How to Look Busy at Work

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Bosses like to think their employees are busy and working hard. If the workers are working, then the boss is clearly doing his or her job. When you look busy at work, you lower the chances of someone giving you additional work. Busy people look important. Busy people feel important. If you want to work less, but look and feel important, don’t be busy; look busy!

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Step1

Pretend to be on the phone. You want to look like you’re “wheeling and dealing.” Talk fast at times; make it sound like you’re appeasing an angry person on the other end. Say things that you might read in a self-help book: “I understand you feel angry about the shipment,” or “Let’s talk about your feelings about the order.” Give your heated exchange an arc. Make it light at first, reach the height of the conflict, then resolve the problem with your conflict resolution skills. Your colleagues within earshot will be amazed. They will also know how busy you are.

Step2

If you have some privacy, you don’t have to pretend to be on the phone -- you can actually be on the phone, but talking to someone you want to talk to. Call a friend. Call your mother. Be prepared for a quick exit line when a co-worker comes within earshot. Something like: “Can you send that invoice by fax? Do you have our fax number?” Use an urgent tone of voice, it will make you sound busier.

Step3

Walk fast. It doesn’t matter where you’re going, just act like you have to be there really, really soon. If you’re going to the restroom, go to the restroom with a purpose. If you’re sneaking out for a latte, act like someone has called you to an office near the elevator (or doors to the building) for an important meeting. Of course, when you come back with your coffee, make sure everyone you see knows that you got the coffee because you needed a mental break during your very busy day.

Step4

Tell people about how busy you are. People won’t know how busy and important you are unless you tell them. Sigh regularly with exhaustion and a hint of frustration when telling your coworkers how busy you are. Your coworkers have their own work, but explain to them how you have even more work than they do. If you can, try to spend the majority of your day telling as many people as possible about how busy you are. That way, you can spend the next day pretending to be busy on the phone. It’s a good way to spread out the work of looking busy.

Step5

Try to get sent out of the office for assignments. When you’re out of the office, nobody knows what you’re doing. If your assignment will take two hours, add a two-hour cushion for traffic. Now you’re on a four-hour assignment. It’s not worthwhile to go into the office after such a long assignment; you should just go home. Make sure you call into the office to tell people how bad traffic is and how busy you were during the out-of-office assignment.

Step6

When you return to the office after your out-of-office assignment, be sure to spend the day telling your coworkers how busy you are now that you have yesterday’s work and today’s work piled up after being out of the office. Stretch during these conversations, that makes people think you spent a great deal of time in traffic. For the rest of the week, tell people you are catching up after being out of the office for your assignment.

Tips & Warnings

Remember, looking busy takes a great deal of practice. Keep at it, try a new “look-busy” exercise every day. Soon, you’ll be so busy looking so busy, no one will doubt how important you are.