Index – FOMO – Companies have come in, people working from home are avoiding work more and more tricky

You can love or hate working from home, but it is beyond dispute that, in addition to its considerable advantages, the home office also has serious disadvantages. During the pandemic, almost everyone, and subsequently a large number of companies, switched to a hybrid or completely home-based work schedule, so employees who otherwise only sat in front of the computer in the office had the opportunity to create a much better work-life balance by saving unnecessary commuting – even if this is not was realized in all cases.

Of course, this is not particularly surprising, since by staying at home, in addition to the possibility of filling any idle time with useful activities, we can also save a lot of time by avoiding unnecessary chats with colleagues and long tram rides. Of course, this can only work smoothly if the individual departments can smoothly manage the work processes remotely, and for this it is also essential that sitting at home does not only mean that we easily watch our favorite series in a week, but that we actually get our work done. .

In some places, this is unavoidable, as they either expect an immediate response, or at the end of each day there must be a visible result of someone’s work. However, in certain jobs, long-term projects or the sharing of tasks also make it possible to stay away from the machine for a while during the day.

Of course, this doesn’t work everywhere either, since in most places, even with the e-mail provider, a clearly visible little ring shows when someone is actively sitting in front of the machine, but don’t be naive, you can achieve this even if you’re actually spending time on the terrace.

Group dismissals may be the answer to cursor-moving problems

There are more and more mouse buttons and software that don’t let it seem like we’re not currently active and available. There are also those who resort to their own cunning solution, for example to the keyboard different weights are placed, which, in addition to turning off the sticky keys function, type a document for us all day long. However, instead of developing different ideas, it is often more worthwhile to simply complete the tasks entrusted to us.

Because of these clever solutions, most large companies strive even more obsessively to ensure that their employees remain productive even when they work from home, away from the management’s eyes. That’s why no one was particularly surprised when Bloomberg reported this month that that the American multinational financial services provider Wells Fargo fired dozens of employees for simulating keyboard activity, that is, for tricking their machines into showing that they were online.

According to the company’s information, the fired subordinates used the type of cursor movers or touchpads that make small movements even while the person is away from the machine. They were basically started to be used and developed with the aim of preventing the computer from falling asleep during long downloads and uploads, but apparently they can help us almost perfectly in the home office.

According to Wells Fargo, the dismissal of a few dozen people from their approximately 200,000-person team will not affect the assets and commercial indicators of the third largest bank in the United States. The purpose of their decision was to take back control and control and set an example, reports CNN

Does someone who works from home perform worse?

The question of how efficient a home office can be is a concern for many employers, since in addition to the savings associated with employees who are exiled to their homes, the most important thing for companies is to complete the assigned work.

In a Harvard Business Review study, almost 4 out of 10 managers doubted the diligence of home office workers, and they also thought that these subordinates perform worse if they work from home, since there is no one to supervise their work. Of course, all of this may seem absurd, but they are not completely wrong: in a survey by Intuit, more than three quarters of remote workers admitted that they perform at least one personal task during the working day.

It is fundamentally incomprehensible why there is a problem, since a lunch or coffee break in the office takes at least as much time as washing or mopping up, and this is also confirmed by the fact that the majority of employees participating in the survey spend less than 45 minutes on average during working hours on private activities . On the other hand, employers believe that this time can be more than an hour a day, so that there is growing distrust between the parties, which can also knock the first bricks of the home office system out of the wall.

According to a study by the security platform Cerby, only 20 percent of employees fully trust their manager, which paints a rather gloomy picture of the boss-subordinate relationship. Still, this result is not as bad as the Microsoft survey on hybrid work productivity, which found that

Moreover, this level of paranoia has already prompted mistrustful managers to take action, and companies have begun to use various software with which they can monitor the work of subordinates at home. Installed on an employee’s computer or mobile device, these tools can invisibly monitor and, as needed, limit activities that companies deem wasteful, unproductive, or otherwise out of bounds.

Some bossware applications secretly take screenshots of employees’ monitors, while other software can also monitor employee movements and locations. The most extreme apps can remotely control laptop webcams, allowing employers to record live video or audio of employees and their surroundings—a gross invasion of privacy, of course.

Nevertheless, some people would even accept this, if only they could finally work from home.

(Cover photo: Yuliya Taba / Getty Images Hungary)