As a marketing executive for many years, I have observed that business owners sometimes confuse busy work with productive work. For instance, business people will often donate money to help support an event, and then assume they have done their part. The job is not done until the merchant has completed a plan to attract customers to their business. The support in this example happens through being cooperative with community producers of the event. Productivity happens when the merchant buckles down and does everything possible to make a profit from the event.
Busy work is a particularly devastating problem for business people and for organizations.
Many community leaders and supporters become involved in making events successful. All too often, those who are active in producing events focus on the busy work of making the event successful, while non-participants congratulate the doers on how well they have done their busy work. Unfortunately, both groups often fail to promote events vigorously. That omission simply does not cut it economically. The result is often that events are modestly successful and merchants are unhappy with profit results.