Jiaying Welcome to The English We Speak with you, Neil…
Neil …and you Jiaying. And for today’s English phrase, we’re off to the theatre – but not literally.
Jiaying ‘The show must go on’, ‘all the world’s a stage’ – these are well-known, theatre-related phrases?
Neil They are – but this phrase is bang up-to-date and describes the act of someone appearing to work hard when in reality they’re not being very productive. We call this productivity theatre.
Jiaying OK, so normally ‘productivity’ relates to the rate at which goods are made, or work is completed. But ‘theatre’ implies the activity is just an act – it’s pretend.
Neil Correct. ‘Theatre’ used as an adjective can describe someone’s exaggerated or insincere behaviour. We can call this ‘theatrical’. So, in the workplace someone may try to look busy by speaking loudly or shuffling lots of paper, but it’s an act – they are performing productivity theatre.
Jiaying So, we shouldn’t be fooled – looking busy doesn’t mean you are busy! I think we should hear more about this in these examples…
Examples She says she hasn’t time to write the report but I know it’s just productivity theatre.
Tidying your desk at work isn’t really being efficient, it’s just productivity theatre!
She always claims she has to work late but I know she slinks off when everyone’s gone home – it’s productivity theatre!
Jiaying In this The English We Speak programme, we’re hearing about the new phrase ‘productivity theatre’ which describes the act of workers giving the impression of working hard when in reality, they aren’t. It’s all an act! Something you would never do, Neil?
Neil Of course! But I have heard about people who work from home, and while watching TV, they occasionally send an email, so it looks like they’re working. A great example of productivity theatre.
Jiaying I know people who say they are very busy and I see them on their computer doing online shopping!
Neil Productivity theatre?
Jiaying Yes, indeed.
Neil Hmm, you know I might give productivity theatre a try, Jiaying.
Jiaying Not before you’ve finished all your work!
Neil OK. More productivity and less theatre for now. See you next time.
Jiaying Bye.