A mini-heatwave has enveloped the UK and HR has come up with another word in its unceasing battle with low productivity. Are the two developments linked?
The changeable British weather is the source of a lot of rose-tinted recall errors. “It was like this last year,” people will say of a sunny spell, plucking a vague memory out of their frontal lobe. “No, I remember it being really windy and cold,” someone – often the office pessimist – will inevitably chime in. You wouldn’t think there were ways of checking these things, but we prefer our fuzzy blather to hard facts.
A lighthearted take on HR
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HR likes to join in with daft weather conversations, especially when a warm spell comes along in spring and we all go slightly ga-ga having endured months of gloom.
It often reminds us there is no official temperature below or above which we should all stop working and jump in a lake or sauna. And now, with the much trumpeted “mini-heatwave” (with apologies to those in parts of the UK that have not experienced this), Personnel Today has been contacted by researchers at USDT Casino warning that one in three of us, while seduced by sunshine, have pulled a sickie, worked from a pub garden or had a tipple before 3pm.
Apparently the online survey of 2,000 adults found that 12% admitted calling in sick today to enjoy the weather, 14% said they worked remotely, from a pub garden, rooftop bar or outdoor café, and 8% confessed to having an alcoholic drink before 3pm.
At Personnel Today we tried to verify the poll with our own research, but there were too few present in the office to test its statistical veracity.
The nation seemed divided on whether this was OK: 49% said yes, working from a beer garden is no different to working from a coffee shop, but 36% think it’s unprofessional. Fifteen per cent said they’ve done it but wouldn’t admit it to their manager.
James Fletcher, head of HR at USDT Casino, said: “We’ve entered the season where productivity and pub culture go head-to-head. If someone can do their job well from a beer garden, why not? The key is trust, not location.” (“What about a casino?” an office wag piped up at this point.)
The poll also found that 36% think employers should introduce summer hours or half-days when the weather hits 25C and, disgracefully, one in five have faked wi-fi issues to sign off early during previous heatwaves.
‘Fauxductivity’ is the new task-masking
What a fab new buzzword! And nothing to do with air conditioning.
The weather may be a source of productivity issues, but for Marta Říhová, HR expert at Kickresume, “fauxductivity” is the greater sin.
This term (interchangeable with ‘task masking’) describes people who pretend to be busier than they are at work, she says, putting on a performance to show everyone just how swamped they are. This usually involves typing loudly, walking briskly around the office, or scheduling unnecessary meetings. It can also refer to people filling their day with surface-level work, like answering emails, to make themselves look busy.
Marta says: “This phenomenon has often been linked to return-to-office mandates. If people feel like they are being judged by their presence in the office and online rather than by the results they’re producing, it could lead to them feeling they have to task-mask to make a good impression at work.”
Woe betide anyone at Kickresume engaged in a spot of fauxductivity – Marta sees you.
Best thing to do is to get out and enjoy the sun – no one can accuse you of fauxductivity in the beer garden.
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