Woman fired after firm uses keystroke tech to monitor her work from home

An Australian woman was fired from her job after her firm used keystroke technology (Representational image)

An Australian woman has been sacked from her job of 18 years after her company used keystroke technology to monitor her work from home performance. According to The New York Post, Insurance Australia Group (IAG) consultant Suzie Cheikho was fired for not typing enough while working remotely.

Cheikho was responsible for creating insurance documents, meeting regulatory timelines and monitoring “work from home compliance” in her role as consultant for the Australian insurance company. Ironically, her own work from home performance was found to be lacking.

Insurance Australia Group used keystroke technology to track her cyber activity for 49 days between October and December, and found that she had “very low keystroke activity”. The company found that Cheikho started work late on 47 days, finished early on 29 days and did not work her rostered hours for 44 days. On 4 days, she did zero hours of work.

However, the consultant denied that she worked less than her set hours, saying she sometimes used other devices to log in.

She averaged 54 strokes per hour over the 49 days her performance was surveyed, which showed “she was not presenting for work and performing work as required.”

Cheikho was fired on February 20 for missing deadlines and meetings, as well as for being uncontactable and absent without permission. Her failure to complete a task led to the industry regulator fining her company.

The dismissal came three months after Cheikho was issued a formal warning in November 2022 and put on a performance improvement plan. She brought an unfair dismissal application against the IAG, which was later rejected by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). FWC ruled that she was fired for “valid reason of misconduct.”