A recent incident at Wells Fargo throws a spotlight on the growing trend of remote workers using technology to fake productivity. According to Bloomberg, the bank fired over a dozen employees after discovering they were using “mouse movers” or “mouse jigglers” – basically tools that mimic cursor movement and keyboard strokes, creating the illusion the employee is actively working when they might be off grabbing coffee or, well, doing anything else.

The interesting wrinkle here? The report doesn’t specify if these employees were specifically working from home, but it does mention they were all part of Wells Fargo’s wealth-management unit. It begs the question: how, in a role like wealth management, could someone’s productivity be solely measured by mouse movements?

These “mouse jigglers” aren’t exactly new. They’ve been around for years, but their popularity exploded during the pandemic as a massive shift to remote work left many employees feeling pressure to appear constantly busy, even when taking a short break.

Companies, on the other hand, have their own concerns. Without the ability to physically see their employees working, many rely on software that tracks activity – mouse movements, keystrokes, the whole nine yards. As remote work becomes more permanent, this monitoring software is also getting smarter, able to sniff out the telltale patterns of a “mouse jiggler” no matter how random they try to be.

This creates a strange situation – a technological tug-of-war between employees who want to appear productive and companies looking to ensure actual work is getting done. It’s a game with no clear winner, and as remote work continues its rise, a more effective solution might be for companies to rethink how they measure productivity for their remote workforce altogether. Focusing on results and completed tasks might be a better indicator of someone’s value than how often their mouse wiggles.