US banking giant Wells Fargo has fired dozens of employees following claims that they were faking keyboard activity to fool the company into thinking they were working when actually they were not, reveals BBC.
In a statement, Wells Fargo said staff had been fired or had resigned “after review of allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating impression of active work”.
“Wells Fargo holds employees to the highest standards and does not tolerate unethical behaviour,” it added.
The investigation was conducted when new rules recently came into effect in the US, according to which brokers working from home must be inspected every three years.
However, is not yet clear how the issue was discovered or whether it was specifically related to people working from home.
Since the work-from-home model has gained popularity post-pandemic, some large companies have been using increasingly specialised tools to monitor employees.
Such services can track keystrokes and eye movements, take screenshots and log which websites are visited.
Technology has also evolved to detect the so-called “mouse jigglers” which are aimed at making computers appear to be in active use which are widely available.
About 13 percent of full-time employees in the US are fully remote, and another 26 percent enjoyed a hybrid arrangement, according to the BBC.
