Woman fired after company uses keystroke technology to monitor her work from home

[GON]

Interesting read. Employee defense seemed weak. Employee was given a performance improvement plan but still appears to have not taken her job working from home very serious.

The employee had 18 years with the company. Wonder if 20 years is when one gets a pension....

Woman fired after company uses keystroke technology to monitor her work from home

The Fair Work Commission has rejected an unfair dismissal application by former Insurance Australia Group consultant Suzie Cheikho, finding she was fired for a “valid reason of misconduct.&#8…

nypost.com

 

[PimTac]

I have a good friend that works from home two days a week. She has a regular schedule of video conferences and in between she is doing computer work. She treats her work the same whether at home or at the office.

This person really messed up with that much time at the company.

 

[supton]

Hard to say, there's usually 2 sides to every story. That said, it does not sound like she was just doing her work when she felt like it (flextime), instead just wasn't working. Odd. Maybe once WFH rolled around, bad habits set in? Not everyone did well with WFH (as anyone can well guess). Shame, but hopefully no-one just assumes this is the case for all WFH people.

According to the FWC findings, Cheikho was fired on February 20 for missing deadlines and meetings, being absent and uncontactable, and failing to complete a task which caused the industry regulator to fine IAG.

 

[99Saturn]

Shrug. There's good employees and bad employees whether in the office or WFH.

Comical story - ten or so years ago when I started at a company I heard a story from another newish coworker who was getting phone calls related to party/events planning. Turned out the person she replaced (who left on her own) was running her event planning personal business from her office line. Nobody noticed for however long it was going on and the former employee sat in a short walled cube with management 15 feet away.

Also - Pensions are those still around?

 

[Passport1]

A few things about WFH I can't fathom.

How can you call in sick from home?
Can't work today because you are snowed in.
Can't work today because your kidlets are off school.
Can't get to work today because your car is broken and can't hitch a ride.
Somebody is coming to repair your (fill in whatever appliance or plumbing issue).

Seems like most of the lame excuses for not going to work have evaporated.

 

[99Saturn]

A few things about WFH I can't fathom.

How can you call in sick from home?
Can't work today because you are snowed in.
Can't work today because your kidlets are off school.
Can't get to work today because your car is broken and can't hitch a ride.
Somebody is coming to repair your (fill in whatever appliance or plumbing issue).

Seems like most of the lame excuses for not going to work have evaporated.

In my experience for the employee that was in the office all week on a regular basis pre-2020, when any and all of the above came up the answer was to WFH.

Sorta like the beauty of companies offering unlimited sick or PTO, many employees end up not taking it.

 

[JHZR2]

I dunno. Keystroke counting can’t work everywhere. There are days that I’m in meetings most of the day and don’t hardly type a thing.

The real issue is the basic lack of performance:

According to the FWC findings, Cheikho was fired on February 20 for missing deadlines and meetings, being absent and uncontactable, and failing to complete a task which caused the industry regulator to fine IAG.

 

[Pew]

Hard to say, there's usually 2 sides to every story. That said, it does not sound like she was just doing her work when she felt like it (flextime), instead just wasn't working. Odd. Maybe once WFH rolled around, bad habits set in? Not everyone did well with WFH (as anyone can well guess). Shame, but hopefully no-one just assumes this is the case for all WFH people.

Exactly. I bet they started recording the key strokes because of her continual poor performance . Unless you work for some sort of Fortune 500 company, most smaller companies will not bother with the complexity and costs. We've let go an employee late 2020 because his productivity dropped a lot and that was without any key log tracking.

 

[y_p_w]

Exactly. I bet they started recording the key strokes because of her continual poor performance . Unless you work for some sort of Fortune 500 company, most smaller companies will not bother with the complexity and costs. We've let go an employee late 2020 because his productivity dropped a lot and that was without any key log tracking.

Keystroke monitoring has been around since at least the 80s. Or at the very least monitoring to make sure that a computer is being actively used.

 

[y_p_w]

A few things about WFH I can't fathom.

How can you call in sick from home?
Can't work today because you are snowed in.
Can't work today because your kidlets are off school.
Can't get to work today because your car is broken and can't hitch a ride.
Somebody is coming to repair your (fill in whatever appliance or plumbing issue).

Seems like most of the lame excuses for not going to work have evaporated.

I've participating in meetings where there were any number of people working from home. And yes I've seen people pop in when they were sick and noted that they would be resting all day after the meeting. I've even seen people who were on vacation, but participated in a meeting just in case someone had a question.

And yes I've seen people excuse themselves from meetings in order to pick up a kid from daycare. Or when the kid is sick and kind of popping around in the background.

Some of the lame excuses still work. I personally haven't used any of them though.

 

[Pew]

Keystroke monitoring has been around since at least the 80s. Or at the very least monitoring to make sure that a computer is being actively used.

Right but all that costs money and I've never come across an SMB that was willing to spend money for monitoring software to track their employees that much. They already gripe about spending money on upgrading their 12 year old server.

 

[Pew]

A few things about WFH I can't fathom.

How can you call in sick from home?
Can't work today because you are snowed in.
Can't work today because your kidlets are off school.
Can't get to work today because your car is broken and can't hitch a ride.
Somebody is coming to repair your (fill in whatever appliance or plumbing issue).

Seems like most of the lame excuses for not going to work have evaporated.

You can't really do any of that but that's the beauty of WFH, depending on how flexible your company allows it. My sister's BF works for United Healthcare and they expect you to use PTO for any of the same reasons you'd leave work early. My WFH is completely different than that and crazy flexible because I don't do the normal work for our clients. I could be at the gym and as long as I'm available, they don't care although our "active" hours are 8-5. They know I never really have off since I'm the only IT guy at and I'm normally working late into the night/weekends anyways.

 

[Lubener]

Doesn't surprise me. I always felt most work from home employees generally do not put forth the effort as compared to their counter parts who are working in the office.

 

[UG_Passat]

Dialing into meetings is the easy part of WFH.... then you don't need to be on the keyboard typing away, since you're supposed to be listening to the topics of the meeting.

If she dialed into all of her web meetings, then it would of justified the lack thereof keystrokes.... but missing important regulatory deadlines is never a good look on a person.

Speaking of meetings.... I have an all-day web meeting to dial into..... and don't have to wake up at 4am like I need to do with other calls due to time zone differences

 

[RAR]

You can't really do any of that but that's the beauty of WFH, depending on how flexible your company allows it. My sister's BF works for United Healthcare and they expect you to use PTO for any of the same reasons you'd leave work early.

While I (used to) work for Optum, UnitedHealth Group’s technology and consulting business, it was understood that appointments, quick errands out, etc., while WFH were ignored because you were likely working beyond 8 hours daily anyway. UnitedHealthcare (different business division from Optum but still UHG) is probably stricter on their people due to public facing interactions.

I’ve been gone from there for over a week yet I still hear about them in a lot of places, even BITOG.

 

[joekingcorvette]

There is just not enough data there to form a reasonable opinion. Most companies do not fire a productive worker. If she actually is a good worker and qualified for a position she should be able to obtain similiar or better job elsewhere. It's tough in today's work world and I am very happy I am retired and have not worked for almost two years. She sure isn't hurting in the looks department.

 

[dishdude]

There is just not enough data there to form a reasonable opinion. Most companies do not fire a productive worker.

this.

 

[jeepman3071]

A few things about WFH I can't fathom.

How can you call in sick from home?
Can't work today because you are snowed in.
Can't work today because your kidlets are off school.
Can't get to work today because your car is broken and can't hitch a ride.
Somebody is coming to repair your (fill in whatever appliance or plumbing issue).

Seems like most of the lame excuses for not going to work have evaporated.

Meh, I can see how certain situations may apply. I often get bad migraines that impact my vision. When I get them, there is no working from home. I can't even look at a computer screen. Snow is different, although I have had employees who lose power, and other strange things happen.

Usually there is a pattern though. Contrary to the narrative of this article which is trying to push how working from home makes employees completely untrustworthy, this has nothing to do with working from home. This person missed deadlines and meetings, which is a problem that occurs both at home and at work when someone starts lacking in work performance. Employees who suck at working from home, usually suck at working in the office as well. We have a hybrid schedule in my department, and the flexibility to work from home at certain times (plumber stopping by, doctors appointments, etc) has actually resulted in more work getting done since people take less time off except for actual vacations. My estimate given my experience and the info given is that something happened in this person's personal life that caused their work performance to completely drop off. You don't go from being an 18 year fantastic employee to missing deadlines just because you transitioned to working from home.

 

[E150GT]

I think working from home is hard. Lots of distractions.

 

[Pablo]

Way way too much make up.