Woman fired from her job of 18 years for not typing enough

Woman fired from her job of 18 years for not typing enough

We live in a world that needs to evolve with its measures of working out how much work an employee does when away from the office.

Woman typing on a laptop while sitting at a table
Woman typing on a laptop while sitting at a table/Pexels/@Anna Shvets

The pandemic saw a host of companies evolve into remote work settings with their employees. 

Some are returning to their original office life, but others have stuck to the remote or hybrid ways of conducting business. 

It has been something of a redefinition of work for many, having to adapt to working from the office to now working remotely. 

And, of course, this means that as much as employees have had to change, so to have their companies. 

Many companies have had to set up certain measures to ensure that their employees are actually working and not billing their hours without sufficient work being completed. 

One example of how this involves a woman (Susan Cheikho) who got fired from her 18-year job for not typing enough. 

Sounds pretty petty, but companies have had to become more stringent with their work-from-home dynamics. 

"The company had used keystroke technology to monitor her work-from-home performance." (Livemint)

What's worse is that according to New York Post, "Australia's Fair Work Commission (FWC) has also rejected her "unfair" dismissal application, saying that she was fired for a "valid reason of misconduct"." (Livemint)

Part of Cheikho's responsibilities included creating insurance documents, meeting deadlines, and, ironically, "monitoring work from home compliance" as a consultant for the insurance company.

The company found that her keystroke activity - or should we say productivity - was lacking between the months of October and December 2022. 

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It was revealed by the company that Cheikho "started work late on 47 days, finished early on 29 days and did not work her rostered hours for 44 days. It also discovered that on 4 days, she did zero hours of work." (Livemint)

Eek, so awkward. 

But certainly, a reality that many remote workers have to abide by. 

Because when you work from home, the supposition that you are actually working and not binge-watching on Netflix has to be verified in some way or the other. 

The difference is, when you work from the office, your mere presence sometimes naturally equates to you fulfilling your work hours. 

Which brings up a good question, do the employees who work from the office undergo the same keystroke monitoring?

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