🏦 Wells Fargo cracks down on keyboard simulators

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Good Morning,

The concept of remote workers’ chat tool statuses is making national headlines, as Wells Fargo fired employees who used unknown technology to simulate keyboard activity, making themselves appear “online.”

Again, I am begging the managers out there to stop monitoring activity and to measure your employees strictly based on their output. If they’re producing the work you hired them to do, great. If not, part ways.

Unless it’s for a time-based job — like being available during certain hours for customer support calls — we really need to do away with pressuring people to be available at all minutes of the day, whether stated directly or implied.

When I occasionally worked from offices years ago, people didn’t worry about getting judged for coffee breaks, lunch breaks, walk breaks, or collectively spending hours discussing non-work topics, as long as their work got done.

I’m starting to think it would be nice if companies did away with these Slack/Teams statuses completely, maybe with the exception of out-of-office notices.

There’s clearly an internal pressure for employees to “appear” online, and I’d bet a lot of money that it takes away focus from the actual work that needs to be done.

Curious to know your experience with this. Have you or any colleagues been in trouble as a result of activity monitoring? Does your company have a policy that proactively addresses this topic?

There’s gotta be a better way!

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Need to Know

🏦 Wells Fargo fires remote workers for “simulation of keyboard activity”
While it’s unclear exactly what technology was being used, we do know that Wells Fargo cracked down on employees for “creating [the] impression of active work.”

A statement from Wells Fargo claimed “Wells Fargo holds employees to the highest standards and does not tolerate unethical behavior” which many, like this X user, have pointed out is a bit ironic.

The biggest benefit of mouse jigglers is that if you stop working for 5 minutes for any reason, your activity status doesn’t change to show you’re “away.” It lets colleagues know you’re still reachable, and ensures micromanagers don’t get unnecessarily nervous. Ideally, this ensures managers measure results, not time sitting at a laptop.

And if your manager insists on keeping a hawkish eye on your status, here’s a mouse jiggler with great Amazon reviews.

A word of caution: there’s definitely software that can (1) detect if these are plugged into your work device, and (2) detect mouse movement from these devices. Hopefully your company doesn’t have Draconian oversight policies and have that tracking software installed, but that’s a risk I’ll let you evaluate on your own. (Bloomberg)

🤝 How Airbnb combats workplace loneliness
While remote work is clearly a great work arrangement, the most commonly-reported downside is feeling less connected to coworkers, which can contribute to feelings of loneliness.

The Airbnb CEO — who also authored one of the best remote work policies I’ve seen — initially paired employees up in “duos” who seemed to work well together, in an effort to improve their productivity. The thought was: if they have similar working styles, they’ll probably move faster, appreciate their colleagues more, and ultimately produce better work.

The unintended consequence is that people who work well together are put on a path towards a shared goal, and through that journey are more likely to form friendships. And according to Adam Grant, having just one friend at work is enough to significantly reduce the chances of experiencing loneliness. (CNBC)

💵 $100K entry-level remote jobs
These three jobs offer recent college grads an opportunity to work remotely while earning six-figure salaries:

• Software developer/engineer: $85,000 - $128,000

• Technical product manager: $91,204 - $116,958

• Digital Marketing Manager/Marketing Analyst: $100,498 - $132,448

Per the Airbnb article above, employees earlier in their career are actually more likely to cite loneliness when working remotely. So if you or someone you know are lucky enough to land remote jobs like these right out of college, it’s still important to find ways to connect with your colleagues and/or develop strong social ties outside of work. (Forbes)

💼 Small biz trends may foreshadow hiring slowdown
Small businesses in the US have been slowing their hiring lately, looking for ways to be more productive without adding expensive headcount.

Similar to consumer spending data serving as a precursor to larger economic trends, small business hiring typically reflects payroll growth in the following four months. Given the near-zero hiring in small businesses today, this leads economists to believe that payroll growth (the increase in total jobs) will remain relatively flat across the broader economy in the coming few months.

You may remember in last week’s newsletter we referenced the Philadelphia Fed’s employer-to-employer metric, which cites the percentage of employees who opt to change employers. It’s cited in this article as well, with a graphic for historical context:

The author suggests what we’re seeing in the job market today is similar to what we experienced in the years following the 07-09 recession. While the job market may be softening, there fortunately aren’t any obvious signs to make economists believe it will be substantially worse in the near future. (Reuters)

👻 The increase in “ghost jobs”
It’s no secret that job applicants have needed to apply to far more jobs than usual in the past couple of years to get the same number of responses they may have received in previous years.

Today, there’s even more data to explain that. Ghost jobs have been on the rise: it’s a term used to describe job listings that employers keep active on their website without actually intending to make a near-term hire. They do this to collect resumes of talented candidates in case they decide they want to expand.

The chart above, included in the podcast transcript we linked to, shows that among the 3,000 largest companies in the US, there are about 236,000 hires made per month, as a result of the 680,000+ open job listings.

Prior to 2021, there were closer to 400,000 hires per month out of 500,000 job openings.

We went from having over 80% of open jobs filled, to only 35% today! It’s ridiculous.

While these figures are being tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there doesn’t seem to be any serious punishment for companies misleading candidates with ghost jobs. Hopefully with more attention drawn to this practice, companies will be more diligent about only posting jobs they truly intend to hire for in the near term. (The Indicator Podcast)

Stuff We Like

🧠 Udacity: 45% off subscriptions
Udacity, a leading online education platform, was kind enough to offer an incredible discount to Remote Source subscribers looking to level up their skill sets or change industries altogether.

Use code REMOTESOURCE45 to get 45% off a subscription, giving you full access to Udacity’s entire catalog of educational content at a steep discount for as long as the subscription is active.

Want to learn programming, AI, data science, digital marketing, or anything else for your career growth? There’s something for everyone on this platform. (Udacity)

😴 A custom bed for Teslas
I don’t own a Tesla but I love this concept from Snuuzu on Kickstarter. It’s a mattress designed to fit perfectly into Tesla Model Y and Model 3 cars, which can fold up and fit into a duffel bag.

The advent of remote work has given so many people the ability to explore more than they would have otherwise. So a budget-conscious alternative for lodging, especially for those who want to take longer trips, is definitely something to get excited about.

The project already surpassed its goal by about 3X, so these are guaranteed to be in production soon. (Kickstarter)

☀️ Tools you’ll need when going off-grid
Just how remote are you going to be this summer? If your ideal workspace includes a campsite, Starlink internet, and a makeshift outdoor kitchen, this list of products is worth checking out. Solar charging panels, emergency kits, mobile light sources and more are all worth considering when you’re not in a cozy home environment. (Lifehacker)

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