(Washington) Wells Fargo Bank recently fired about a dozen employees in the United States for “simulating computer keyboard activity.” An example of productivity-obsessed corporate America's desire to go after supposedly lazy people in the age of remote work.
Some companies are now pursuing technologies aimed at faking work and using sophisticated “chatter” tools to do so — short for “chatter” and “software.”
These tools, which have been in high demand since the pandemic, are installed on company computers and track employee productivity, by monitoring computer desk, keyboard activity or even GPS location.
The magazine reported that a marketing company based in Florida installed a program on its computers that takes screenshots every 10 minutes Harvard Business Review.
But some employees seek to circumvent these whistleblowers by using other tools, such as simulating mouse movement and thus preventing the computer from going into sleep mode. The goal: to appear active in the eyes of the hierarchy while engaging in activities that are often unrelated to work.
advice
“Tutorials” on TikTok or YouTube teach you how to appear artificially active, for example through fake PowerPoint presentations “when you need to take a nap.”
“Just tap ‘slideshow’ and you’re good to go,” says Xu Dewan, an influencer who introduces himself as “a former recruiter who shares HR secrets,” in a TikTok video that has been viewed several million times. .
Another tip frequently given in these tutorials: Open your word processor and place a lock on any key on your keyboard. The employee appears active to the monitoring tools while the sheet is filled with the same letter row after row.
But the most popular tool remains the Mouse Tool, which is available for purchase for around ten dollars.
“Press the button when you get up from your desk and the cursor will move randomly around the screen – for hours if necessary!”, enthuses a user in a product review on Amazon.
However, the risk of being caught is still high.
In a post on the social media network Reddit, an employee says he was fired when his manager discovered he was using a mouse movement simulator.
Pointing out that he used software for this simulation, some netizens in the comments suggested using an “undetectable” tool.
“graduation”
According to HR professionals, this cat-and-mouse game has given rise to “staged productivity,” where the employee sometimes theatrically pretends to be active.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the evolution of remote work, is measuring time spent in front of a screen and the number of mouse “clicks” an effective tool for measuring productivity?
In a poll reported by a newspaper Harvard Business ReviewCompanies point out that secretly monitoring employees can backfire harshly against employers.
“We found that monitored employees were more likely to take unapproved breaks, damage office property, steal equipment, and intentionally work at a slow pace” than those who were not monitored, the review says.
For AJ Mizes, president of a career consulting firm, the use of activity simulators indicates a “work culture that focuses more on performance indicators than on constructive productivity and human relationships.”
“Rather than stimulating innovation and trust, this surveillance approach will only push employees to find new ways to appear busy,” the executive asserts to AFP, criticizing the “worrying trend of excessive surveillance.”
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