Woman fired after company uses keystroke technology to track her working from home output

Thanks to the pandemic, the days of going into the office five days a week are long gone for many.

Many people either work completely remotely or at least have a couple of days at home. For some, that means a few days a week with none of the usual office distractions like gossiping over a cup of tea with Julie from sales, while others might fit in a cheeky game on their Xbox or accidentally take a two-hour nap.

No one thinks they’ll get caught doing the latter. But one Aussie woman was fired from the job after her boss took a closer look at how much work she was actually doing from home by monitoring her keyboard typing strokes. Yep, apparently that’s a thing.

Suzie was so convinced of her innocence she took IAG to court (sidibechir/Unsplash)

Consultant Suzie Cheikho was let go from one of the biggest insurance companies in Aus, the Insurance Australia Group (IAG), after it claimed she’d missed deadlines and meetings, was difficult to contact and even cost the company a fine after failing to complete a task.

Cheikho — who’d worked for IAG for 18 years — had the job of creating insurance documents, hitting regulatory timelines and ironically ‘keeping an eye on work from home compliance’.

Using keystroke technology, IAG monitored Cheikho’s work over 49 days between October and December 2022 and they garnered some awkward results.

The review found Cheikho started late on a whopping 47 out of 49 days, finished early on 29, and was found to have done nothing at all on four days.

Even on the days she was working, the review found that Chekho had only typed on her keyboard an average of 54 times in an hour.

You might be surprised to hear that Cheikho didn’t agree with the report, saying she did ‘not believe for a minute’ that the data was accurate, assuring her managers that she’d ‘never not worked’.

Cheikho was reportedly ‘confused and shocked’ by the data, highlighting personal issues that had affected her mental health and in turn, her work. She says she communicated any medical appointments during work time to her managers, and even made up any lost time after work.

Chiekho was late 47 out of the 49 days monitored (charlesdeluvio/Unsplash)

The report resulted in Cheikho making an unfair dismissal claim against IAG, but the claim was rejected by Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC) after it was judged that there was a ‘valid reason of misconduct’.

During the FWC ruling, deputy president Thomas Roberts said he had ‘little doubt that the factors underlying the applicant’s disconnection from work were serious and real’.

Roberts went on to say it was a ‘regrettable’ situation and noted her ‘long period of satisfactory service’ prior to the dismissal, but felt like it was ‘not harsh, unjust or unreasonable’ for her to be let go.

Dealing with the new-found spotlight but on her by this story, Cheikho took to TikTok in August 2023 to address her “haters”.

“If you don’t like what I do but you watch everything I’m doing, you’re still a fan” she said.

Cheikho told Daily Mail Australia she struggled to get a job since the story broke, and was making money from social media - while also raising awareness for mental health.

Cheikho continues to post to TikTok today, but rather than addressing her dismissal, you can expect the usual birthday posts and cat videos.