Gen Z employees often stream TV shows or movies during the workday, with 84 % saying it helps them focus, according to a recent Tubi–Harris Poll survey.
The survey found that more than half, 53%, slowed assignments to finish an episode, and 48% admitted to lying to supervisors about their on-screen habits.
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Remote work, born of pandemic necessity, turned homes into hybrid offices and mini screening rooms. As virtual meetings increased, background TV morphed from guilty pleasure to workflow tactic.
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Tubi's parent, Fox Corp. FOX FOXA)), said the platform reaches 97 million monthly viewers in 2024, underscoring how entertainment infiltrates the workday. The same Harris dataset indicated that 81% say that watching ads is a fair trade-off for access to free content on streaming.
Demand carries a price tag. According to Tubi and The Harris Poll, U.S. viewers shell out a combined $129 monthly on streaming and pay-TV bundles. In fact, 44% of young adults even cling to an ex-partner's login even after they broke up.
Workhuman, a human capital management software provider, defines a growing trend called "fauxductivity." In an August 2024 research brief, Meisha-ann Martin, Ph.D., senior director of people analytics and research at Workhuman, said employees feel "expected to immediately respond to all messages," pushing some to stage activity—mouse jigglers, fake status lights—rather than confront burnout.
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The Global Human Workplace Index, conducted by Workhuman, surveyed 3,000 full-time staff in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland and found 48% of executives admitted faking output is common on their team.
Gallup's "State of the Global Workplace," published last month, reported that fully remote employees show higher engagement yet greater stress and loneliness than on-site peers. The firm said 45% of remote staff felt "a lot of stress yesterday," implying many turn to background shows for relief during solitary stretches.
"You can't learn working from your basement," JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM CEO Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg in May, defending the bank's five-day office mandate for most employees.
Streaming platforms see an opportunity in changing work habits. According to the Tubi and The Harris Poll survey, 52% of Gen Z remote workers said they don't want to return to the office because they'd miss streaming during the day—a trend that appeals to advertisers targeting daytime audiences.
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