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    Employee gets caught pretending to look busy with no actual work, now has a meeting scheduled with upper management about "role clarity"

    Not everyone is good at performing the image of productivity at work.

    By my account, most people learn how to fake their way to the top at an early age. Folks who found school to be an easy breeze likely figured out how to make it look like they were studying all the time and working their tails off without having to break an actual sweat. In order to pull this sleight of hand off successfully, you have to brush up on your acting skills.

    Experts in this niche will project a persona of working hard while secretly taking plenty of breaks to give themselves and their minds plenty of rest. Of course, when trying to apply these skills to the professional world, one must be good enough at one's job to allow for this duality to even be possible. 

    This retail worker clearly struggled with appearing productive, so much so that her manager called her out on it. Their subsequent interaction was so cringeworthy that if I were her, I'd leave and never come back.

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    • A retail worker holding a tablet checks inventory on the shelves of a store.
      via Cova Software

      A retail worker holding a tablet checks inventory on the shelves of a store.

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    • I tried to look productive at work and accidentally exposed that i’ve been doing absolutely nothing for weeks

      so my supervisor shows up out of nowhere last night and i swear i felt my brain just short out like i dont even remember exactly what i was watching on my phone, some dumb youtube vid
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • about elden ring builds or whatever, but i just shoved it in my pocket and grabbed the nearest clipboard like that was gonna magically turn me into an employee of the month or something, and im walking fast
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • like way too fast through aisles pretending im busy, nodding at boxes like yeah this one is definitely a box good job everyone, and then ofc he notices me because im acting like
      via BarbaraD_Strader
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    • a lunatic and he comes up and is like what are you working on and instead of saying literally anything normal i go yeah just verifying discrepancies in section
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • c, i dont even know why i said section c we dont even label stuff like that im pretty sure, and he pauses like i just told him the sky is green and goes which discrepancies and i kinda freeze
      via BarbaraD_Strader
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    • but also not really i just start talking and say the delayed ones?? like that means anything, and now im stuck because he says show me so now im leading
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • this guy deeper into the warehouse like i have a plan when i absolutely do not, im just picking a direction and hoping something will appear, and i stop
      via BarbaraD_Strader
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    • at this random shelf and start pointing at boxes and hes scanning them and goes everything here is fine and i panic and go yeah thats what's weird which in my head sounded smart but out loud just sounded insane,
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • A retail worker looking busy holds a product as she stocks the shelves.
      via Cova Software

      A retail worker looking busy holds a product as she stocks the shelves.

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    • and then he asks who assigned me this and i say night manager which immediately felt wrong as soon as it left my mouth because we literally dont have one, like why did i think that would work,
      via BarbaraD_Strader
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    • and he just looks at me like not even mad just tired and takes the clipboard and its literally blank paper like i didnt even check first just empty sheets like im cosplaying work, and he sighs
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • and asks what i actually do and i just kinda shrug and go honestly not much after midnight because at that point what am i even saving, so now i have this meeting about "role clarity" and
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • imo thats just corporate for we caught you doing nothing and now we have to pretend this is a process thing, TL;DR: TBH i feel like if i had just sat behind the boxes like usual and ate my offbrand pringles none of this would have happened but nooo i had to try and be productive for 5
      via BarbaraD_Strader
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    • minutes and completely s N myself, A thinking this is partly his fault for caring too much lol, idk man im probably done here
      via BarbaraD_Strader

    • Once this woman's manager made it clear that he was going to interrogate her about her elaborate lie, she should have circumnavigated this questioning by turning it around on him and asking if there was something else she could assist him with. However, she unfortunately panicked and ended up spewing nonsensical gibberish that only made her lie more and more obvious.

      It's not that she had to necessarily admit that she had no work to complete. There are ways of avoiding these kinds of hard-hitting questions from managers by reframing things and projecting the image of trying to be useful. Clearly, this woman was not good enough at projecting this image that her lack of productivity was about as transparent as it could be. Here's hoping when she does have that follow-up meetng, she still has a job to do afterwards.

    • A retail worker looking busy holds a tablet as she checks inventory.
      via Cova Software

      A retail worker looking busy holds a tablet as she checks inventory.

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    • pezcore350 Normally, I'm annoyed by run on sentences but in this case it really set the mood (hectic) for the story and I enjoyed it. Well done.
      via BarbaraD_Strader
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    • BarbaraD_Strader Original Poster's Reply ngl i was just panicking typing it out but yeah it kinda fits the chaos lol appreciate it
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • northernCRICKET Didn't mean to lay into you so hard, my perspective is definitely tainted by previous employment experiences where I've worked with people who get high and sit on their phones all shift and when the manager comes in they climb on the counter and dust the ceiling fan to pretend like theyve been busy but just end up drawing suspicion for being excessively performative
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • BarbaraD_Strader Original Poster's Reply yeah fair point actually, i kinda did the exact same overacting thing and made it 10x worse lol should've just played it normal ngl
      via BarbaraD_Strader
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    • Nick67m Working is usually part of a job if you're not doing it then don't expect to be there forever Imao
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • BarbaraD_Strader Original Poster's Reply yeah fair lol i kinda speedran the "get caught doing nothing" achievement ngl not my brightest moment
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • MoonSeaFish I've had jobs where I had less work to do than what I could have / would have wanted to do. This meeting will be another opportunity to explain your job responsibilities and perhaps what you would like your responsibilities to expand to also do.
      via BarbaraD_Strader
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    • BarbaraD_Strader Original Poster's Reply yeah fair point actually, might as well use the meeting to ask for more stuff instead of just getting cooked lol could work ngl
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • shoulda-known-better Yea I kinda didn't realize..... It's rare but it works sometimes lol
      via BarbaraD_Strader
    • phatdoof George Constanza
      via BarbaraD_Strader

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