Pretending to Work by Pressing a Laptop Key 21 Million Times
Online Shopping and Searching for Flights During Work Hours
A female police officer who pretended to be working while telecommuting was fired. The officer was caught deliberately pressing a specific key on her laptop keyboard repeatedly during work hours.
On the 10th (local time), the Daily Mail reported that Baswick, a female officer working in Somerset, England, was fired after it was discovered that she deliberately pressed a specific key on her laptop keyboard over 21 million times to appear as if she was working from home.
It is known that the software used by the department detected an abnormal number of inputs over a long period, prompting an investigation. The investigation revealed that nearly 3 million inputs were recorded in a single month.
Baswick was found to have been online shopping and searching for flights during work hours. Evidence showed that she spent 4 hours and 30 minutes online shopping during work hours in November 2023.
At a public hearing, Police Chief Sarah Crew said, "She did not properly perform her duties while telecommuting," adding, "Such behavior constitutes a serious violation."
Baswick admitted, "I repeatedly pressed a specific key to prevent the laptop from going into sleep mode."
A similar incident occurred in the United States in June last year. At that time, Wells Fargo, a major American bank, fired more than ten employees last month for falsely pretending to work through computer programs.
According to data from the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the fired employees were all in asset management or investment departments and were caught pretending to work by automatically operating the keyboard without actually working.
The software used by the employees is known as a so-called 'mouse mover' and gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic telecommuting period. It can be purchased cheaply from the e-commerce company Amazon.
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