A boss fired three remote workers after reviewing their call logs, emphasizing the need for accountability in home-based jobs.
In the current landscape of remote work, a boss recently took action by dismissing three employees after scrutinizing their call logs.
This incident sheds light on the challenges and dynamics of working from home.
The concerns about productivity in remote work
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, remote work has become commonplace across many industries.
However, this newfound flexibility has led some employees to test the boundaries of productivity while working from home.
An Australian woman was fired after keystroke monitoring software showed her starting work late and finishing early.
It also revealed she had minimal work output during her remote hours.
Another employer in Australia grew suspicious of his team’s productivity levels and decided to investigate further.
Noticing a decline in communication within the work group chat, delayed email responses, and unanswered calls, he delved into their call logs.
Boss decides to terminate three employees after checking call logs during WFH tracking saga
The boss, whose identity remains anonymous, noticed a concerning trend of increasing gaps between calls.
What used to be a steady stream of calls every 15 minutes had transformed into lengthier intervals, indicating periods of absence and decreased engagement from the employees.
The boss – who can’t be named – said: “The time between calls started to get longer.
“Instead of a call every 15 minutes, it was every 20 minutes and then every half an hour.
“And then there’s like two hour gaps of nothing happening … it showed staff being absent; starting small, but the absence would get longer and longer.”
To address his mounting suspicions, the boss opted to install monitoring software within the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Pipedrive.
“We did have some tracking in place through our CRM (Customer relationship management) Pipedrive,” he said.
This cloud-based software served as a tool for employees to log tasks, set reminders, and document their calls.
The boss explained that a typical salesperson is expected to make four to ten calls per hour.
This level of call activity is considered productive for their role.
However, he observed that calls were going unlogged, with many entries being ‘ghost calls’ or fabricated records of communication.
He continued: “So typically, a salesperson is probably going to get between four and 10 calls an hour.
“Someone might ring and they’re busy, they might say call me back in half an hour. So that’s logged as a one-minute call.
“And then they might have another conversation for say five-to-ten minutes.
And for each call you put a note — but those things started to not happen. No notes were being left.”
After monitoring his team for 18 months, the boss made the difficult decision to terminate three employees due to insufficient work output.
The boss tracked call activities but was hesitant about using keystroke-tracking software.
He felt it invaded the privacy of employees he trusted.
He stressed the need to maintain trust with employees in any work environment.
However, he admitted that some workers might misuse remote work for personal advantage.
The boss understood the difficulties businesses faced during the pandemic, like hiring problems and operational challenges, which could have led to employee misbehavior.
While stressing the importance of holding people accountable, he warned against using too much surveillance, as it might hurt worker morale and trust.