Definition of busywork in English:

noun

• Work that keeps a person busy but has little value in itself.

  Example sentences

  • ‘They will do better at them and not resent you for filling their lives with meaningless busywork.’
  • ‘And who wants to do all that busywork copying those down?’
  • ‘Leave the group writing to the management consulting firms with armies of newly minted Harvard-educated graduates who need to do a ton of busywork so that they can justify their huge fees.’
  • ‘Why do teachers insist on assigning pointless busywork during a break?’
  • ‘All went smoothly as I enrolled in my new school and managed to survive another grueling semester of busywork and tests.’
  • ‘Then again, to be fair, the American Senate has always been made up of such busywork of the ambitious on their way onto the pages of history.’
  • ‘Also contributing to this busywork is the fact that the relative priority of the shortfalls changes as well.’
  • ‘In terms of volunteering, the majority of opportunities currently available to seniors consist mostly of busywork - envelope-stuffing and pushing hospital carts - says Freedman.’
  • ‘But while I was working on some random busywork that my awful Algebra teacher had assigned, he tapped my shoulder. ‘Umm… could you tell me where this room is?’’
  • ‘The provision of aid became an excuse for doing nothing, a kind of busywork that governments undertook so they could avoid decisive political and military action.’
  • ‘A consent decree's busywork would only drain resources away from his effort to tighten management controls.’
  • ‘All this is busywork that keeps us from our goal.’
  • ‘Sometimes, maybe most of the time, they seem like busywork.’
  • ‘If a person overcome with emotion is not essential to the task at hand, sometimes the best solution is to give him some busywork to focus on.’
  • ‘Stoll writes by telling stories, creating visions of creative, messy, hands-on education being displaced by sterile virtual busywork.’
  • ‘Even after completing this process, reps still faced everyday busywork that hampered productivity and got in the way of sales.’
  • ‘Again, I think a certain amount of work is good for you: it gives you the discipline to do all that busywork that being creative involves.’
  • ‘Clients who do already watch movies will interpret film assignments as busywork and will not comply with the assignment.’
  • ‘Burying yourself in busywork is an effective way to avoid more important - and more challenging - tasks.’
  • ‘All too often, we get lost in busywork simply because it's easier.’