一些员工会进行“咖啡打卡”(coffee badging)，甚至在远程工作时晃动鼠标来显得忙碌。但即使他们在工作中效率很高，也有一些任务可能被认为是“假性”工作——至少根据Slack联合创始人兼前首席执行官斯图尔特·巴特菲尔德的说法是如此。
“我的核心理论是：‘高仿真工作行为’(Hyper-realistic worklike activities)与另一个称为‘已知有价值工作’(known valuable work)的概念相伴相生，”巴特菲尔德最近在Lenny's Podcast播客节目中说道。“高仿真工作行为表面上与工作完全相同……但这实际上是一点假性工作，而且非常微妙。”
巴特菲尔德提出了这两个概念，他目睹了将初创公司发展壮大所需经历的工作类型。这位连续创业者于2002年联合创立了照片分享平台Flickr，并担任其首席执行官数年，随后于2009年进行下一次创业，建立并领导了估值265亿美元的巨头Slack。自2023年1月从该公司卸任以来，巴特菲尔德一直保持低调。
凭借他数十年的商界经验，他将劳动力生产力分为两个不同的阵营：高仿真工作行为（他认为是“假性”工作）和已知有价值工作（能促进创新并巩固成功）。
当初创公司发展为大型企业时，“假性”工作如何出现
作为两次创业的创始人，巴特菲尔德目睹了“假性”工作问题往往源于企业的早期阶段。一开始，员工只是试图让公司起步：开设银行账户、创建用户表、给密码加盐(salting passwords)，以及完成所有对品牌基础建设“绝对”必要的具体事务性工作。根据巴特菲尔德的看法，这些早期任务创造了“几乎无限的生成价值”，因为它们是让企业启动和运行所必需的。但一旦公司成长起来，这种价值创造就会改变。
“几乎每个组织的问题在于，一开始，你有大量的工作，你知道该怎么做，而且你知道这些工作会很有价值，”巴特菲尔德解释说。“每个人早上开始工作时都会想，'我有10件事要做，每一件都是我知道怎么做的事，而且肯定有价值。'”
“时间流逝，待完成工作的供应与完成工作的需求之间的关系就开始发生变化。”
这位Slack前首席执行官解释说，随着时间的推移，会雇佣越来越多的人。最终，那些员工希望有更多的初级人才来帮助支持他们的团队，突然间，企业有了许多准备好工作的员工，而所有“简单、明显的事情”都已经做完了。
但如果雇主有许多没有足够清晰、高价值工作期望的员工，那么员工可能会把时间花在那些高仿真工作行为上。巴特菲尔德澄清说，这不是因为员工“愚蠢”或“邪恶”，而只是因为他们希望自己履行的职责得到认可。如果老板对已知有价值工作不透明，那么员工就会试图在团队现状中表现出色。
员工和首席执行官甚至不知道自己正在做“假性”工作
高仿真工作行为并不总是公然低效的。事实上，巴特菲尔德说，“假性”工作常常表现得像典型的工作任务。
“人们召集同事开会，预览他们要在重要会议上展示的幻灯片，就是否应该改进某些幻灯片获取反馈，”巴特菲尔德解释道。“我们坐在会议室里，有东西投影在上面，我们都在讨论它，而这正是工作的样子。”
这位Slack联合创始人指出，这种“假性”工作非常难以察觉——即使最高层领导也会成为这种习惯的受害者。
“我会这么做，我们的董事会成员会这么做，每位高管都会这么做，”巴特菲尔德承认。“你离掌握所有联系人、所有信息和决策权越远，就越容易陷入这些事情中，人们就会进行大量的高仿真工作行为，并且完全不知道这就是他们正在做的事情。”
然而，根据巴特菲尔德的说法，确保所有员工——从入门级员工一直到高级管理人员——都在做已知有价值工作的责任落在高层老板身上。首席执行官、经理、董事和高管需要明确他们的期望以及如何有意义地推动业务向前发展。巴特菲尔德建议这些领导者要明确已知有价值工作，这样每个人都明白这就是他们应该做的事情。
“确保优先事项足够明确，并事先明确地对某些事情说'不'，这实际上是你的责任，而不是说些'嘿，你们是一群白痴，把时间浪费在这件无关紧要的事情上'这样的话，”巴特菲尔德说。（*）
译者：梁宇
审校：夏林
一些员工会进行“咖啡打卡”(coffee badging)，甚至在远程工作时晃动鼠标来显得忙碌。但即使他们在工作中效率很高，也有一些任务可能被认为是“假性”工作——至少根据Slack联合创始人兼前首席执行官斯图尔特·巴特菲尔德的说法是如此。
“我的核心理论是：‘高仿真工作行为’(Hyper-realistic worklike activities)与另一个称为‘已知有价值工作’(known valuable work)的概念相伴相生，”巴特菲尔德最近在Lenny's Podcast播客节目中说道。“高仿真工作行为表面上与工作完全相同……但这实际上是一点假性工作，而且非常微妙。”
巴特菲尔德提出了这两个概念，他目睹了将初创公司发展壮大所需经历的工作类型。这位连续创业者于2002年联合创立了照片分享平台Flickr，并担任其首席执行官数年，随后于2009年进行下一次创业，建立并领导了估值265亿美元的巨头Slack。自2023年1月从该公司卸任以来，巴特菲尔德一直保持低调。
凭借他数十年的商界经验，他将劳动力生产力分为两个不同的阵营：高仿真工作行为（他认为是“假性”工作）和已知有价值工作（能促进创新并巩固成功）。
当初创公司发展为大型企业时，“假性”工作如何出现
作为两次创业的创始人，巴特菲尔德目睹了“假性”工作问题往往源于企业的早期阶段。一开始，员工只是试图让公司起步：开设银行账户、创建用户表、给密码加盐(salting passwords)，以及完成所有对品牌基础建设“绝对”必要的具体事务性工作。根据巴特菲尔德的看法，这些早期任务创造了“几乎无限的生成价值”，因为它们是让企业启动和运行所必需的。但一旦公司成长起来，这种价值创造就会改变。
“几乎每个组织的问题在于，一开始，你有大量的工作，你知道该怎么做，而且你知道这些工作会很有价值，”巴特菲尔德解释说。“每个人早上开始工作时都会想，'我有10件事要做，每一件都是我知道怎么做的事，而且肯定有价值。'”
“时间流逝，待完成工作的供应与完成工作的需求之间的关系就开始发生变化。”
这位Slack前首席执行官解释说，随着时间的推移，会雇佣越来越多的人。最终，那些员工希望有更多的初级人才来帮助支持他们的团队，突然间，企业有了许多准备好工作的员工，而所有“简单、明显的事情”都已经做完了。
但如果雇主有许多没有足够清晰、高价值工作期望的员工，那么员工可能会把时间花在那些高仿真工作行为上。巴特菲尔德澄清说，这不是因为员工“愚蠢”或“邪恶”，而只是因为他们希望自己履行的职责得到认可。如果老板对已知有价值工作不透明，那么员工就会试图在团队现状中表现出色。
员工和首席执行官甚至不知道自己正在做“假性”工作
高仿真工作行为并不总是公然低效的。事实上，巴特菲尔德说，“假性”工作常常表现得像典型的工作任务。
“人们召集同事开会，预览他们要在重要会议上展示的幻灯片，就是否应该改进某些幻灯片获取反馈，”巴特菲尔德解释道。“我们坐在会议室里，有东西投影在上面，我们都在讨论它，而这正是工作的样子。”
这位Slack联合创始人指出，这种“假性”工作非常难以察觉——即使最高层领导也会成为这种习惯的受害者。
“我会这么做，我们的董事会成员会这么做，每位高管都会这么做，”巴特菲尔德承认。“你离掌握所有联系人、所有信息和决策权越远，就越容易陷入这些事情中，人们就会进行大量的高仿真工作行为，并且完全不知道这就是他们正在做的事情。”
然而，根据巴特菲尔德的说法，确保所有员工——从入门级员工一直到高级管理人员——都在做已知有价值工作的责任落在高层老板身上。首席执行官、经理、董事和高管需要明确他们的期望以及如何有意义地推动业务向前发展。巴特菲尔德建议这些领导者要明确已知有价值工作，这样每个人都明白这就是他们应该做的事情。
“确保优先事项足够明确，并事先明确地对某些事情说'不'，这实际上是你的责任，而不是说些'嘿，你们是一群白痴，把时间浪费在这件无关紧要的事情上'这样的话，”巴特菲尔德说。（*）
译者：梁宇
审校：夏林
Some employees are guilty of coffee badging, or even jiggling their mouses to look active while working remotely. But even when they're being productive on the job, there are a few tasks that could be considered “fake” work---at least according to Slack cofounder and former CEO Stewart Butterfield.
“Here's my grand theory: Hyper-realistic worklike activities goes along with this other concept called known valuable work to do,” Butterfield recently said on Lenny's Podcast. “Hyper-realistic worklike activity is superficially identical to work...But this is actually a fake bit of work, and it's so subtle.”
Butterfield coined these two concepts, having seen the type of work that goes into scaling startups into big businesses. The serial entrepreneur cofounded photo-sharing platform Flickr in 2002, serving as its CEO for several years, before his next venture establishing and leading $26.5 billion giant Slack back in 2009. Butterfield has been keeping a low profile since he stepped down from the company in January 2023.
From his decades of experience in the business world, he's separated workforce productivity into two separate camps: hyper-realistic worklike activities, which he deems as “fake” work, and known valuable work, which promotes innovation and strengthens success.
How “fake” work appears as startups scale into big businesses
As a two-time startup founder, Butterfield witnessed that the problem with “fake” work often stems from the early years of business. At the start, employees are just trying to get the company off the ground: opening a bank account, creating a users table, salting passwords, and doing all the nuts-and-bolts type of work that is “absolutely” necessary to the brand's foundation. Those early tasks create “almost infinite generative value,” according to Butterfield, since they're required to get a business up and running. But once a company grows, that value creation changes.
“The problem with almost every organization [is] at the very beginning, you have an enormous amount of work that you know what to do, and you know that it's going to be valuable,” Butterfield explained.“Everyone's going to work in the morning like, 'I have 10 things to do and every single one of them is like something I know how to do, and it's definitely going to be valuable.'”
“Time goes on, and the relationship between the supply of work to do and the demand for doing work just starts to change.”
The former Slack CEO explained that over time, more and more people get hired. Eventually, those employees want more junior-level talent to help support their teams, and suddenly, businesses have many staffers ready to work, with all “easy, obvious stuff” having been done already.
But if an employer has many workers who do not have enough clear, high-value job expectations, then staffers may spend their time doing those hyper-realistic worklike activities. Butterfield clarified that it's not because employees are “stupid” or “evil,” but only because they want to be recognized for the duties they perform. And if bosses aren't being transparent about known valuable work to do, then staffers will try to excel within the status quo of their teams.
Workers and CEOs don't even know they're doing “fake” work
Hyper-realistic worklike activities aren't always blatantly unproductive. In fact, Butterfield said that “fake” work often comes across as typical job tasks.
“People are calling meetings with their colleagues to preview the deck that they're going to show in the big meeting, to get feedback on whether they should improve some of the slides,” Butterfield explained. “We are sitting in a conference room, and there's something being projected up there, and we're all talking about it, and that's exactly what work is.”
The Slack cofounder noted that this type of “fake” work is very subtle to pick up on---and even the most senior leadership will fall victim to the habit.
“I'll do it, our board members will do it, every exec will do it,” Butterfield admitted. “The further you are from having all of the contacts, and all the information, and the decision-making authority, the easier it is to get trapped in that stuff, and people will just perform enormous amounts of hyper-realistic worklike activities, and have no idea that that's what they're doing.”
However, the onus for ensuring that all workers are doing known valuable work---from the entry-level, all the way up to senior executives---falls on top bosses, according to Butterfield. CEOs, managers, directors, and executives need to be transparent about their expectations and how to meaningfully drive the business forward. Butterfield advised that these leaders create clarity around known valuable work, so everyone understands that's what they're supposed to be doing.
“It's actually your responsibility to make sure that there's sufficient clarity around what the priorities are, and explicitly saying 'no' to things upfront, rather than words like, 'Hey you guys are a bunch of idiots wasting your time on this thing that doesn't matter,'” Butterfield said.