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Busy work (also known as make-work and busywork) is an activity that is undertaken to pass time and stay busy but in and of itself has little or no actual value. Busy work occurs in business, military and other settings, in situations where people may be required to be present but may lack the opportunities, skills or need to do something more productive. People may engage in busy work to maintain an appearance of activity, in order to avoid criticism of being inactive or idle.
Plans for busy work – Boston Primary Teachers' Association – Google Books
/ref> It can consist of various types of
In business and work settings, people may engage in busy work to maintain an appearance of activity to protect their employment status (to avoid
Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency - Tom DeMarco - Google Books
/ref> Workers believe that it is more important to maintain a constant appearance of working urgently so that they and others believe that what is being done is important. Constant urgency in workers can lead to disproportionate distribution of actual work, as workers may put off important work by attempting to complete previously designated less important tasks. Maintaining very high levels of constant busyness may actually be detrimental to the operations of a business or organization in which new tasks are not undertaken in a timely manner because workers are always very busy. That can also lead to workers taking shortcuts to accomplish tasks more quickly, which can negatively affect the quality of work results. Busy work also can be counterproductive in work settings because it may not be aligned with the overall objectives and priorities of an organization's plans for attaining and maintaining success in its ventures. The assumption that activity in the workplace is more important than productivity in the workplace can lead to employees thinking that quantity of work is better than quality of work, which is not productive to the overall functioning of a business.
Education by doing: occupations and busy work for primary classes – Anna Johnson – Google Books
* (2010
Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork, and Start the Work That Matters - Michael Bungay Stanier - Google Books
* (2012) ttps://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2012/01/19/why-busy-work-doesnt-work/ Why Busy Work Doesn't Work - John Kotter
Busy work (also known as make-work and busywork) is an activity that is undertaken to pass time and stay busy but in and of itself has little or no actual value. Busy work occurs in business, military and other settings, in situations where people may be required to be present but may lack the opportunities, skills or need to do something more productive. People may engage in busy work to maintain an appearance of activity, in order to avoid criticism of being inactive or idle.
Educational settings
In the context of education, busy work allows students to work independently, to test their own knowledge and skills, and to practise using new skills learned in the educational setting.(1901Plans for busy work – Boston Primary Teachers' Association – Google Books
/ref> It can consist of various types of
schoolwork
Coursework (also course work, especially British English) is work performed by students or trainees for the purpose of learning. Coursework may be specified and assigned by teachers, or by learning guides in self-taught courses. Coursework can ...
assigned by a teacher to keep students occupied with activities involving learning and cognition while the teacher focuses upon another group of students. The functionality of busy work is associated with levels of interest students have with the content of the work, levels of enjoyment students have in performing the work, how purposeful the work is, and how accomplishment of the work is perceived by students. The perceived results of the work by students is significant: when students feel that they've succeeded in accomplishing a functional task, it's congruent with learning and the attainment of new skills.
Busy work can also be used to keep the students occupied with educational tasks during idle times, such as instances when time in school remains but the day's curriculum has already concluded. This application of busy work to consume idle time was common in primary education
Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...
, but the need for work to have educational content, rather than existing just to consume time, is now preferred.
Busy work has historical precedent in primary education
Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...
. Conditioning students to believe that busy work carries the same value as progressive work can lead to students maintaining this belief later in life, carrying it through to the workplace.
Business and work settings
In business and work settings, people may engage in busy work to maintain an appearance of activity to protect their employment status (to avoid termination
Termination may refer to:
Science
*Termination (geomorphology), the period of time of relatively rapid change from cold, glacial conditions to warm interglacial condition
*Termination factor, in genetics, part of the process of transcribing RNA ...
or sanctions).(2001Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency - Tom DeMarco - Google Books
/ref> Workers believe that it is more important to maintain a constant appearance of working urgently so that they and others believe that what is being done is important. Constant urgency in workers can lead to disproportionate distribution of actual work, as workers may put off important work by attempting to complete previously designated less important tasks. Maintaining very high levels of constant busyness may actually be detrimental to the operations of a business or organization in which new tasks are not undertaken in a timely manner because workers are always very busy. That can also lead to workers taking shortcuts to accomplish tasks more quickly, which can negatively affect the quality of work results. Busy work also can be counterproductive in work settings because it may not be aligned with the overall objectives and priorities of an organization's plans for attaining and maintaining success in its ventures. The assumption that activity in the workplace is more important than productivity in the workplace can lead to employees thinking that quantity of work is better than quality of work, which is not productive to the overall functioning of a business.
Military settings
Busy work is used in armed forces to keep servicemembers from becoming bored, inactive and idle. Tasks of this sort includedrill
A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a bit, either a drill or driverchuck. Hand-operated types are dramatically decreasing in popularity and cordless battery-powered ones proliferating due to ...
, memorizing regulations, getting haircuts, spit and polishing footwear and other cleaning chores such as scrubbing the deck.
See also
* '' Bullshit Jobs: A Theory'', a 2018 book by anthropologist David Graeber * Parkinson's law *Boondoggle
A boondoggle is a project that is considered a waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations.
Etymology
"Boondoggle" was the name of the newspaper of the Roosevelt Troop of the Boy Sco ...
* Displacement activity
Displacement activities occur when an animal experiences high motivation for two or more conflicting behaviours: the resulting displacement activity is usually unrelated to the competing motivations. Birds, for example, may peck at grass when uncer ...
* Handwaving
Hand-waving (with various spellings) is a pejorative label for attempting to be seen as effective – in word, reasoning, or deed – while actually doing nothing effective or substantial. Cites the ''Random House Dictionary'' and ''The Dictionary ...
* Make-work job
A make-work job is a job that has less immediate financial or little benefit at all to the economy than the job costs to support. It may also have no benefit. Make-work jobs are similar to workfare, but are publicly offered on the job market and h ...
* Pastime
A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing oth ...
* Penal labour
* Presenteeism
Presenteeism or working while sick is the act or culture of employees continuing to work as a performative measure, despite having reduced productivity levels or negative consequences. Reduced productivity during presenteeism is often due to illnes ...
* Red tape
Red tape is an idiom referring to regulations or conformity to formal rules or standards which are claimed to be excessive, rigid or redundant, or to bureaucracy claimed to hinder or prevent action or decision-making. It is usually applied to g ...
* Underemployment
Underemployment is the underuse of a worker because a job does not use the worker's skills, is part-time, or leaves the worker idle. Examples include holding a part-time job despite desiring full-time work, and overqualification, in which the em ...
* Vacuum activity
Vacuum activities (or vacuum behaviours) are innate, fixed action patterns (FAPs) of animal behaviour that are performed in the absence of a sign stimulus ( releaser) that normally elicit them. This type of abnormal behaviour shows that a key stim ...
* Workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
References
Sources
* (1909Education by doing: occupations and busy work for primary classes – Anna Johnson – Google Books
* (2010
Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork, and Start the Work That Matters - Michael Bungay Stanier - Google Books
* (2012) ttps://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2012/01/19/why-busy-work-doesnt-work/ Why Busy Work Doesn't Work - John Kotter
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Busy Work School terminology Standards-based education Education reform Business terms