A new buzzword is doing the rounds, and it’s not from TikTok. Not only that, but it’s easy to guess what it means. So, get ready to accept ‘task masking’ into your ever-growing vocabulary of trendy phrases to describe ancient behaviour.

To be honest, the Personnel Today office collectively stifled a yawn at “task masking”. It’s a bit prosaic, lacking the alliteration of “quiet quitting” or the mystique and sultry imagery of “lazy girl jobs”.

According to a jolly communiqué from PracticeAptitudeTests.com, employees (devious hominids on the whole, clearly) are employing sly tactics to avoid doing their jobs. This includes putting a weight on the space bar of the PC keyboard so the screen never goes to sleep. Interestingly, mention of this naughty ploy drew a blank in the PT office – a place where computer screens frequently fall asleep while their operators are still trying to work.

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Guy Thornton, the founder of PracticeAptitudeTests.com reassures us that “there are ways to detect even the sneakiest of skivers”.

He says: “By paying attention to key indicators of productivity declines, you can take informed steps to address the problem.”

One of the clues that someone isn’t working hard enough is a tendency to give straightforward tasks long-winded names:
for example, “I engaged in a verbal exchange to address the incoming inquiry” may be used instead of “I answered the phone.”

The PT team disputed this. We have known very hard-working people to use absurdly long-winded sentences. Even Guy Thornton, above, used the phrase “By paying attention to key indicators of productivity declines, you can take informed steps to address the problem.”

Mr Thornton could have just said: “take action if you notice a fall in productivity”. Perhaps he’s been infected by the language of slackers in the way one would pick up, say, an Aussie accent after living there for a while.

He also points out that “overly elaborate descriptions of straightforward tasks are often a telltale sign of someone trying to inflate their importance”.

He’s spot on there, no argument, we agreed. Although we’ve all done it – after all, if you’re not going to paint yourself as more important than you are, no one else will.

Thornton points out that if an employee consistently needs “more time” for research without ever moving to the implementation stage, there may be a problem.

But he advises a softly softly approach: “If you suspect an employee is spending excessive time researching, instead of approaching them harshly, simply explain that you believe other tasks need prioritising and that you’d appreciate their help in focusing on those.

“If employees dodge tasks through endless ‘research,’ they may be feeling overwhelmed or burnt out from the tasks they’re procrastinating from,” he says. “Offering them alternative, smaller tasks to break up their day can help ease their workload.”

So not every excuse is task masking. Well that’s a relief.

No doubt “task masking” will find its place in the lexicon but it sounds very similar to “taskmaster”, which has negative connotations.

It has even been known for “taskmasters” to use “task masking” to cover up their “task mastering”. These are the ones to really watch out for.

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