Illusion of work | 'Keyboard jamming' - What can HR do when employees fake their productivity?

Reports that dozens of police staff have been dismissed for “keyboard jamming” have pushed an uncomfortable workplace issue back into the spotlight: how employers deal with workers who appear busy but are not actually working.

The term refers to employees deliberately generating keyboard activity to appear productive while working remotely. In some cases, workers repeatedly press the same key or physically hold a key down using objects such as drink cans or staplers to trick monitoring systems into registering activity.