Rose*, 39, lives in Brooklyn and works in technical support for “a product that doesn’t need to exist,” she says. Her job involves emailing customers for product help, sometimes by simply copying and pasting relevant instructions from internal company documents.
“All I have to do is send a certain number of emails every day,” she said. “I don’t even have a work email on my phone.”
Rose has been working in the industry for the past seven years, having stumbled into it through a temporary job. Previously, she worked as a personal assistant in Hollywood. In this position, she said, she has always worked.
“I didn’t have a life, let alone a work-life balance,” she said.
Her tech support job is completely different than before. She works standard hours, runs errands during the day, calls her sister when things are slow, and doesn't think twice about her work when her shift is over. This gave her the opportunity to have a social life and hobbies, as well as pursue her career as a writer. She had always enjoyed writing books before working in the entertainment industry, and with fewer hours at work, she finally had time to pursue a professional career.
"My identity was completely wrapped up in my previous job. Now, I can have my own identity," she said.
Like many people interviewed for this article, Rose asked that her last name be withheld for privacy reasons. She says she does what people on TikTok and X call "fake email jobs." Based on social media proportions, these roles are often remote, require few hard skills, have little management oversight, and often require little time or effort from the employee. As more people work remotely and more U.S. jobs are being digitized to work less than eight hours a day, more workers may feel like their full-time jobs fit the description.
Hanging out at home and sending a few emails and getting paid seems like a dream job, and sometimes it is. A “fake email job” can give people a breath of fresh air away from more stressful roles, giving them time to pursue their interests, focus on family, or enjoy a full social life. Sometimes it’s nice to not work so hard. But it can also feel unfulfilling and unchallenging at times, especially for those who seek more purpose from their work.
When she gets to work, the pace is a little startlingly slow. "I was like, 'Well, I guess I didn't do anything. Well, I'm just sitting here moving my mouse."
Kate, originally from Texas, spent a decade working in nonprofit fundraising, finding the work rewarding but ultimately “stressful and difficult” due to the long hours, low pay and the need to wear multiple hats. ".
"I was really burned out. This job became my identity; I was working overtime," the 36-year-old said. "I can't do this anymore. It's killing me."
The turning point came when Kate and her common-law partner split up and she found herself footing all the bills, prompting her to seek a higher-paying position. Although she was looking for a higher-level nonprofit position, a friend asked her to apply for an open project manager position in IT, which Kate now holds and thought was a "fake email job." She starts her day at 8 a.m. (her job is on the East Coast), has a few quick meetings and tasks, closes her laptop at 4 p.m. or 4:30 p.m., and calls it a day.
"This is the easiest job I've ever had," she said. "I got a five-figure raise just for changing jobs. It's completely remote; I send emails; I make Teams calls and send Teams chats all day long. It doesn't take a full day to get everything done Eight hours."
When she gets to work, the pace is a little startlingly slow. "I was like, 'Well, I guess I didn't do anything. Well, I'm just sitting here moving my mouse.' That's really what it felt like," she said.
Unlike Ross, Kate feels a bit conflicted. Although her fake email job gave her a chance to recover from burnout, she's passionate about her former career and misses the work that directly impacted people's lives. But she doesn't miss the anxiety, stress and lower wages. Now that she has free time, she can take piano lessons, spend time with friends, actually use her vacation time, and even go on dates, all things she couldn't pursue before because of her preoccupied career.
Despite these benefits, the position isn't perfect. “I’d like to find a way to volunteer where I feel like I’m giving back more, but right now I’m tired,” she added.
"I've spent weeks doing nothing to see how far I can push it, and the only reason I've stopped is because I'm bored, not because I've been asked to do something," Dan said.
Goali Saedi Bocci, a psychologist in private practice, said that for those who need to reduce stress in their professional lives, "fake email jobs" may be helpful temporarily or in other ways.
"It's ideal for people who have high anxiety, a stressful, demanding job and don't have time to focus on personal passions and pursuits, friends or relationships," she says. "In that case, it's like, 'Okay, let's find you some work that might be below your pay grade and ability, but it will at least bring you some income and give you a breather. opportunities and evaluate what the next steps look like.'"
But she warns that while a cushy job may seem ideal, not everyone will benefit from such a role. “No one can fulfill themselves through this kind of work,” she said. "For some people, it's great; for some people, it's great. "For some people, it's soul-sucking. It's not one size fits all. "
Dan*, a video producer in his 30s who also lives in the New York area, falls into the latter category. He has produced videos for various media companies both full-time and on a freelance basis. To avoid media layoffs, Dan turned to marketing—which, ironically, he got fired from—and was unemployed for four months, applying to more than 100 openings until he finally found another marketing position, which he called "my position. The most fake job yet. "
"I've spent weeks doing nothing to see how far I can push it, and the only reason I've stopped is because I'm bored, not because I've been asked to do something," Dan said.
A typical workday for him consists of logging into Slack and Gmail, browsing the internet for fun, running errands, playing video games, or working on his own short films and scripts, mixed in with a few hours of meetings and real work. He found his side job satisfying, but he became frustrated with his actual responsibilities.
He loved being paid well for doing very little work, especially after years of hustling in the media industry. But on the other hand, he said, "We have a life... There are definitely moments where I'm struck by how pointless my day (and life!) is right now, and it's hard not to be depressed."
For some people, a "fake email job" is the difference between life and death.
Some people find their "fake email job" an opportunity to de-stress; for others, it's anxiety-inducing. In Lily*'s last social media role, she had few daily tasks and felt like her manager didn't know what her job was supposed to be, so she made her own schedule and sometimes just "typed something into Slack" to this until. While the 36-year-old New Yorker liked the relatively cushy, poorly managed job, she didn't realize her job would be so lax, and she worried she should be performing higher.
"Some of my goals and [key performance indicators] were very unclear, and I found myself asking for more challenging work," she said. "Partly because I was bored and partly because I wanted to prove that I was above and beyond."
Lilly said she "begged for someone to manage" and was constantly worried that because her job was so nebulous, the company would deem her unnecessary and fire her — which it did, just a year and a half into her tenure. . But she still hopes for similar performances in the future.
"I wanted to do something small, have a pension, go to the dentist," she said.
For some people, a "fake email job" is the difference between life and death. Bethany*, 36, is an artist but makes a living working in sales for a large company. Most of her responsibilities are completed remotely; much of her day is spent talking to internal and external people about various products and services. Bethany has been working in sales for the past two decades; she began her career in her native United States, where health insurance was primarily tied to employment and for her, a full-time job was a necessity. Selling, she says, feels like a relatively easy way to reap the full benefits without having to learn any additional hard skills.
"When I graduated college, I really needed health insurance because I had chronic illnesses that were expensive and I was taking life-sustaining medications," she said. “I dreamed of becoming an artist, but my main concern was getting health insurance as soon as possible.”
She accepted her current job in London a few years ago, partly to have access to nationalized healthcare. Bethenny still writes and creates art, although she says she never got to a point in her art career where she could afford her medication without a full-time job. Her “fake email job” allows her to continue working on her projects — though she points out it’s not as easy as some of her artist friends think.
“One of the biggest misconceptions among my creative friends is that there is a logoff time,” she says. "My schedule is more flexible, if I want to go to a spin class or something at 8 a.m., I can. [But] at the same time, when I'm on vacation, I'm usually still on the phone."
For most people interviewed for this article, the “fake email job” helped them separate their work from their inner sense of self. Botsch said tying your identity to your job is a uniquely Western concept. "So much of our identity is tied to our careers. 'I am this,' 'I do that,'" she said. "It's like we don't take advantage of our vacation days, while other countries take a whole month off in the summer. . "
"As long as your mental health is good and you're able to handle other things, it's absolutely fine to work in a job that doesn't matter to you," she said. “Ultimately, work is part of a meaningful life, but it is not the only element of life.”
*Name has been changed.
Interviewed experts:
Goali Saedi Bocci, practicing psychologist in private practice
