🗞️ Fauxductivity

Good morning!

When I got my first job in communications with the provincial government, words can’t describe to you how little work I did in the run of a day. The only thing less than my salary were my responsibilities, so motivation to actually do anything was negligible.

Still, I worked very hard to create the illusion of productivity. I set my computer screen to never go to sleep, so it looked like I was always “around,” and I would do brisk walks through the office, waving around some sort of “important” document. Everyone knows if you hang out by the printer, you’re working hard.

Back then, the term we used for this behaviour was “lazy.” But now that Gen Z is talking about it on Tiktok, it has a more formal name—“task-masking”—and apparently it’s a real problem for many organizations. According to a Global Human Workplace Index survey, 48% of managers said that faking activity is a common issue.

Task masking—also known as “fauxductivity”—refers to when office employees find ways to make it look like they’re extremely busy working on something. Examples of task masking include typing furiously and loudly on the computer, walking fast with your laptop in tow around the workplace, wearing headphones all day or staring intensely at the screen for hours while dissociating.

Many think it was Gen Z—the generation born between the late ‘90s and early 2010s—who conceived it. But Gervase Bushe—a professor at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business—says it’s been around for more than 40 years.

I would argue this has been around since the dawn of humanity. Just picturing a young cave woman in a pencil skirt pretending to be engrossed in Legislative TV while actually watching old episodes of 16 and Pregnant on MTV.com 👀

Hope your day is as pro/fauxductive as possible!

– Julie

📷 @editorjulesl

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

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🚗 Driving, biking or busing today? Check out the current traffic conditions and ongoing road closures.

ARTS + CULTURE

Trump threatened this trans comic’s visa—now she’s coming to Halifax

Ava Val might well be one of Canada’s funniest touring comics. The 36-year-old Drag Heals star and former This Hour Has 22 Minutes writer has won over crowds on CBC’s The New Wave of Standup and at Just For Laughs, San Francisco’s Sketchfest and the Ha!ifax Comedy Fest, among a slew of other festival stages.

A gifted impressionist with a love for over-the-top, physical comedy, the veteran Toronto-born comedian has started tackling a new topic these days: Life as a trans woman. Val transitioned in her thirties, just before the COVID-19 pandemic put live performances on hold. The change has given her “so much to say,” Val says, speaking by video with The Coast.

“To some people, it may be repetitive or redundant, or ‘that’s all Ava talks about is the trans thing.’ To that I say, ‘Yeah, of course.’ I mean, I’m going through these massive changes… and we are an actively persecuted, discriminated-against group of people… It kind of writes itself.”

Val is bringing her stand-up show back to Halifax next month. And as The Coast’s Martin Bauman reports, with a transphobic Trump administration south of the Canada-US border spurring renewed debate about gender identity, her message couldn’t be timelier.

🤔 Need To Know

💊 Nova Scotia Health is warning the public about a strong synthetic opioid found for the first time in the province—the health authority describes N-Pyrrolidino metonitazene as “two times more powerful than fentanyl.”

🎶 March is for Music! Enjoy FREE live music in Downtown Halifax all month long with this new music series from Downtown Halifax Business Commission.*

🇨🇦 Canada’s government announced $29.8B in retaliatory tariffs in response to the 25% steel and aluminum tariffs that US trade terrorist Donald Trump has levelled—foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly says “we need to fight back.”

🎟️ Early Bird Tickets for OutFest, the largest Queer performance festival in Mi'kma'ki / Atlantic Canada, ends this Sunday, March 16th! Theatre, dance, music and more!*

💡 A large power outage impacted Dartmouth Wednesday morning—about 6,000 customers in an area bordered by Main Street and Portland Street, stretching into Cole Harbour, were affected.

*Sponsored Post

SPONSORED BY FAT JULIET: A SLEEPOVER ROMP

FAT JULIET comes back to Dartmouth following sold out 2021 premiere

Filled with all the joy and teenage angst of a first love, FAT JULIET is the award-winning new play from Stevey Hunter.

Says local treasure Tara Thorne: “FAT JULIET pillow-fights overdone trends into a gloriously contemporary, deeply self-aware total fucking riot. Where so many Shakespeare productions often still feel like homework, FAT JULIET takes a sizzle reel of Romeo and Juliet's key moments and sets them atop a four-poster bed, threading in hip hop choreo, Billie Eilish jams, and selfies for a show that's as unabashedly playful as it is surprisingly gentle.”

FAT JULIET runs March 20th to 29th at Alderney Landing in Downtown Dartmouth. PWYC tickets are on sale now, starting at $20.

NEWS

Things aren’t looking good for our Halifax byelection

The race to replace MP-turned-mayor Andy Fillmore has been a bit of a Coast obsession. First we wondered how long the federal Liberals would wait before calling the byelection for the Halifax riding seat. (As long as they legally could, it turned out.) When it was finally called, we laid out the race between candidates Mark Boudreau (Conservative Party), Shannon Miedema (Liberal Party) and Lisa Roberts (NDP), even as we warned that the national Liberal leadership race might interfere with things out east.

Now that Mark Carney (pictured above left) has been chosen as our prime minister designate, prepping to take over from Justin Trudeau, the national scene is threatening even more to get in the way of Halifax’s byelection. Political pundits are pushing Carney to call a general election soon, before parliament even starts up again on March 24. And political common sense (if that isn’t an oxymoron) says Carney should do it. 

But right now in all of Canada, the only federal politicians who are actively running for office are in Halifax (above right). So we decided to get their unique perspective on the general election question, because it very much matters to them. If a general election call comes before the April 14 byelection voting day, the byelection is immediately wiped off the political map. 

The Coast’s Kyle Shaw asked the three Halifax candidates a very simple question about general election timing. And to his pleasant surprise, he got two very simple answers back.

🗞️ In Other News

🇺🇸 Nova Scotia’s premier is taking another trip south of the border—the provincial government says Tim Houston will be in New York and Boston this week and next, to discuss trade and the impact of tariffs.

🛰️ Meteorologists and scientists in Atlantic Canada are concerned about cuts to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration—saying they rely on US data and expertise.

⚠️ The HRM says a gas leak in Halifax’s west end has now been resolved—Eastward Energy posted to social media that a third-party had damaged one of its lines in the area. 

🎤 JUNO Award-winning artist Jeremy Dutcher says he’s withdrawing his eight nominations from the East Coast Music Awards in solidarity with other musicians who are boycotting the event.

🥼 Advocates are speaking out about Nova Scotia’s breast-screening policies after the federal health minister temporarily paused the work of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care—opting for an external expert review.

🏢 Post-secondary students living in residence at the Atlantic School of Theology were shocked by a letter from administration last week outlining a 25% rent increase for residence rooms starting in September.

SPONSORED BY CROWTHER & BRAYLEY LTD.

Tony Saulnier Estate Collection Auction

BIDDING OPENS – FRIDAY, MARCH 14
See catalogue.

Nova Scotia artists, many exhibited, 120 lots, Nova Scotia pottery including Walter Ostrom, Taylor, Donovan, Smith, Lorenzen, jewellery, Nova Scotian 18th & 19th century furniture, teak furniture, decorative items.

Register and bid here.
Crowther & Brayley Ltd.
902-860-0111
[email protected]

🗓️ Things To Do

Looking for something to do this week? Check out these Coast picks:

🗓 Our Lady Peace 30th Anniversary Tour With Collective Soul: In celebration of their 30-year career, iconic Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace has announced their highly anticipated OLP30 Tour, kicking off in February 2025 with shows across Canada, including the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax. | March 13 | 7pm | From $56

🗓 Aysanabee Now and Then Tour: Join two-time JUNO Award-winning Oji-Cree artist Aysanabee (Ace-in-abbey) on his first-ever Canadian headlining tour. For more info, check out Martin Bauman’s Coast story | March 13 | 8pm | $34.55

🗓 Improv Party Show—Fancy Edition: The seasoned improvisers will make up wacky scenarios based on your suggestions. Watch them compete in games, do challenges to win over the audience and get you laughing. | March 13 | 7:30pm | $15

Have an event to share? Let us know at [email protected].

👀 In Case You Missed It

👩‍🦼 A popular lecture series that began in January at the University of King's College will soon conclude. Called “Representations of Disability in Historical, Scientific and Artistic Perspectives,” this original series of public talks has brought together leading disability scholars, researchers, writers, and artists to examine how ideas of “disability” and “normality” are represented in art, science, philosophy, and activism. Now, the first three lectures are available to watch, and there’s one talk left. 

🏛️ Halifax’s budget season is closing, and there is nothing left to do but cry. Our newly elected city council is putting the finishing touches on their first municipal budget, which is clocking in at $1.3 billion. The fate of most of that money is settled—call that the budget regular season—but there are still some decisions to make. For a preview of Halifax’s budget playoffs and the folly of mayor Fillmore’s tax cut, The Coast’s Matt Stickland has more in his budget season report.

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