The Performative Work Evolution

We all know this happens, but we don’t all admit this happens.

I used to have this gig back in 2014–2015, when I first moved to Texas. One of the mid-level managers at this place was named Susan, if I recall correctly. I honestly kind of forget her name. She had a fancy-ish title, and she sat near some actual executives, but literally no one knew what she did. The thing with Susan, though, was that she walked around all day with a Bluetooth earpiece in, and if you ever tried to talk to her, she would essentially silence you and tell you how busy she was. But again, no one knew exactly what she did.

There is a “Susan” in almost every corporate ecosystem, and usually there are about 10–12 Susans. I’d argue in the last 30–40 years, it’s gotten way worse at the intersection of a lot of different things:

• Tech/SaaS makes basic work easier.
• Companies want to over-hire to show growth.
• A lot of managers are very bad and don’t know what roles they need on their team.
• People continue to confuse “busy” and “productive.”
• As layoffs became more normative, people assumed that if they consistently presented as “busy,” they would be “relevant” and thus “un-layoff-able.” That’s a comical take too.