WFH woes | What 'keyboard jamming' cases tell us about productivity paranoia

In a recent misconduct hearing, a former detective was found to have spent dozens of hours faking work from home by “key jamming” - holding down a single key to trick his laptop into showing activity. It was deliberate, dishonest, and rightly classed as gross misconduct. No HR professional would dispute that.

But the case raises a wider question. Why are we still in an era where so many workers - whether in policing, banking, or any other profession - feel they must prove they are working, rather than simply be trusted to do so?

Microsoft coined the phrase “productivity paranoia” to describe a problem that has dogged hybrid and remote work. Employees worry about being constantly visible, while managers fret over whether their teams are really working. The result is a spiral of mistrust: workers install mouse jigglers or resort to key jamming, while employers install increasingly intrusive monitoring tools.

Neither side wins. Employees burn out from presenteeism in digital form, glued to their keyboards to prove a point. Employers risk demoralising their people and eroding engagement by treating them as though they cannot be trusted.