A lot of companies are urging their employees to return to the office for work after remote work was implemented during the pandemic. Part of the reason is because employee productivity can be monitored more easily. The latest discoveries by Wells Fargo show that employees do have clever ways of faking productivity.
Employees Fired for Using 'Mouse-Movers'
Employers monitoring the computers of their workers to see if their employees are productive is not uncommon, but apps and software with this capability have been more widely adopted during the pandemic since staffers have no choice but to work from their homes.
Even as the pandemic has died down, some companies still allow remote work, and they are using the mentioned monitoring apps that base productivity on mouse movements. Workers have found clever ways to trick the software through devices or other software.
It would autonomously move cursers to trigger keyboard entries even if they are not in their workstation but like all technologies, monitoring services have gone through updates that can detect when mouse movers are being used as well, as reported by The Verge.
Previously just detecting movement, certain software can now detect patterns even if the mouse mover seems to create random movements. Wells Fargo caught over a dozen employees doing this trick, which resulted in the involved workers getting fired.
It's unclear whether the employees in question were working in the office or remotely, but it's likely the latter especially when the mouse mover in use is hardware instead of installed software. The employees who were fired worked under Wells Fargo's wealth- and investment-management unit.
In time, there might be more clever ways to fake productivity in the workplace, whether it's at home or in the office, so much so that the current software won't be able to detect patterns. However, the same level of advancement can also be implemented with monitoring software.
There's more than one downside to this situation. Other than the employees being fired, whether they deserve it or not, it also hurts the case of those who do honest work remotely but are being forced to go back to an on-site work setup.
Companies Mandating On-Site Work
Now that the pandemic has gone way down since its height, companies believe there is no need for the remote setup anymore. Several have reasoned that an on-site presence creates a better environment for its workers, but that's not the case for all employees.
Some companies like IBM have even made it mandatory to abide by the hybrid setup, to the point that they told employees to either return to the office or resign. Managers have to be in-office with a minimum of three days per week, as per CNBC.
Back in December 2023, 800 business leaders participated in a poll, which resulted in eight out of 10 saying that they would track employee office attendance this year, and about 95% said that uncooperative staffers would suffer consequences if they failed to comply.
