Why are we all so busy, yet feel like we’ve achieved nothing, inside the rise of meaningless modern work and the burnout it’s quietly fuelling

Diaries are packed, inboxes never properly clear, and there is this constant pressure to be visible and responsive. And yet, by the end of the day, it can feel like you have not actually done anything that meaningful.

It is a feeling that is creeping across industries, and it is getting harder to ignore, especially as more data starts to show a gap between how much people are working and how fulfilled they feel doing it.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics still point to relatively steady employment, but that stability is not translating into people feeling better about their jobs. At the same time, research from Gallup keeps finding the same thing: most employees feel disengaged.

They are showing up, doing the work, staying busy, but not really feeling connected to what they are doing. This is not about people not trying. It is about people putting in the effort without a clear sense of what it is actually adding up to.

Part of the issue is that the nature of work itself has changed. It is not just that there is more of it, it is that a lot of it has become quite abstract. Outputs are harder to define, outcomes are harder to point to, and days get swallowed up by meetings, updates, approvals and email chains that seem to go round in circles. You can spend hours working without ever feeling like you have moved anything forward.

That is where the idea of so called “bullsh*t jobs” comes in, a term popularised by David Graeber. It might sound blunt, but it resonates because a lot of people quietly recognise it. In many workplaces now, productivity has shifted into something more performative.

Being seen to be busy, contributing on calls, replying quickly and staying active on messages all start to stand in for actual value, even when the impact of the work is not always clear.

Technology has not helped in the way we thought it might. Tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams were meant to make communication easier, but in reality, they have created a constant stream of interruptions. The day gets broken up into small reactive moments, answering messages, jumping on quick calls and keeping up with threads, and it leaves very little space for proper focused work. It is no surprise people end the day feeling busy but oddly unproductive, like nothing has really been ticked off.

At the same time, the bigger picture around work has shifted as well. The old promise that hard work would lead to stability, progression and long term security does not feel as solid as it once did. Wages have not kept up with the cost of living, especially in cities, and things like home ownership feel further out of reach for a lot of people. When the reward side starts to wobble, it naturally makes people question what they are putting in.

What often gets labelled as a lack of ambition in younger generations is usually something else entirely. People are still working hard, but they are less willing to let work define everything, especially when it is not delivering what it used to promise. The rise of terms like “quiet quitting” is not about people giving up, it is more about people redrawing the line. It is an attempt to make the effort feel fair again, to match what they are putting in with what they are actually getting back.

From a brand and communications point of view, this is where things get tricky. Companies have spent years talking about purpose, culture and impact, but if the day to day experience does not match that, people notice. That gap between what is said and what is felt becomes hard to ignore, and once that trust starts to slip, it is difficult to rebuild. Employees are not just listening to messaging anymore, they are measuring it against their own reality.

The problem is, this is not something you can fix with better comms or another round of internal messaging. It is more structural than that. Over time, a lot of organisations have built up layers of process, oversight and coordination that, while often well intentioned, end up diluting the work itself. There are more people involved, more steps and more approvals, and it can leave individuals feeling quite far removed from any clear outcome. Work ends up being created just to manage more work, and the whole thing starts to feed itself.

There is also a level of risk aversion baked into many industries now. When the cost of getting something wrong is high, the natural reaction is to add more checks, more sign offs and more documentation. Each one makes sense on its own, but together they slow everything down and chip away at people’s sense of ownership. You are still working hard, but with less control and less clarity over what you are actually responsible for.

Culturally, there has been a shift too. In a lot of roles, especially knowledge based ones, output is not always immediately visible, so visibility itself has become the measure. Being online, being responsive and being present in conversations starts to stand in for productivity. It creates this cycle where people feel they have to stay constantly active, not necessarily because it improves the work, but because it proves they are engaged.

That has a knock on effect on wellbeing. Burnout is not just about long hours, it is also about a lack of meaning. Putting in time and energy without feeling like it is going anywhere can be just as draining as being overloaded. It is the sense of spinning your wheels that wears people down.

What is interesting now is how people are responding to all of this. There is a quiet shift happening in how work fits into people’s lives. For many younger professionals, fulfilment is being found outside of work rather than through it. Flexibility, autonomy and quality of life are becoming just as important as titles or progression, sometimes more so. It does not mean ambition has disappeared, it just means it is being defined differently.

For organisations, that should be a bit of a wake up call. If people are consistently busy but still disengaged, it suggests the issue is not motivation, it is design. Fixing it means looking properly at how work is structured, cutting back on unnecessary processes, rebalancing communication with actual focus, and making sure people can see how what they do connects to something real.

Because meaningful work is not that complicated in principle. People want to understand what they are responsible for, have some ownership over it, and be able to see the outcome. When those pieces are in place, engagement tends to follow quite naturally. When they are missing, no amount of busyness fills the gap.

Right now, there is a clear signal that something is not quite working. A workforce that is constantly busy but increasingly disconnected is not lazy or entitled, it is responding to a system that has blurred the line between activity and value.

Unless that balance is addressed, the gap between effort and fulfilment is only going to keep growing, and that is not just a problem for employees, it is a long term issue for the businesses relying on them too.

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Chad Teixeira is a seasoned media commentator and communications strategist covering culture, business, identity and the stories shaping modern brands.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

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