Task Masking: How do you recognise and address it at work?

Ever heard the footsteps of your teacher arriving through the door of your classroom and you open your thickest textbook and pretend to be memorising a paragraph? Now cut to your workplace! Heard news of the manager coming in for the day and all your heavy files are on the desk and you start flipping through them in full concentration, even though you are not being able to imbibe a single word. These basic instances, which are often dismissed as a joke or pretentious nature is what task masking means. While they are often overlooked, task masking is actually a very serious issue in workplace as it might not only hamper the overall productivity of the individual but also the team, if not correctly addressed.  

Task masking can be the outcome of several reasons. Starting off with the basic one, it can be to pretend doing a lot of work so that one automatically thinks that the other person is busy and avoids giving them more work. This is usually done by a lot of people who shirk their work or are simply lazy to go about it. Another way of seeing it is a toxic work environment where one is always expected to be busy with something. Thus to pretend to be busy despite having completed all their work, many people resort to task masking to avoid any verbal conflict with their colleagues or seniors.

Another reason, stems off from the idea of ‘being busy’. The general perception is if one is always surrounded by files, folders; on call, browsing through relevant information then they may be meeting the standards of being busy. Thus people resort to task masking in order to show that. But what defines busyness and how society is making the visual of busyness also comes into play. A person may be busy writing an article with only their laptop in front. They may close their eyes to grasp the right phrases and words. Even if outwardly they may appear to be doing nothing, they are actually busy. So how one defines the term ‘busy’ plays a crucial part here.  

There are several ways of spotting task masking. Some of them are:

· When an employee is suddenly attending a lot of meetings, even ones they are not required to and in their daily quota of work, they are writing off attending meetings as their work done instead of doing something that is actually fruitful and shows results; it is a sign of task masking.

· Every employee has a to-do list of work ranging from high priority ones to low-priority ones. When someone is seen doing all the low-priority jobs first and neglecting the pressing issues, that means they are just pretending to be busy with work without actually focusing on ones that would yield results.

· If a person starts showing avoidance towards certain tasks or activities, is usually missing from important meetings or get-togethers and is always appearing very busy.

·  A person usually never gives measurable updates about the work that they are doing on their own. And if asked their responses are very vague in nature including ‘I’m looking into it’ or ‘on it’ etc.

· Excessive digital presence which is ultimately not leading to the growth of the individual or the team as a whole.

· Constantly seen laying out ways to get the work done, without actually getting the work done is another prime sign of recognising task masking.   

In case you notice some of these signs or all of these signs within the team then as senior or manager, there are several steps that can be implemented. First and foremost, the workplace should be made friendly and cordial so that the employees and senior management understand each other. This nullifies the psychological need to pretend to work hard.

Second, each employee must be given exact goals that would help in streamlining their job roles. This would help them work in a particular niche; management can keep a track of the same and their progress as well.

Third, instead of relying heavily on hourly or daily deadlines, one can be made accountable based on each project and the estimated time taken to complete it. This would also mean that the project is done in-depth, ensuring quality.