Who’s ‘Task Masking’ and 6 Ways to Resolve the Issues Behind It

There’s no masking Task Masking these days.

It’s a workplace trend that’s all about NOT working. Some say it’s the only way to get through a workday. Others say it’s career suicide. Either way, it’s not a good workplace trend.

What is Task Masking?

When employees pretend to be busier than they are, they’re task masking.

“It’s when employees feel the pressure to appear constantly engaged, even if they aren’t doing any meaningful work,” says Lynette Silva Heelan, EMEA Consulting Practice Lead, Workhuman.

Nearly half of managers believe task masking is common within their teams, according to a Workhuman survey. Two-thirds of employees deny they do it.

So what does task masking look like?

“This could look like typing loudly, joining unnecessary — or even fake — meetings, or rushing around the office,” says Jamie Aitken, VP of HR Transformation at Betterworks. “It’s the workplace version of ‘fake it ‘til you make it,’ but instead of driving results, it conceals disengagement and dissatisfaction.”

And there are the big problems behind task masking — the ones that HR needs to worry about and address: disengagement and dissatisfaction.

We talked in-depth with Silva Heelan and Aitken about task masking and what HR pros can do to resolve the issues around this trend.

Here’s what the experts had to say:

Why are Employees Task Masking?

Aitken: Employees mask tasks when they feel disconnected, micromanaged or misaligned with expectations. The current wave of return-to-office mandates, ambiguous productivity metrics and burnout from constant change (especially AI-related disruption) leaves people in a defensive mode. Rather than feeling empowered to deliver value, employees are often trying to prove they belong — or worse, just survive. It’s a symptom of broken trust between employees and leadership.

Silva Heelan: What’s really driving the need to fake activity? According to managers, distractions are the main culprit. But employees tell a different story — pointing to work-life balance struggles and burnout as their top reasons for appearing busy. There is a clear disconnect between an employee’s experience at an organization and their managers’ perception of the experience — managers see task masking as a productivity issue while employees view it as a survival tactic.

How Does Task Masking Affect Companies?

Silva Heelan: For companies, task masking signals a lack of trust throughout the organization and an unattainable view of productivity. According to our study, 54% of respondents said that when they’re not engaged, their coping strategy is to do the bare minimum to get through the day and complete what they can. Disengaged work does not spell success for your business. When employees are just going through the motions and making no meaningful impact, it undermines business growth and success.

Aitken: Task masking is a red flag. It signals that employees are not clear on what matters, don’t feel psychologically safe or aren’t confident in how their work contributes to outcomes. The cost is steep: Lower productivity, burned-out managers, poor engagement scores and missed business goals.

How Does Task Masking Affect Employees?

Aitken: It creates cognitive dissonance. Pretending to work while knowing you’re not adding value fuels low morale, imposter syndrome and job dissatisfaction. It leads to disengagement and eventually, attrition.

Silva Heelan: Task masking is just a symptom of a deeper issue: employee well-being. If an employee feels as though they have to fake their performance, there is clear pressure coming from the top-down, suggesting that their efforts aren’t enough.  When employees feel they need to be “always on,” it can exacerbate a toxic cycle of overwork and burnout. Humans simply are not built to be 100% productive 100% of the time. Nor should we want our employees to be. It’s in the pauses, the breaks, the daydreaming moments that the very human spark of innovation, of a new idea, of a ‘what if’ occurs.

Why Do We Want to Stop Task Masking?

Silva Heelan: Task masking can create a false sense of productivity throughout the organization and can skew the way managers perceive their employees, making it difficult to assess true performance. False interpretations of how your employees are performing will hinder team growth and decrease morale. When employees are honest about the amount of work required to accomplish their tasks, we create an opportunity to move away from the misconception that 60-hour workweeks equal productivity.

Aitken: Task masking is a signal of deeper performance and culture issues. It happens when performance expectations are unclear and feedback loops are broken. HR leaders and managers want to stop it, but not to control behavior. They want to unlock real performance. When employees feel seen, heard and supported, they stop acting busy and start being productive. Betterworks research and platform data show that when organizations invest in regular performance conversations, meaningful goal setting, and ongoing employee feedback, task masking naturally declines.

How Can Leaders Stop Task Masking and Help Employees Manage Performance?

Aitken suggests:

1. Create continuous conversations, not one-time check-ins. Managers need more than annual reviews. Frequent conversations and one-on-ones foster consistent, lightweight discussions that build trust and clarify priorities.
2. Leverage rich people analytics. HR needs real-time visibility into performance, engagement, and sentiment trends — not just lagging metrics. HR leaders need something to connect the dots between behavior and outcomes to guide action.
3. Empower with purpose, not policies. Use data to understand the “why” behind performance shifts. When feedback leads to visible action, employees feel valued—and perform better.

Silva Heelan suggests:

1. Make frequent one-on-one check-ins: By having continuous check-ins, leaders are always in the know of what employees are working on and create a space for them to voice any concerns. Starting the conversation by asking how they’re truly feeling opens the door for employees to share when they’re feeling overwhelmed or struggling with their well-being. This not only fosters better communication but also shows employees that their health and workload matter, creating a more psychologically safe (and, therefore, more productive) work environment. In fact, we found employees who’ve had conversations with their managers about goals, progress, and wins in the last six months are almost three times more likely to be engaged.
2. Get managers more involved: Our study found that of the respondents who said their managers are extremely involved, 61% are always engaged at work, but that number drops to 26% when managers have little to no involvement in their work.
3. Increase peer-to-peer recognition: While peer-to-peer recognition may not seem like a traditional method for managing performance, it offers leaders valuable insight into how employees are performing and what they’re focusing on. When employees recognize each other’s contributions, it encourages a culture of collaboration and allows leaders to better understand the dynamics and strengths within their teams.