When Did Being Constantly Busy Become Something to Be Proud Of?

Why a Culture of Constant Busyness May Be Doing More Harm Than Good

Ask someone how they are at work and there is a good chance the answer will be:

“Busy.”

Ask again next week?

“Really busy.”

Somewhere along the way, being busy became almost synonymous with being successful.

Full diaries became badges of honour. Back-to-back meetings suggested importance. Answering emails late at night demonstrated commitment. Taking a proper lunch break could feel almost indulgent.

But there is an important question organisations should be asking:

When did being constantly busy become something to be proud of?

Being busy and being productive are not necessarily the same thing.

And a workplace culture that continually celebrates busyness may unintentionally be encouraging behaviours that are neither healthy nor sustainable.

The Busy Badge of Honour

There can be a subtle competition around busyness in workplaces.

Who arrived first?

Who stayed latest?

Who has the fullest diary?

Who answered an email at 10.30pm?

Who hasn’t taken all their annual leave?

These behaviours can sometimes be interpreted as signs of dedication.

Yet they may tell us very little about how effectively somebody is actually working.

A person can spend an entire day rushing between meetings and responding to notifications without having enough uninterrupted time to complete the work that really requires their attention.

Activity isn’t always achievement.

Sometimes the most valuable work requires exactly the opposite of busyness: time to think.

Technology Has Made It Harder to Leave Work at Work

There was once a physical boundary between work and home.

You left the workplace and, for many people, work stayed there.

Today, work can travel everywhere.

Emails arrive on phones. Teams messages appear during dinner. Notifications flash while we’re watching television. A quick check of tomorrow’s diary can become half an hour of responding to messages.

Flexible and remote working have created enormous opportunities, but they have also blurred some of the traditional boundaries around the working day.

The question is no longer simply whether employees can access work outside working hours.

It’s whether they feel they should.

“I’ll Just Check My Emails…”

Annual leave should provide an opportunity to properly step away from work.

Yet many people will recognise the temptation to check in.

Just once.

Just to make sure everything is all right.

Perhaps answer one message.

And suddenly work has found its way onto the beach, into the hotel room or onto the sofa at home.

A holiday shouldn’t simply be work conducted from a different Wi-Fi network.

Organisations can help by making it clear that employees aren’t expected to remain quietly available while they’re away.

Good handovers, sensible delegation and clear out-of-office arrangements can make switching off much easier.

Rest Isn’t a Reward for Exhaustion

We sometimes talk about rest as though it is something people earn after they have worked hard enough.

Finish this project.

Get through this week.

Clear the inbox.

Reach Friday.

Then you can rest.

But there will nearly always be another email, another task and another deadline.

If rest only happens once everything is finished, it may never happen at all.

A healthier approach recognises that periods of concentrated effort need to be balanced with opportunities to pause and recover.

Rest isn’t the opposite of productivity. It is part of creating sustainable ways of working.

Presenteeism Has Changed Shape

Presenteeism was traditionally associated with physically being at work despite being unwell or remaining in the workplace for long hours simply to be seen.

Hybrid working has created a newer version.

The digital green dot.

Always online.

Always responsive.

Always available.

Someone may no longer be sitting visibly at their desk until 8pm, but they may feel pressure to demonstrate commitment by responding instantly to messages throughout the evening.

Healthy workplace culture should be measured by the quality and sustainability of people’s contribution, not by how permanently available they appear to be.

Leaders Give Permission Through Their Behaviour

Leaders have enormous influence over workplace culture, often without realising it.

Imagine a manager who regularly tells their team:

“Please make sure you switch off this weekend.”

Then sends them six emails on Saturday morning.

Even if no response is explicitly requested, employees may reasonably wonder whether they are expected to be monitoring their inbox.

Leadership behaviours can therefore matter as much as formal wellbeing policies.

Leaders can model healthier working practices by taking breaks, using their annual leave, delegating, respecting boundaries and demonstrating that it is perfectly acceptable not to be permanently available.

Scheduled email functions can also be useful. If inspiration strikes on Sunday afternoon, the message doesn’t necessarily need to arrive in somebody else’s inbox on Sunday afternoon.

What About Lunch?

The humble lunch break deserves a mention too.

Eating a sandwich while answering emails isn’t necessarily a break.

Nor is sitting through a meeting with lunch balanced beside the laptop.

Stepping away, moving around, going outside or simply having a short period in which the brain isn’t processing work can create an important pause in the day.

A healthy workplace doesn’t need to police people’s lunch breaks.

It simply needs to create a culture where taking one doesn’t feel like poor commitment.

Productivity Needs Space

Some of our most valuable work doesn’t happen when we’re frantically moving between tasks.

Ideas need space.

Problems sometimes need thinking about.

Creativity can require quiet.

Good decisions can benefit from reflection.

Even conversations can be better when people aren’t simultaneously watching notifications appear on another screen.

Organisations that want genuinely productive employees may need to create space for focused work as well as visible activity.

That could mean protecting periods without meetings, reducing unnecessary calls, questioning whether every meeting needs to exist and allowing people uninterrupted time for deeper work.

Sometimes removing something from the diary can be more valuable than adding another productivity initiative to it.

Busyness Can Hide Inefficient Systems

If everybody in an organisation is permanently overwhelmed, the answer isn’t necessarily to teach everybody how to cope with being overwhelmed.

Sometimes the system itself deserves examination.

Are there too many meetings?

Are people duplicating work?

Are approval processes unnecessarily complicated?

Are workloads realistic?

Are employees receiving conflicting priorities?

Is technology helping people work or simply creating more channels through which work can reach them?

Is understaffing being reframed as a wellbeing problem?

These can be uncomfortable questions.

But wellbeing should not place all the responsibility on individuals to become more resilient within working environments that may themselves need to change.

What Does a Healthier Workplace Look Like?

It doesn’t mean nobody works hard.

There will always be busy periods, deadlines and occasions when teams need to make an extra effort.

The difference is whether exceptional pressure becomes the everyday norm.

A healthier culture might be one where:

• Taking a lunch break is normal.

• Annual leave genuinely means time away from work.

• Employees don’t feel compelled to answer routine messages outside working hours.

• Managers model the boundaries they encourage in others.

• Meetings have a clear purpose.

• Focused work is protected.

• Workload concerns can be discussed openly.

• Rest isn’t interpreted as a lack of ambition.

• Success is measured by outcomes, not exhaustion.

None of these require elaborate wellbeing programmes.

Many simply require organisations to think carefully about the behaviours they reward.

Perhaps We Need a Different Badge of Honour

Instead of celebrating the person who sends emails at midnight, perhaps we should celebrate the team that planned well enough not to need to.

Instead of admiring the manager who hasn’t taken a holiday for two years, perhaps good leadership includes trusting a team enough to step away.

Instead of asking:

“How busy are we?”

perhaps organisations should ask:

“How well are we working?”

Those are very different questions.

And the second may tell us far more about the health of an organisation than the first.

Creating Sustainable Workplace Cultures

Employee wellbeing isn’t about removing ambition, hard work or high standards.

It’s about creating environments where people can perform well without constant exhaustion becoming the price of success.

That means recognising the value of boundaries, recovery, thoughtful leadership and genuinely sustainable ways of working.

So perhaps the next time somebody asks:

“How are you?”

the ultimate workplace status symbol shouldn’t be:

“Absolutely snowed under.”

Maybe one day it will simply be:

“I’m good. Work’s going really well.”

And perhaps that would be something worth being proud of.

How Lily Impact Can Help

At Lily Impact, we support organisations, schools and teams to develop practical approaches to workplace wellbeing, supportive leadership and positive organisational culture.

We help organisations look beyond one-off wellbeing initiatives and consider the everyday behaviours, leadership practices and workplace cultures that influence how people experience work.

If your organisation wants to develop healthier, more sustainable ways of working, get in touch with Lily Impact to explore how we can support your people and your organisation.