Stamping out the façade of ‘loud labourers’

The culture of loud labourers relates to workers appearing to be busy when they are, in fact, being extremely unproductive. It is a trend that’s catching on in the workplace and is even being rewarded.

Performative work has been an issue in workplaces for decades. There are always those workers who portray themselves as working harder than they actually are, but sometimes, employees can do it unconsciously by prioritising quantity over quality.

Career insights specialist at Indeed, Kate Furey, recently spoke to HR Leader about the underlying factors that have contributed to the cultural shift where busyness is almost perceived as a badge of honour in the workplace.

“Busy culture typically stems from a combination of leadership and organisational practices and a lack of clarity around priorities and goals. When leaders consistently model and reward busyness, they send the message that being or appearing ‘busy’ – regardless of actual output – is indicative of success,” Furey said.

“As a result, employees begin to equate busyness with productivity and high performance, when in most cases, the opposite is true.”

The precedent is set by leaders. Rewarding and recognising employees who, in reality, are demonstrating bad business practices erodes team cohesion and sets a tone that acting busy outweighs being legitimately productive.

Allowing this to manifest and continue will, without a doubt, lead to negative business outcomes.

“Over time, this can create a culture in which performative work or ‘loud labouring’ becomes the standard. Employees may feel pressure to demonstrate their commitment by focusing more on ‘busy work’ or tasks that make them more visible to managers, and may take on heavier workloads or longer hours than necessary in order to demonstrate their ‘hard work’,” Furey said.

“In cases where loud labourers are rewarded for their ‘noise’ over employees who are quiet achievers, it can erode morale and feed into a culture of busyness.”

It comes back to the lack of clarity. If employees don’t have that direction from their leader, naturally, they will go astray and mirror what they see being rewarded and recognised, which often is that state of being a loud labourer.

“A lack of clarity around priorities and KPIs can also contribute to a culture of busyness. When employees are unclear about their priorities and targets, they’re more likely to spend time engaged in smaller tasks in order to appear engaged and productive – like responding to emails or updating documents – instead of focusing on essential work,” Furey said.

The most damaging aspect of this is that leaders themselves can be loud labourers. This trait can then be passed onto their team, and the unproductivity spreads throughout the organisation.

“Leaders can be loud labourers, too. This trait can be especially toxic in a leader as it can weaken trust among teams and create a work culture where superficial actions are valued more than genuine contributions to the organisation’s success,” Furey said.

Stamping out the problem can be achieved by bringing clarity and communication. If those two aspects are present and understood, then loud labouring or a busyness culture won’t be able to manifest because the team members are aware that those traits or work ethic are not acceptable.

Beating it to the punch is crucial for leaders, and by recognising the underlying issues early on, they can actively work towards dismantling them before they run rife throughout the team. If, however, the leader is the one epitomising that behaviour, then the cultural erosion may be difficult to counteract, as it moves from an individual issue to an organisational and systemic issue.