioritize work that actually makes sense for the business. Time tracking can help you have a clearer picture of how time is really spent and spot if people are stuck doing unnecessary busywork. Use time tracking to reward real progress, and the productivity theater that drives ghostworking should come to an end.

We’ve all ghostworked—but no one benefits from it

That’s right. We’ve all done it at some time in our work lives. And that’s okay—no one is judging. But adopting ghostworking as an everyday practice is harmful not only for the business but for the employees as well. 

By pretending to work, people don’t learn, grow, and develop new skills. So, what’s the point of staying busy if you’re not actually moving forward?

Article written by

Krista Krumina

Krista is the co-founder of Truesix Co, a content marketing and PR agency for tech companies. She’s also a freelance contributor at Business Insider and has written for outlets such as NY Observer, TNW, Sifted, Tech.eu, TimeOut, and many more. She mainly covers work life, startups, tech, and entrepreneurship.