---
id: "claim-efficiency-tax-causes-hiding"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["§ Why Employees Keep Quiet"]
tags: ["incentives", "productivity"]
related: ["concept-efficiency-tax", "framework-costs-of-ai-visibility"]
confidence: "high"
testable: true
speakers: ["Eric Anicich", "Jeslyn Brouwers"]
sources: ["execution"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-execution"
originDay: 8
articleStem: "hbr-cl-76-employees-not-transparent-ai-usage"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/why-employees-arent-transparent-about-their-ai-usage"
sourceTitle: "Why Employees Aren’t Transparent About Their AI Usage"
---
# Taxing Efficiency Gains Ensures Employees Keep Their Best AI Methods Private

**Claim (confidence: high, testable):** When employees expect that automating a task will result in management assigning them *more undesirable work* — rather than letting them focus on higher-value projects or enjoy recovered time — they intentionally hide their productivity gains.

**Slogan:** *Faster work rewarded with more work* is a primary driver of shadow AI. The lived experience is captured verbatim in [[quote-efficiency-tax]] ("If I automate A and B... they're gonna make me do D, E, F").

This is the causal engine of [[concept-efficiency-tax]] and constitutes the **Workload Cost** in the [[framework-costs-of-ai-visibility]]. The prescribed remedy is [[action-explicit-saved-time-norms]].

**Enrichment:** Directionally supported by adjacent research on defensive knowledge withholding when employees anticipate workload strain or loss of control — though, as noted for [[concept-efficiency-tax]], the specific 'efficiency tax' label is original to this source.