How Corporate America Is Fighting Mouse Jigglers, Other Work Faking Tools
NDTV
The cat-and-mouse game -- no pun intended -- has spurred a wider debate in corporate America about whether screentime and the click-clacking of keyboards are effective yardsticks to measure productivity.
A US banking giant fired more than a dozen employees for "simulating keyboard activity," highlighting a battle within productivity-obsessed corporate America to tame a culture of faking work with gizmos such as mouse jigglers.
The sackings by Wells Fargo come as employers use sophisticated tools -- popularly called "tattleware" or "bossware" -- on company-issued devices to monitor productivity in the age of hybrid work that took off after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some workers seek to outsmart them with tools such as mouse movers -- which simulate cursor movement, preventing their devices from going into sleep mode and making them appear active when they may actually be getting a power nap or doing laundry.
