As remote work continues to gain popularity and slowly become the norm in the working world today, managing an online workforce with a complete lack of visibility makes it next to impossible to be entirely sure of workers’ productivity while working from the comfort of their homes. But are your remote workers pretending to be online and productive?

This article is for business owners and managers who run their businesses with the aid of remote workers who are unsure whether or not their employees are fully active when they should be and how to spot signs that they are faking their online activity. 

The Rise of the Remote Working Industry

The global pandemic of 2020 continues to leave its mark on our everyday lives and even how we work. With the pandemic came the inevitable rise of remote work, which provided incredible help for many companies. The mandatory lockdowns left many employees with little choice but to work from home. This transition was a bit daunting for some and much less of a challenge for others, of course, but it was a welcome alternative to having no means of generating income.

Remote work was generally gaining more and more traction as the years went by. But the global lockdown and pandemic fully brought it to the forefront as businesses were forced to either use this new work method or shut down operations entirely. Employees expect remote work in this day and age. It doesn’t come as a shock as the advancement of technology over the years, like the rise of the internet, faster speed network connection, and growth of collaboration applications and tools, have made this process seem entirely possible for quite a while now. To some, it is considered far more preferable.

Even with the pandemic and lockdown now over, this work method of operating is still a top trend and continues to go strong. However, problems also continue to arise, the most significant being that employers, business managers, HR professionals, etc., are becoming increasingly suspicious as to whether or not their workers are active and working as they should.

Advantages of Remote Work

Remote work can be pretty beneficial, which is one of the reasons for its continuing growth and popularity over the years, even before the advent of the pandemic in 2020. Some of the advantages provided by remote work are:

• Access to a large and diverse pool of talents can help businesses
• Help save extra money on recruiting, training, office space allocations, and other costs.
• Remote work also works entirely in favor of employees, and satisfaction rates improve exponentially as a result of working from home. 

There are benefits to be enjoyed from working from home for both managerial staff and employees; productivity is increased, costs are reduced, and employees enjoy the advantages of working from home. On the other hand, some employees are fully willing and ready to abuse the trust placed in them and choose to treat this method as a way of avoiding actual work and indulging in their laziness.

Red Flags to Pay Attention to That May Show if a Worker is Trying to Fake Activity.

As a business owner, It is pretty sad to accept that your workers are faking their activity online and are lax in how they handle or approach the work given to them. It’s safe to assume that your employees have faked being active online at one point or another. But here are a couple of signs that make it more obvious:

• In most cases, if you notice that a particular worker takes more time than usual to finalize and submit a task, it is usually an obvious sign that this worker may be faking online activity. As stated in the article, remote work enhances productivity; it does not diminish it, so if an employee seems to be taking even longer, they could be using work time to handle personal businesses.
• When employees only seem to show signs that they’re working when you are monitoring or observing their work. And productivity derails when not being observed; it may be a sign that they have been faking online activity and are only ever working when you’re monitoring them.  But when left to their own devices do whatever they please.
• Another vital sign or red flag to pay attention to is their availability on team chat platforms. Suppose employees always seem to be super ready and available to answer every and all messages sent their way at a terrifying speed, well. In that case, this may be because they are simply not doing the work they are supposed to do. That may show that they may be online but probably not for work; instead, it might be in the interest of browsing, going through social media, etc. 
• They have become super focused on every possible part of their work since they started working from home. Work that usually doesn’t take as much time is done in three or four times as long as previously because your employees claim they were pouring over every minute detail and unsatisfied with what they saw. If your workers seem to be engaging in this behavior when they previously weren’t in the office, it may simply be because they are pretending or faking activity.

Reasons Why Your Employees May be Faking Online Activity

There are many possible reasons why your employees may be faking online activity. The major of these include:

• They may choose to fake efficiency in a bid to appear more productive to their employers to reduce the risk or possibility of being fired and losing their jobs.
• They may do this out of spite or general dislike of their boss or manager, and this may be like a big spit in this person’s face.
• They may do this in hopes of appearing more active to try to bill for more hours than they work for.
• They may do this to hide their general laziness or lack of actual activity.

How To Respond to Red Flags?

You, as an employer, cannot simply accuse a worker of faking activity online based on a feeling or vibe you have. You need serious evidence to support your decision. So here’s what to do when you notice a red flag.

• Before you go all out and attack them for slacking off, maybe give them the benefit of the doubt, especially if these were previously diligent workers, and find time to collate evidence to support this before confronting the said employee.
• With full transparency, inform your workers that you have decided to use ethical work monitoring software or time-tracking tools to track and report what your employees do on a monitor or device. This approach may be seen as a breach of their personal lives if they use their computers to work, but this can be easily countered by providing a company computer for employees who would otherwise be comfortable to work on. The tracking software has stealth/visible mode, so be fully transparent with your workers, and let them know they can toggle the visibility on and ensure you let them know what is going on before you go through with all of this, of course. You’re a manager, not a ninja.
• Handle your reaction with the utmost care. As an employer, you wouldn’t want to lose the respect of your employees, and even more importantly, you wouldn’t wish to part ways with the talent they provide or bring to the company at large. Understand that you may be wrong without proper evidence, and your employees have in no way been slacking off entirely.

Final Thoughts.

Remote work has provided companies with the best available options, especially considering how important and valuable it proved during the global pandemic and lockdown. However, despite its numerous benefits, it would be wrong not to consider its downside. It can lead to many workers deciding that since they are not being hassled at work and are in the comfort of their home, these periods may be the perfect time to slack off or focus on irrelevant or other things. However, employers must find a measure of trust in the workers and their multiple talents. Lacking evidence and full-on attacking your employees due to a gut feeling or suspicion is not the right way to behave if and when you spot red flags.