Goldbricking

What is goldbricking?

Goldbricking refers to the behavior of an employee or employees who get paid without fulfilling their professional obligations, while appearing to look like they’re being responsible workers.

Today, goldbricking is most associated with employees who “goof off” at work, choosing to take calls or texts, surf the internet, or other personal tasks instead of the work they are getting paid for.

Some human resources departments implement employee monitoring tools to find and curb the causes of goldbricking. With these tools, HR departments monitor an employee’s computer behavior, phone and chat interactions, and active or inactive status. The tools also provide behavioral analytics to help determine if there are any trends to be addressed.

Where did the term goldbricking come from?

Goldbricking comes directly from the practice of applying gold coating to a different, less valuable metal and selling it off as real gold.

Goldbricking was also used in World War I to refer to soldiers that faked injuries and illnesses in order to get out of active duty. The combination of both of these uses is how we’ve reached the modern definition.

Goldbricking causes

A multitude of factors can cause goldbricking, some of which may be out of the employer’s control. These include:

• Personal difficulties or struggles
• Boredom from the work, projects, or lack of workload
• Office distraction, in particular with open-concept offices
• Fast workers that can complete tasks more quickly than others
• Social network platforms and anything else on the internet
• Incessant and invasive notifications on phones and laptop
• A poor or lackadaisical work or office culture
• Lack of challenging projects

Best practices for handling goldbricking

If a business finds that goldbricking is a significant enough problem that it reduces productivity and hurts their bottom line, there are best practices for properly addressing and dealing with goldbricking. 

• If the problems causing goldbricking include boredom or lack of interest in active projects, executives must communicate with their employees to understand why.
• Goldbricking isn’t inherently passive. Sometimes, it happens because of issues in an employee’s personal life. If a conversation is warranted, HR personnel should avoid assuming that the employee in question is merely “slacking off” because they don’t care about the company or the work. This is often not true.
• A business that implements employee tracking or monitoring software must keep in mind that many employees don’t like the idea of being monitored. Supervisors have to make sure to strengthen trust and understanding between the business and the employees.
• If a business wants employees to respect its time, the leadership team must return the favor and respect each employee’s time as well.

Goldbricking vs. cyberloafing

Goldbricking (otherwise known as cyberslacking) is a term for an employee who doesn’t do their assignments despite looking like they’re working.

Cyberloafing is similar to goldbricking, but specifically refers to personal time spent online through social media, personal shopping, or other non-business related tasks.