‘When I want a little break, I put a small weight on the spacebar and open a blank notepad file, and let it sit for a while,’ confessed one employee.

The work-shy hire admitted they’re monitored on their work laptop when they WFH via MS Teams, which shows an ‘inactive’ label after five minutes of idling.

So, to get some time to themselves, they put an object on their keyboard that’s heavy enough to press down the spacebar, to make it appear like they’re working.

But this isn’t just for a 10-minute tea break, the staffer confessed they do this for more than an hour every day.

Those who do this have earned the title ‘keyboard jammers’, and employee relations expert at HR consultants Hamilton Nash, Jim Moore, tells Metro these workers are well-known to HR departments.

‘Keyboarding jamming is one of the less sophisticated ways of pretending to work remotely, and we’ve known about mouse jiggling software for years,’ he says.

‘These tactics have been known in HR circles for years, but their use soared during the pandemic as millions more employees started working from home.’

It’s been a problem for years

And it’s a behaviour that’s still prevalent in the homes of countless UK employees, with the new that the police force has sacked 50 ‘keyboard jammers’ in the past three years alone.

In Durham Constabulary, Niall Thubron, a former detective, pressed the ‘i’ key more than 16,000 times on December 3, 2024, between 10.28am and 11.56am, while one Kent police officer used the hack to visit a gym and a golf course during the working day.

Greater Manchester police found 28 staff members were guilty of ‘key jamming’ with objects like staplers and fizzy drinks cans.

Avon & Somerset police’s, PC Liam Reakes, was caught weighing down the ‘z’ key during shifts for a total of 103 hours between June and September 2024, sometimes for more than four hours at a time.

‘There’s certainly a minority who view working from home as an easy option,’ Jim says. ‘Remote working is not a holiday, and employers are well within their rights to expect the same productivity and availability as office-based work.’

All remote workers suffer

‘Key jammers’ put those who rely on working from home in disrepute, many of whom may rely on remote working to be able to pick up their children from school.

Britons aged 25 to 49 are the most likely to have an overall favourable opinion of WFH (84%), likely in part because this is the age group most likely to have young children, according to YouGov.

‘This behaviour is bad news for genuine remote workers, the vast majority of whom are highly productive and professional,’ Jim explains. ‘It provides ammunition to flexible working sceptics and undermines the business case for remote work.

‘It’s unfair on employees like parents, carers and those with disabilities who rely on remote working to remain in employment.’