Wells Fargo fires lazy WFH employees for "simulating keyboard activity"

This is precisely why employers are ending working from home, and I say good riddance!

We all knew they were just goofing off any way.

No wonder the lazy assholes were so against coming back into the office.

[quote] I say good riddance

Who cares what you say, R1? Many jobs can be done remotely and will continue to be. Sorry that chaps your ass as you cheer on banks.

Yep. There's plenty of people who can handle this like adults. Let them and fire those who can't.

Shouldn't you be shopping on Amazon while pretending to work, R2?

Didn't WF get caught stealing money from depositors recently?

Funny that they are claiming any moral high ground given their own behaviours.

R1. What is wrong with this company that they can’t detect unproductive employees? If I don’t produce anything in my job, it would be noticed.

The problem isn’t work from home.(you can also be unproductive in the office) but over-hiring and poor performance management.

Shouldn't you be working instead of arguing on Datalounge, R4?

If you pay attention to job postings they are slowly changing remote work through attrition. A position held by a remote worker becomes available and the new job req is for Hybrid or Onsite. Remote work is not here to stay at all. Fewer and fewer companies will have any full time remote workers in a few years. I know people hate hearing that. But the trend speaks for itself.

"Forbes Magazine says its finding 23% fewer listings for full-time remote work than in the Spring of 2023. Instead, many companies have shifted to hybrid work, with four days in the office and one or two days each week at home. Even some school districts are moving to a four day school week, with Mondays remote"

A big yawn for the crusading Socialist at R2.

It is so frustrating to call a business only to get connected to some yahoo working from home, who insists on putting me on hold so they watch Days of Our Lives.

Homer really was ahead of his time

Please explain the connection between remote work and socialism r9. I'm going to throw some popcorn in the microwave for this one.

I called my health insurance company last week. The person who took my call couldn't get her dog to stop barking. Do they not have mute buttons? Whatever the case, she was clueless and gave me wrong information. She asked if I wanted to take the survey at the end of the call regarding the service she provided. Why yes, yes I do want to take the survey! She's not going to like how I scored her....

Whenever I hear "socialist" I know I'm dealing with some fucking MAGAt.

Lol R9.

So true.

Gee - I really want to work for a company that monitors my keyboard usage. That sounds like a really nice place to work!

Wrong, R8.

Popcorn's popped and still waiting r9.

[quote] Gee - I really want to work for a company that monitors my keyboard usage. That sounds like a really nice place to work!

Why, yes.

They should just pay you, and never monitor any of your work. Ever.

Just leave you to your own devices, and trust you completely to do the right thing.

And of course, pay you based on "trust."

You sound like an idiotic Gen Z moron.

You should consider anything you do on company equipment monitored.

I've used a mouse jiggler. It's not because I'm lazy. It's because the workflow at my job isn't a steady stream. Some days I'm swamped and glued to the computer. Other days, I have literally nothing to do. On those days, when I'm home, I use the jiggler so I don't look "away" for long periods while I take care of laundry or cooking. If something does come in, I see it on my phone and go back to the computer. Frankly, that's one of the pluses of working from home--being able to do other things when it's slow. I was in the office earlier this week on a slow day and it was extremely painful trying to kill 8 hours while just sitting there.

If the fired employees were meeting their performance metrics, I think the company has crappy performance metrics. Why aren’t the people who actually work not outperforming them? Why was this problem detectable only through monitoring of key strokes?

"Popcorn's popped and still waiting [R9]......

Shouldn't a fattie like you avoid high calorie snacks like popcorn?

I'll avoid the popcorn when you stop avoiding the question, Einstein.

Braintrust R22 doesn't know popcorn is actually a low-calorie snack that's high in fiber.

R16 Ha. Not sure a Blog called "Remote" that is dedicated to remote working is the best source for information about the shift back to hybrid and onsite. SMDH

What would you care to refute in that, R25--with receipts, of course?

It's curious that there are some old queens here so devoted to the idea of slogging into an office every day--maybe because they're looking at their own sad situations and want that to be everyone else's. Sorry, Grampas, but it's a new world out there.

I'm glad my region requires companies to offer people the option to work remote if they can, by law.

[quote] 90% of companies say they’ll return to the office by the end of 2024

The debate over whether or not to return to the office is far from settled — and yet, the push to get employees back to the office is getting more aggressive.

Goldman Sachs wants employees in five days a week. Google is factoring employees’ in-office attendance into their performance reviews.

A whopping 90% of companies plan to implement return-to-office policies by the end of 2024, according to an Aug. report from Resume Builder, which surveyed 1,000 company leaders. Nearly 30% say their company will threaten to fire employees who don’t comply with in-office requirements.

Only 2% of business leaders said their company never plans to require employees to work in person.

The renewed push to end remote work comes as more CEOs openly acknowledge their disdain for the model, arguing that productivity, collaboration and employee engagement all suffer without the office.

“It’s easier for executives to hold on to the old notion that people are really working if they can see them down the hall,” says Dan Kaplan, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry. “It’s almost too hard for some leaders to comprehend a world where that option doesn’t exist, or to consider a radical new approach.”

And yet here you are, R27, goofing off on an internet message board when you should be "working from home."

Lol R30.

I love when someone fires off a good burn!

What makes you think I have to work, R30?

You call that a good burn, R31? More like a fart.

[quote]Whenever I hear "socialist" I know I'm dealing with some fucking MAGAt.

"Woke" is another giveaway.

I worked entirely from home for more than 20 years, a position hard won in the late 1990s after having balanced projects between six departments and six bosses for a couple of years. In those 20+ years, working from home went from a one-day a week novelty to standard, with only about 5% of my colleagues not working at home at least one day a week and many working from home full-time.

The measurement of whether someone was well suited for WFH wasn't the number of mouse jiggles per minute, or being seated at your desk at 08.30, or answering a call or message within minutes or seconds. Instead the measurement of an employeeś success was measured by him meeting deadlines for completion of projects. A project of X size and Y complexity and Z variables would be estimated as work as doable in 5 days or 5 weeks or 5 months. Longer projects were the subject of a weekly checkpoint and intermediate reviews, and, when a boss some any doubt that things were progressing as reported, he could check shared files and see that the quantity and quality of work were progressing as planned.

I know many people in other sorts of work for other employers of various types and it's always the same: deadlines, checkpoints, open communication are the ways success is measured. In the first decade I was always attentive to working normal business hours to match those of my company's location, but over the years that became less important as half of the people on project teams that I supervised were spread across 10 timezones. We adjusted easily. Over that time there were a few people who needed more attention to ensure that their work progress was in order, and only a couple of people who, for whatever reasons, fell behind and turned their attentions to other things -- just as happens sometimes with a colleague in the office down the hall. They either get back on track or are asked to leave, just as happens with people working 5 days a week in an office.

People who work from home have to be organized and attentive to schedules and delivering good work or they get fired. Itś more difficult to slide by on charm or generosity in bringing in delicious cakes to the coffee room when you work remotely. You fuck up a deadline and all eyes turn to you. It doesn't become a pattern because you don't allow it to go on for long.

It's simple: jobs suited for WFH are jobs where a qualified and disciplined employee can deliver what's expected of him on time, every time. It's not about number of keystrokes plotted to show patterns of hours worked -- the example of R20 who sometimes did nothing one day but more than made up for the time and work on other days.

What kind of work is it that people have where they have no expectation of completing something within a certain time frame? You can plot that out for a CEO as easily as for his employees with the least salary and responsibility.

They were actually fired for not opening enough fake bank accounts.

But how dare they cheat their overlord, the completely honest and scrupulous Wells Fargo Bank!

I was remote for 4 years and just retired from the corporate game. My former company is now making everyone come in 3 days a week. Rumors that 4 days is net. But I think that will really piss everyone off. They'll end up going in because well paying tech jobs are hard to come by.

[quote]Devices and software to imitate employee activity, sometimes known as “mouse movers” or “mouse jigglers"

[bold]Just an FYI: Plug your mouse-jiggler into a SEPARATE usb power source -- Don't plug it into a usb on the computer you're using - that's one way they can tell you've deployed one[/bold]

Show me how to "simulating keyboard activity."

I had to Google mouse jiggler. Never heard of this before.

[quote] Don't plug it into a usb on the computer you're using

This is obvious if it’s a work issued computer. But what if it’s your personal computer and you log into your work via VPN?

And never recharge your butt plug/vibrator on company owned property.

If it's your own personal computer, they cannot install spyware. And most companies have spyware on all their company owned computers. I've been working from home since 2020, have always made my deadlines and far exceed my colleagues in my output and quality. There are some days where work is slower than usual and I'm so grateful I don't have to sit at a desk in an office monitored by cameras and some mouth breathing, bitter, old queen HR person who has nothing to do all day but try to catch employees not working for a few minutes a day. On those slow days, I can throw a load of laundry in, do my dishes, etc. My work still gets done and my boss is happy and I'm happy.

Employers should require cameras on the computers of their WFH employees so that they can visually monitor them, just like they would in the office.

That way, if an employee if goofing off or fucking around, they can clearly see it from the main office and then fire that person.

It would also require the employee to dress for the job.

R45 = rage farmer 👨‍🌾😡

r45 is a bootlicking idiot. No employer has a right to monitor you in your own home on your own computer. Perhaps you'd enjoy living in Russia.

Damn, how did DL get all "Yay Corporate Overlords! More! Love Them!! Especially Evil Banks!!!"

[quote]It would also require the employee to dress for the job.

I can't believe people still adhere to this outdated nonsense. Didn't Silicon Valley kill this ridiculous notion over twenty years ago?

It's less about submitting to corporate overlords and more about preserving a really beneficial way of working for many people.

Who are those people, r50? The bosses?

Suck it.

Once again: 😡👨‍🌾

Someone who is worthless at home is probably going to be worthless in an office, if maybe in a different way, but worthless nonetheless.

I love the rage farmer.

Mouse jugglers can be used for other reasons than avoiding work. My in-office desktop will go for about 25 minutes without shutting down. My WFH laptop about 5 minutes. I assume IT set the shortened time for security reasons since it’s likely a non-employee could walk by and see something confidential or maybe to ensure workers are in front of their computers. I’ve stepped away to make a cup of coffee and come back to a logged out computer. Having to go through hassle of signing in multiple times during the day might be a selling point.

I had a feeling everyone was cosplaying

[quote]Whenever I hear "socialist" I know I'm dealing with some fucking MAGAt.

Even better is "Marxist."

Here's a good one: Attorney's (the expensive ones) tell their company clients don't use keyboard monitors.

The reason? Let's say employee X checks their bank balance (which the company is OK with). The monitor just captured the password.

Well, you say, the employee signed a document that said 'I'm OK with the company electronically monitoring me'. So dumb companies think they are covered.

Well, no they aren't. Why? Because the agreement the employee signed with the bank (remember, the company said it's ok, so the company is on the hook with the employee/bank agreement) explicitly says that the bank owns the password as intellectual property. Isn't that clever?

And the company just stole the banks property. Chase et al are very aggressive about this.

Unless you work for Hot Dog on A Stick or as a character at Disneyland, there's no "dressing for the job anymore.