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Most 9-to-5ers just aren’t in good _spirits_.  “Ghostworking” — feigning busyness in order to fool the boss — is a phoney-baloney employment ruse on the rise.  “More than half of employees

(58%) admit they regularly pretend to be working,” study authors from Resume Now, an online job-hunting hub, revealed in a new report.  “From fake meetings to typing nonsense,” the insiders

continued, “employees are getting creative to maintain the illusion of productivity.” It’s a fake-it-til-you-make-it to 5 p.m. type of trend.  EXPLORE MORE And when falsifying hustle and

bustle grows stale, a staggering 92% of staffers search for other employment opportunities while on the clock.   But ghostworking isn’t simply an effect of employee entitlement or Gen Z

laziness. Instead, it’s a craze born out of corporate confusion. “With burnout, career uncertainty and remote work blurring boundaries, employees are increasingly exploring new opportunities

during the workday,” noted the experts.  They surveyed 1,100 workers across the U.S. to find that office pressures and micromanagement, as well as a lack of meaningful tasks and unclear

expectations, all contribute to the viral movement.  To keep up appearances, 23% of ghostworkers walk around the office with a notebook, while 22% randomly type gibberish on their keyboards,

simulating legitimate effort.  A whopping 15% of the fraudsters have held phones to their ears with no real call. Another 15% keep spreadsheets open while browsing unrelated content.

However, only 12% have scheduled fake meetings to avoid real work.  Go-getters searching for their next gig — a startling 24% of respondents — use company time to edit their resumes, while

an even bolder 23% apply to new positions on work-issued computers, and 20% take recruiter calls from the office.  The bravest (or most brazen) of them all are the 19% of wheelers and

dealers who actually sneak out of their cubicles to interview with other companies.  However, rather than overwhelming ghostworkers with extra surveillance in an attempt to right their

wrongs, researchers suggest a much more effective solution.  “[Balance] accountability with autonomy,” they advised managers, supervisors and executives. “[Give] employees the tools and

trust they need to actually be productive, not just look busy.”