Are employees more efficient in person or working remotely? This is one of the questions asked by many companies, particularly banks, which traditionally require daily presence in branches. To find out more, Wells Fargo, an American bank, investigated some of its employees whom it suspected of not working when they were remote, according to information from the Financial Times.
The third largest bank in the United States in terms of assets realized that they were trying to fool their managers “into believing that they were working when that was not the case”. She made the decision to fire a dozen employees who allegedly sought to “create the impression of active work by simulating activity on their computer keyboard.”
The offending employees were all attached to the bank’s Investment and Wealth Management divisions and most of them had recently joined the company, except for one who had worked there for seven years.
A mouse movement simulator?
A spokesperson for the bank declined to provide further details on the layoffs, according to CNN, saying only that “Wells Fargo holds its employees to the highest standards and does not tolerate unethical behavior.” Many devices or software used to simulate computer mouse movement and thus prevent computers from going into sleep mode. Called “mouse jigglers”, they are easily purchased commercially for a few euros and are supposedly “undetectable”.
Wells Fargo states on its site that it favors flexible working, and says that employees have the option to “work from home on some days and in the office on other days.” In the United States, teleworking is becoming less and less popular, particularly in the banking sector.
As the Financial Times points out, banks were the first to require their employees to return to the office at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Finra (Financial Industry Regulatory Authrity), an organization that regulates the banking sector, recently demanded that banks better regulate the working conditions of their employees.