First we had quiet quitting, and now the ‘fake work’ trend has found its way into Gen Z work culture.
The term was coined in 2009 by Brent Peterson and Gaylan Nielson who wrote a book about it, and named it just that, ‘Fake Work.’
According to the consultants, it refers to putting in the “effort under the illusion of value,” and now that it’s taken off in the tech industry, some are reaping the financial rewards.
Most recently, Fortune interviewed a Google software engineer, using the pseudonym Devon.
He told the publication he worked one hour a day for the Silicon Valley giant while cashing a $150,000 (about R2.7 million) pay cheque per annum.
Devon’s typical week day started at 9am. He showered and cooked breakfast, and then worked for Google until 11am or noon.
After that, he concentrated on his ‘real job’ as a start-up.
Devon justified his actions by saying he saw colleagues working late nights without moving up the corporate ladder.
"It's not like you'd really get promoted for going above and beyond," he told Fortune.
But, there’s a method to Devon’s well-constructed day.
By pre-empting his workload, he starts off the week by writing code for a “decent part” of an assignment before sending it off to his manager, Yahoo Finance reported.
And this usually guarantees “smooth sailing” for the rest of the work week.
The result of all this “hard work" is making up to $150,000 a year.
As a last thought, Devon said that most employees who went the same route as him chose to work for Google.
“Most people choose Google because of the work-life balance and benefits," he added.
“You could work at Apple, but Apple has such fan appeal to software engineers. They work long hours…but at Google, most people know what they’re doing is a job.”
IOL