In a low-fire, low-hire market where layoff headlines persist, employees are in pursuit of job security—leading to what some are calling "loud working," an emerging form of productivity theater.

A new report from MyPerfectResume finds that 70% of surveyed employees believe that employees who are highly visible at work are rewarded more than those who produce strong results but who do so quietly.

"When the next opportunity feels harder to find, being seen as productive can start to feel like job protection," says Dr. Jasmine Escalera, career expert at MyPerfectResume.

The survey found that 56% of respondents feel pressure to look productive at work sometimes, often or constantly. The same number have used at least one behavior to make it look like they were busier. The most common is delaying a simple task to appear busier for a longer period of time, followed by sending emails, messages or updates to appear active. Nearly as many have stayed online or at their desk longer than needed.

A full 82% say appearing "too idle" could harm their career advancement.

Following the signals of 'productivity'

"Loud working" isn't necessarily a new trend, Escalera notes, but it's one that is becoming more widespread in digitally connected workplaces.

Given that so much work takes place on digital platforms, co-workers and supervisors can see whether employees are online or how quickly they're responding to messages.

"Those things can start to look like evidence of productivity, even though they say very little ab

Employees today are also much more easily aware of their own visibility—they can see when their status switches to away or how long a message has gone unanswered.

"Suddenly," Escalera says, "it can feel like you have to keep demonstrating that you're working instead of letting the work itself speak for you."

out the quality of someone's work or what they're actually accomplishing," Escalera says.

The report found that 84% of those surveyed say they try to respond to messages immediately because they want to signal to their team that they're paying attention.

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