Rise of the mouse jigglers: the new frontier

First, we had the great resignation. Then the quiet quitters. Now we have the mouse jigglers. Like a government PPE contract, Covid is the gift that keeps giving for employment lawyers.

Just when we thought the Oxford Word of the Year contender may finally shift back to teenage text slang, a major US bank was reported to have fired several employees for being ‘mouse jigglers’.

Like all good employment law stories, a catchy phrase and hint of the truth (who hasn’t opened Teams now and again when taking a midday Netflix break) has spread the story like wildfire.

Essentially, the employees were accused of using hardware or software to make it look as though they were online and working, when in fact, they were nothing more than time thieves (another bit of HR jargon for you).

But this author has been around the block one too many times. I recall a grizzly old teacher saying to us, “lads, there are no new tricks, only variations of old ones”; the rise of the mouse jigglers may present a new frontier for companies who are trying to track down unproductive employees, but the trick is nothing new. And the response is the same-old-same-old.

Even when we worked in the office there was a website that made Reddit look like Outlook, or the old classic of booking an out-of-the-way meeting room for an important meeting, only to use it to sleep off the worst of a hangover (or so I heard from a friend). These methods of masquerading as a top shelf employee have simply now evolved as people have started working from home.

For those of you interested, you can become a 2024 Ferris Bueller by purchasing a mouse jiggling device on Amazon for £30.  

Like every arms race, each development in slacking off was met with employers deploying new ways to catch productivity pirates. Pre-covid, there were the name badges that could record your every move and the desk monitoring sensors Barclays came under fire for. Post-covid, it’s got even more tech savvy… just look at PCMag’s list of top employee monitoring software. Snooping on the worker bees has never been easier. Employee monitoring is nothing new and often takes the form of Big Brother having a front-row seat to your workday - except he's more interested in your snack breaks than your spreadsheets.

Making waves more recently is the move of employers using swipe card entry data to track office attendance. This is an increasingly hot (and controversial) topic amongst middle managers who often conveniently ignore the policy least they are found out themselves. Of course, this too has a snazzy name – ‘hushed hybrid’.

Now, how can we shoehorn some employment law lessons into this article so you can justify reading it as ‘knowledge development’ time.

• Firstly, a philosophical take on the subject. Making Reddit look like Outlook or forcing your employees to wear listening name badges belies a bigger problem; maybe your employees don’t want to do their job. You must wonder whether employee monitoring is treating the symptom rather than the problem. But, according to my newsfeed at least, LinkedIn influencers who have successfully run a few businesses into the ground have all the answers to such questions.
• On a more black-letter law note, employers need to be careful that using this tech doesn’t trip them up under data protection legislation (such as GDPR or its local equivalent). Although the European Court of Human Rights has said that employers can read employees private messages during working hours, the law around it is beset with traps about what is and isn’t considered reasonable. For example, if you’re thinking about getting the phonebooth that monitors employees’ heart rates, maybe check in with your data protection adviser first. Guaranteed such a move will increase their heart rate when they hear your plans.
• Further, monitoring is something you often need to tell your employees about under data protection legislation, making true covert monitoring a tricky issue if employers need to rely on it in subsequent disciplinary proceedings.
• Finally, disciplining employees based on evidence gained from monitoring needs to be squared against a fair process. How this is done will differ depending on the facts of each case, but an increasing focus on flexible working and a potential new right to switch off will mean it’s unlikely to be plain sailing.

However, the final thought for this piece will seem to undermine it all. Like all these trends: the great resignation; quiet quitting; or now mouse jigglers, often the issue isn’t as prevalent as all the ink spilled about it implies. A recent survey found that only 8% of people were aware their employers were using such 'bossware', another bit of jargon to describe monitoring software.

If you are considering using monitoring software to try and catch the dreaded mouse jigglers, first consider if there is a less intrusive way to achieve the same aim while striking a balance between privacy and productivity. That is the legal standard you will often be held to. To effectively enhance productivity and engagement in today's hybrid digital workplaces, companies should embrace a holistic approach that prioritises trust, autonomy, and meaningful contributions over simply being present.

Ultimately, the issue of monitoring attendance (rather than productivity) begs the fundamental question regarding the purpose of employee monitoring software; is it worth checking someone’s activity status rather than spending the time and effort understanding their productivity and engagement? The answers to such questions are outside the scope of this short article, but for now at least, the mouse jigglers’ days are numbered.