High Performance or High Pretending? The Remote Worker Dilemma

Let’s talk about the elephant in the Zoom room (and no, we are not just repping Elephant Teams):

Is that remote worker crushing it or are they just really good at looking busy on Slack?

Welcome to the confusing, contradictory, occasionally caffeinated world of remote work culture, where performance is harder to measure and ghost productivity is thriving like a succulent near a sunny window.

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The rise of fake busyness

You know what we are talking about.

• That person who is always online but never actually delivers.
• The one firing off emails at 10:48 PM (we see you, timestamp warriors).
• The Slack superstar who is in every channel but no one is sure what they actually do.

This is the era of ghost productivity, the illusion of output without the outcome. And it is trickier to spot than ever in remote teams, where “activity” can masquerade as achievement.

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When overworking is just... overcompensating

Here’s the thing: not all remote workers who look “super busy” are actually pretending. A lot of us are genuinely grinding away but on the wrong stuff.

You know that feeling when your calendar is packed, your Slack is pinging every 3 minutes and your brain is fried… but at the end of the day you can not point to anything truly meaningful you have achieved? That is not laziness. That is accidental overworking.

Remote work blurs the line because we do not have the physical “end of the workday” anymore. When your office is your dining table, it is easy to slip into hustling endlessly, mistaking motion for momentum. The result? Exhaustion without impact.

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How to spot when you are doing too much (that means nothing)

The trickiest part about fake busyness is that it often feels like productivity in the moment. But if you zoom out, you will see the trap. Some warning signs:

• Meeting madness: You are saying “yes” to every Zoom invite but your contribution is minimal.
• Perfection spiral: You are spending two hours making slides look beautiful, when 20 minutes would have been enough.
• Multitasking mayhem: You have got 7 tabs open, 3 tasks started and 0 actually finished.
• Slack reacting: You are dropping fire emojis and “totally agree” comments just so you look present in chats.

If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. It is easy to slip into this cycle because remote work culture often rewards visibility instead of value. But long-term, it drains energy without moving your career or your projects forward.

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How to flip back to real productivity

The good news? You do not have to burn yourself out proving you are “active” just because you work remotely. High performance is not about filling your day with endless tasks, it is about creating meaningful outcomes.

Here’s how to shift gears:

1. Prioritise ruthlessly: Ask yourself, “If I only did 3 things today, which would actually matter?” That  is where your focus should be.
2. Push back on busywork: You are allowed to decline a meeting or say “this task does not move the needle”. Boundaries = productivity.
3. Redefine success: Value is not about hours online or messages sent, it is about results achieved.
4. Schedule real breaks: Sometimes, stepping away from the laptop is the most productive thing you can do. A rested brain delivers better work.

At the end of the day, remote workers do not need to be seen as “constantly available” to prove worth. What makes you high-performing is not your busyness, it is your impact.

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Wrapping it up: The remote worker reality check

Remote work has given us freedom, flexibility and the ability to design a lifestyle that actually fits us. But with that freedom comes a sneaky trap: the pressure to look busy instead of being genuinely productive.

The truth? No one remembers how many Slack emojis you dropped or how many late-night emails you sent. What people do remember is the value you create, the problems you solve and the way you show up for your team.

So here’s the takeaway:

• High performing = doing the right things that actually matter.
• High pretending = exhausting yourself for the sake of appearances.

And honestly, remote work should never feel like a performance. It should feel like you are building, contributing and making a difference without burning out in the process.

At the end of the day, the choice is yours:

Keep dancing for the spotlight of fake busyness…

or step into the spotlight of meaningful results.

Because in remote work, impact always speaks louder than “I’m online”.

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