MouseJiggler is life!!!
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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If you're using a work computer, I strongly advise not putting that on there, especially if it requires installation. At my work, we regularly scan for apps like these, as well as the physical jigglers that connect via USB. We do this for security reasons primarily. There are several built-in ways in Windows to simulate activity, I really don't see the point in downloading random apps from potentially sketchy sources.
One example off the top of my head: If you have multiple monitors, go into presentation mode with PowerPoint on one of them. This way, you can still have one monitor available to see your email and whatever chat app your org uses. If you have just one monitor, pretty sure you can still push it to the back or minimize it and it'll still work. Also, watching videos within SharePoint is another way of preventing Windows from detecting inactivity. If you use Teams, you can start a meeting with yourself (though, some orgs monitor activity on Teams, so use this at your own risk). If PowerShell isn't disabled, there's also options there.
How would you scan for usb jigglers? I made one that just reads as the hid and pid of a random logitec mouse I had lying around.
I don't know how our Cyber and workstation teams are doing it, I work on the server team. I just know they pushed out something a few months ago about it and a few people were caught. They really don't care that people are using jigglers, they just don't want people plugging in unauthorized devices to the USB ports. And like you say, it may not actually be catching everything.
Thanks for the words of warning. I used this once upon a time but haven't in a long while (too much going on to worry about it). In a past life I did a lot of log analysis and our shop forced the screensaver on a fairly short timeout. This was an easy workaround.
That being said, it doesn't need installation and you need to manually add it to your startup programs (if you choose to).
Meanwhile, directors and execs who make way more salary / bonuses and do very little real work... continue to thrive there, I'm sure.
Lots of brib- I mean meeting clients on business trips. Yeah, doing business. And golf. For business. Shut up.
Dude, this 21-course 3-star Michelin restaurant is on my travel expense because it was a business dinner. And remember that it's a tax write off.
Well, they are entitled to it. Didn't you know that?
Talk about a serious failure of management
I know this is a radical idea, but what about... measuring employees by results instead of the number of clicks on the keyboard.
If you let your workers take breaks, check their email, chat to loved ones and peek at social media, their productivity goes way up.
Similarly, if you micromanage your staff, their productivity plummets.
If capitalism worked, and companies were driven towards actually maximizing dividends, companies would actively invest in the infrastructure to keep employees happy and in working form. But instead, companies consistently splurge on letting upper management behave like children, including hiring a staff of handlers to keep the binky in their mouths. And that includes letting them bully the staff.
Some day, we dream, the ownership class will tremble before revolution of the proletariat, and maybe well take some steps towards a public-serving economy.
But not today.
If they paid based on results, you'd be in sales. Everywhere else, you're a wage slave. On the hourly side, they try to wring every second of work they can out of you, and anything else is a 'loss'. It's the same for salaried employees, the measurement is just different. Instead of work efficiency, it's work hours. The rest is just politics.
That might have been how they found out. "Cody's been active for 48 hours straight and hasn't accomplished a single thing."
I'll admit I use an app to keep me from going idle, but I also was forced to come back 3 days a week and I bust my ass when I am there plus the mornings I work from home and only use it to sit back for a few extra hours in the afternoons when nothing else is pending. Also if anyone reaches out I do answer and hop on to fix or look at issues.
I wish I had a job that had such little work that I could just do whatever most days.
I use one too because I'm not away; I'm right fucking here in the office doing all this in-person collaborating management wants so badly.
"Usually he gives up after 12"
