Using apps that simulate mouse movements leads to employees being fired; look

More than ten employees were fired for using apps or tools that simulate mouse movement in the United States. The case revealed by documents from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) took place at Wells Fargo, a financial services company. The information is from Bloomberg.

A report does not reveal the exact number of employees laid off, but mentions that it was “more than a dozen”. The cuts came after an internal investigation by Wells Fargo, which revealed that workers used devices or applications to simulate the movement of the peripheral and, thus, indicate productivity.

O FINRA document does not reveal that affected employees worked remotely, nor details about how their productivity could be measured according to mouse movement. However, all of the layoffs were from Wells Fargo’s wealth and investment management unit.

Wells Fargo fired more than a dozen employees for using software or tools to simulate mouse movement.Fonte:  GettyImages

As Tools that simulate mouse movement have been around for years, but have become more popular during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, many companies turned to remote work and, as a way to monitor employee activity, monitored mouse activity.

So, this movement simulation software became a solution for those who wanted to circumvent surveillance.

Monitoring divides opinions

Both Wells Fargo’s measure and the use of motion simulators are considered controversial. In the comments of the news related to the subject on The Vergereaders complain about how a company can measure employee productivity based on mouse movement, complaining about excessive monitoring, while others accuse fired employees of being lazy or unethical.

The use of such detailed productivity monitoring tools is considered invasive to some of the public. “I would say productivity can take many forms. Sometimes I don’t ‘produce’ anything new all day, in the sense of not having any draft documents, spreadsheets or presentations to show for it, because I’ve spent the whole day thinking about a problem” , pointed out one of the comments.

In other responses, readers mention that downloading unauthorized tools may have violated company rules and, therefore, led to dismissals.