24 July, 2026

You know workplace culture has gone off course when people are scheduling fake meetings just to get their actual work done.

A recent Financial Times article highlighted a growing trend: employees blocking our their calendars with fictional appointments like “Pipeline Review” or “Cross Functional Sync” to protect tine for focused work. it sounds absurd, but raises a question: when did being busy become more valued than being productive?

Some might equate a full diary with effectiveness. Back-to-back calls, constant check-ins and endless “quick chats” create the appearance of momentum. Yet activity and achievement are not the same thing. We have all experienced days packed with meetings where the most important item on the to-do-list remains untouched.

Perhaps the real story is not that employees are creating fake meetings, but that workplace culture leaves so little room for creative and strategic thinking that they feel they have to. Research by Oxford’s Saïd Business School found that while 86% of workers believe task-focused conversations are prioritised at work, only 37% say the same about creative conversations. In many cases, those calendar blocks are less about avoiding work and more about creating space for the bigger-picture thinking organisations claim to value.

Employees should not have to resort to fictitious diary entries to work effectively. Gartner recommends organisations introduce no-meeting days (something some of our teams already implement) and protected focus time, finding such policies can reduce burnout and improve performance by 26%.

The lesson for leaders is clear: productivity is not measured by calendar density. Sometimes the most valuable thing we can do is create space to think. It’s something we are going to be giving some space to reflecting on!

By Bertie Bateman