“I did no work for a year, and no one noticed”—a viral experiment raising questions about modern work culture

Many of us know that familiar feeling: it’s Sunday afternoon, and as you start to relax, the reality suddenly sinks in: tomorrow is Monday. The week starts all over again with a flood of emails and endless meetings. But Leyla Kazim, who used to work in a corporate job in London and is now a writer and BBC presenter, didn’t just accept it. She took a moment to think it through and asked herself: What if I simply stopped working for a while? Not quit or aim for burnout, but just took a break from it all to see if anyone would even notice.

To her surprise, nobody noticed. She did this for a year, and the lessons she learned during that time offer valuable insights into modern work culture.

What was the experiment?

Kazim dedicated nearly ten years to a corporate job in London, enjoying a good salary, a company car, and all the typical perks. But over time, she started to feel that her work was useless. To test her theory, she decided to stop doing most of her tasks. Surprisingly, her performance didn’t drop. Before her weekly meetings, she would spend just 15 minutes making a report and sending a few emails, presenting herself as if she were making great strides: “I’m making great progress… the stakeholders are on board.” Her manager would nod. “That all sounds great! Carry on.” 

What did Kazim do with all her free time? She meticulously planned ten months of travel using a spreadsheet. Her experiment didn’t end because anyone caught her slacking; instead, she left the job, realizing that her position had never really needed her. She concluded that she had spent a significant part of her life maintaining a facade.

Kazim advised those in similar situations to first accept that their job might not be important. Once you accept that, you can focus on completing important tasks, using your free time for things you enjoy, and then plan your exit strategy. She emphasized that her experiment is meant for those who find themselves with too much spare time, not for those overwhelmed by workloads.

The hardest part of doing work you don’t believe in isn’t just the long hours; it’s the internal struggle it creates over time. Putting on a brave face in meetings week after week can be exhausting, which she called a “spiritual wound.” She encouraged everyone to think that if you have to perform anyway, you might as well do only what’s necessary, freeing up time to work on things that make you happy.

Kazim’s essay also gave voice to those who are forced to overwork. Because on the other end of Kazim’s experience are people who don’t have hours to spare; they’re absorbing the work of colleagues who left and weren’t replaced, working evenings, skipping meals, and telling themselves it’s temporary. For them, the message is about recognizing when work has become unmanageable and making the necessary changes to achieve work-life balance.

What it teaches about modern work culture

Kazim’s experience sheds light on a common issue many people face in their workplace today. Sometimes, people can appear to be doing well without actually producing much work. When job tasks are vague and results are not easy to measure, simply being visible, like giving updates, attending meetings, or being quick to respond, can give the impression that someone is contributing, even if the real work done is minimal.

This isn’t a new observation. In 2018, David Graeber discussed jobs in his book “Bullshit Jobs: A Theory,” in which he explored how employees often wonder whether their work is meaningful. These positions continue to exist not because they yield good results, but because companies are structured around maintaining rules, processes, and hierarchies. Kazim’s experience reflects this issue on a personal level.

A survey by YouGov asked 9,000 Americans about their work. They found that only 55% felt their job was meaningful, while 22% did not. People in fields like healthcare, education, and social services are more likely to feel that their work makes a real difference. On the other hand, those in the wholesale trade industry often feel their work isn’t contributing much. So, how people feel about their job can depend a lot on the type of work they do.

Additionally, this experiment prompts us to consider what work means today, especially as technology and AI take over more jobs. If machines can handle some parts of our jobs, what makes work feel meaningful to us?