November 29, 2024 – A recent study conducted by Stanford University, involving over 50,000 software engineers from hundreds of companies, has revealed a surprising statistic: approximately 9.5% of these professionals are categorized as “phantom employees.” These individuals, despite holding positions within their respective companies, exhibit extremely low productivity levels—barely reaching one-tenth of the average and making virtually no substantial contributions to their teams, while still receiving full salaries.
The study indicates that these “phantom employees” often have a remarkable ability to seamlessly integrate into the fabric of organizational structures, thereby avoiding undue attention. Research suggests that some of these individuals may be engaged in “multiple employment,” meaning they work simultaneously for multiple companies, dividing their attention and effort among various roles.
Interestingly, the research found that remote workers are more likely to fall into the “phantom employee” category (14%), compared to those in a hybrid work model (9%), and finally, those working fully in-office, who have the lowest percentage (6%).
Researchers highlight that tracking code submissions can serve as a method to identify these “phantom employees.” While acknowledging that it’s not a flawless metric, it does provide insights into employees’ activity levels. The findings show that about 58% of employees submit code more than once a month, whereas the remaining 42% make only minor changes, such as editing a single line or character, which could be interpreted as merely “pretending to work.”
It’s noteworthy that large technology companies are significantly impacted by this issue. For instance, it is estimated that IBM has 17,100 engineers who are not performing well, costing the company $2.5 billion annually.
The study authors posit that if these large technology companies were to terminate the 9.5% of “phantom employees,” they could potentially save billions of dollars. Furthermore, if these savings were converted into profits without incurring additional costs, the market value of the 12 companies that fired these inefficient engineers would increase by $465 billion.
