up:: Content
author:: Hugh Langley
full title:: The Reality of Big Tech’s ‘Fake Work’ Problem
url: Link
Highlights
- As tech companies have laid off tens of thousands of employees this year, venture capitalists and executives have leaned on the term “fake work” to describe the output of employees like Graham. The layoffs are necessary and even prudent, the argument goes, because thousands of workers at Big Tech firms such as Google and Meta are sitting around trying to look busy while doing very little productive (View Highlight)
- conception of lazy employees raking in big paychecks to do little lays the blame in the wrong place. Oftentimes, employees are getting plenty of work done; it’s just that the projects are of little to no importance to the company’s bottom line. (View Highlight)
- Fake work,” as consultants Brent Peterson and Gaylan Nielson define it in their 2009 book of the same name, is “effort under the illusion of value.” The crimes, they wrote, include pointless meetings, reports, and presentations. In the tech industry, specifically, the term “fake work” is used to conjure up an image of lazy engineers “resting and vesting” — long-tenured, high-paid employees doing very little work while waiting on a lucrative payday from their company stock. (View Highlight)
- Many of these issues come down to one fundamental problem: managers trying to get ahead. (View Highlight)
-
The more people who report to you, the higher your prestige, the more your power in the organization. (View Highlight)
- To secure their fiefdoms, managers often pitch projects they created that are sometimes referred to as “vanity projects” or “promo projects.” These may ultimately contribute zero to a company’s top line, but the flashy presentations and demos associated with the projects often lead to a promotion and nice pay bump for the person leading the work. (View Highlight)