You may have seen these “loud working” types. That is someone who is always announcing how hard they are working, how valuable they are and how important they are to the organization’s success.

Loud working is when people make a show of how busy and hardworking they are, like posting about long hours, talking up their workload, or sending messages at odd times so others notice. It’s often a reaction to job insecurity or remote work, where people worry their effort will go unseen and feel pressure to prove their value.

It’s different from “Working out loud,” which means openly sharing your progress and ideas so others can learn and collaborate, but loud working is more about appearing productive than actually being productive.

Loud working among Baboons

In unstable societies where dominance must be reasserted again and again, the dominant individuals carry the highest stress. Robert Sapolsky has studied baboons for decades. He traced social stress in baboons to four sources: low control and predictability, too few outlets after a stressor, too little social support, and the constant need to reassert dominance.

He explains, “When we worry or experience stress, our body turns on the same physiological responses that an animal does, but we usually do not turn off the stress-response in the same way—through fighting, fleeing, or other quick actions.  Over time, this chronic activation of the stress-response can make us literally sick.

Four loud-working behaviors explained

1. Grabbing high-visibility projects. This is much like the dominant baboon reasserting his rank. It works for a while, then demands another display. The alpha male has to keep the lower ranked baboons in check by show of power. Telling others about the high visibility projects tells others that you are in the same camp as the alpha male.
2. Instant Replies and posting on social media. Grooming is a visible way for a baboon to show loyalty and earn favor from powerful troop members. Loud working is a visible way for employees to show commitment and gain approval from bosses. It is more for social standing than for doing the actual task itself. The post calms you (briefly), then you need the next one. In a survey of 1,000 US workers, 84% used immediate replies to messages as a visibility tactic.
3. AI fluency theater. This is a new kind of rank display where AI fluency is signaled to dominate. Early adopters show off fluency to claim a higher rank in the troop.

How to calm the uncertainty

People cope better when they have an outlet for frustration, some control over the stressor, the ability to predict it, and social connection. (Sapolsky, Stress and Your Body)

• Buy predictability. Ask your manager, “What will matter most in this role a year from now?” Then set reply windows, eg twice a morning, so your day has a shape.
• Claim one lever of control. Each Monday, write down one outcome you fully own that week. Finishing it tells your stress system you still have agency.
• Build a support circle. Meet two or three peers monthly to compare notes on what is changing. Shared uncertainty shrinks.

Earn visibility through usefulness

• Judgment: Ask your team, “What slows you down most?” Fix one small thing and share what you learned. Share one decision a month: what you noticed, what you chose, what happened. Show how your hard-won judgment improves AI output, eg reviewing what the tool missed. That is your edge over the machine.
• Relationships: Offer reverse mentoring on AI tools to a senior colleague. You gain a sponsor while you teach. Ask people in other teams to describe your contribution. Each conversation puts your name in front of a new sponsor.
• Narrative: Write one sentence on why you chose this work. Use it when you introduce yourself. Anchor your story in purpose. Your job title may change, so let your “why” carry you. Meaning matters hugely.

When work is done to add value, eg instead of using AI fluency for self-promo, use it to teach others. That will gain you real visibility and goodwill from multiple sources. That beats tooting your own horn anyday.

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