Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Andrew Brookes
A woman who went viral last year after her employer used keystroke technology to see how much work she was doing while working from home fears she’ll never get a job again.
Suzie Cheikho was let go from her job at Insurance Australia Group in February 2023 after 18 years at the company.
She attempted to bring a claim of unfair dismissal made against IAG, but that was rejected in August last year after it was found the firm had a ‘valid reason of misconduct’ to let an employee go.
Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC) found that Cheikho had missed deadlines and meetings, while also being difficult to contact and costing her employer a fine after failing to complete a task.
Furthermore, the former consultant was given a warning few months prior in November 2022.
So, how did the company go about finding how much work (or lack of it) Cheikho was doing at home?
Well, the former employee’s productivity was monitored via keystroke technology, which looked at work activity on 49 days between October and December 2022.
The company used keystroke technology to monitor her work. (Getty Stock Photo)
And the results certainly didn’t favour Cheikho.
The review concluded that she started late on 47 days, while she also finished early on 29 of the days she was monitored.
That wasn’t all, as it was discovered that Cheikho did no work at all on four of the days, while her keyboard pressing was not the highest on the days she was working.
On average she was pressing her keyboard 54 times an hour during the periods in which she was being monitored.
After the story went viral, the Aussie woman spoke to the MailOnline about her future job prospects.
“It’s embarrassing that this story has gone viral – nobody is going to hire me,” she said. “In 18 years of work there, I only ever got one warning.”
Suzie Cheikho was fired last year. (LinkedIn/Suzie Cheikho)
When confronted with the information regarding how much work she worked while working from home, Cheikho said she did ‘not believe for a minute’ that the data generated by keystroke technology was accurate, telling her managers she had ‘never not worked’.
Since the story broke last year, Cheikho said she was ‘actually getting harassed’.
“This has never happened to me before, and for what?” she said in a now deleted TikTok. “Something that’s very emotional and very private, I never even spoke about it on social media.
“I’m literally getting harassed through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, like what do you want me to do? I can’t get a f**king job.”
Topics: Technology, Australia, Social Media
Dr. Thomas Hughes is a UK-based scientist and science communicator who makes complex topics accessible to readers. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
