this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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The jigglers keep you online status from changing to "away."
Some jobs require you to be at your desk, and using mouse jigglers to fake being at work is the kind of thing that keeps more companies from allowing WFH.
If the job requires you to be at your desk then presumably that means you have work to complete. Judge people for what they get done, not how often they mindlessly move a mouse and this wouldn't be a problem!
Some jobs necessarily include idle time when you're waiting for work to come through even if there's nothing to do in that specific moment. The flip side of that is that the employer is able to require that the worker be available instantly. If they're leaving their work area because they're bored then they're not "at work."
My Dad was a career firefighter, and he spent most of his time sitting in the station watching TV, cooking meals, or sleeping. He was paid for every minute of that time because at the drop of a hat he could be called to a wreck, fire, or medical emergency.
The reason he had to be paid is federal law requiring that all workers who are "engaged to wait" are on the clock. If someone is installing mouse-jiggler software so they can leave their workstation and do whatever they want, they're no longer being engaged to wait.
So if I'm WFH and need to be available I can be watching TV or cooking a meal as long as I'm available at the drop of a hat if something comes in. This can be more usefully measured by how quickly I respond or my work output rather than how much my mouse moves.