Faking Keystrokes

You may have read a recent news story about Wells Fargo employees getting fired for allegedly simulating keyboard activity. Well, they aren’t the only remote workers using mouse jigglers to pretend to work when they aren’t. One would assume that someone faking keystrokes must be doing something other than their job, yet that isn’t always the case. This growing trend began when employers lost trust in their employees and started using tracking software to gauge their work-from-home activities. The employees being monitored are aware their every keystroke is being counted because for the tracking software to work it must first be installed on the device. In most cases, the employee is the one responsible for downloading the software to their company computer. 

It’s human instinct for someone who knows they’re being monitored to feel the need to do more than what is necessary. Office workers take bathroom breaks and go to lunch but someone being tracked while working remotely may feel the need to use a mouse jiggler to fake keystrokes whenever they take a break. Readers who work from home will agree, working remotely means less distractions giving us the ability to get more work done in less time. I wrote “we” because I work remotely as a freelance digital marketer for 30 clients and manage to create large quantities of unique content during a 32-hour work week without utilizing AI. How? I have complete control over my environment and can focus without interruptions. 

The irony is that employers hope to increase productivity by tracking employee activity online but the psychological effect of being monitored has been shown to negatively impact mental health which can negatively impact productivity. It’s understandable that companies want to install security software on company devices to track the device location in case of theft, but there should be a limit to what they monitor. It’s one thing to ensure your employees aren’t surfing social media on a company computer during work hours but it’s another entirely to count keystrokes.