Guy builds device for 32 remote employees to bypass company's new idle time requirements, now CEO wants one too: 'You wanted zero idle times!'

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 7, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

Working remotely has its perks, but that can backfire easily as well. Sure, you may feel like you have the freedom to complete tasks and responsibilities at your own leisure, on your own time, and from wherever. That being said, as most remote employees likely know, plenty of companies have begun taking away many of the privileges that full-time work-from-home employees were once afforded just a few years ago. 

One of the areas that employers can be particularly difficult about is how they monitor productivity. Of course, most workers believe that productivity should be measured by output. Does the work get done when it needs to be completed? If that's the case, then there shouldn't be anything for managers to complain about. However, other folks, usually those who are insecure about whether or not they are good managers, tend to measure productivity by how active they are on Slack or Teams. Perhaps you like to start your work early sometimes, so you can finish a bit early. For some managers, that's not a problem, but for others, it's a big red flag. 

Keep scrolling below for this author's story of how he helped his sister, and in turn, over half of her entire company, avoid the new idle time requirements!

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    ANNIVERSARY NINE FAMILY FIRST NSSEX BROTHER
    via Rendy Novantino

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    This story is from a few years ago. Its how I helped my sister and somehow got her company to willingly bypass their own idle time requirements.
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    Her company went work from home after the lockdown and stayed working from home. At first they required an always on camera system but that quickly went away as the amount of unintended that comes from your average household is quite startling.
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    Then they went with a system that tracks your idle time in teams. The amount of write ups, meetings, group meetings, and eventual terminations for what was the dumbest requirement ever cause my sister to ask for help.
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    She sent me an amazon link for one of those USB sticks that jiggles the mouse. I told her dont use those as even lazy IT can detect them.
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    At the time, amazon wasnt selling mechanical mouse turners yet, or at least at reasonable prices, so I looked at building one. I found an STL file for this flowery mouse holder which I modified to be just
    via TheLightningCount1
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    straight monocolor and 3d printed it. I cut out 1.5 inch circular disk and put it on a weak motor and connected it to a power source through USB.
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    I set the wheel to spin every 1-12 seconds for a total of 2-5 seconds at a time but ran into an issue. Sometimes the disk spinning would not actually move the mouse.
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    I found a company that would print stickers at a dollar a sticker if I ordered 5 of them. SO I found this basic pattern of squares and lines crisscrossing each other and had it printed to just under the dimensions of the disk.
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    I stuck it on there and the mouse turner worked perfectly. I quickly ran into another issue. Since the disk was raised, it quickly got hung up on the mouse with the sticker.
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    So back into design I went and made it where the dimensions were slightly larger for the base and sit it where the disk would be 2mm below the actual mouse.
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    After printing it the mouse sat on the cradle and the disk spun without touching. The mouse cursor would randomly just move in weird directions at the times the disk spun.
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    So with that all out of the way I got a free lunch out of my sister and delivered it. It hooked into her laptop's USP port, never being detected, and would turn her wheel decreasing her idle time down to zero.
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    Within 2 weeks she was recognized as a top performer. She was watching crime dramas with her volume at max until she got a notification that customer submitted a request. In other words, her productivity stayed exactly the same.
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    So she calls me up and asks if I can make more of those. Thankfully I saved the STL files and could order more stickers if I needed. I told her I could make each one for 25 bucks. The cheapest on amazon at the time were like 50 and it only cost me roughly 12 bucks to make them, which went down to 8 bucks to make them at the end.
    via TheLightningCount1
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    She said several coworkers were asking her about it and she said she would just give them my number.
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    Within a month I had built out 50 mechanical mouse turners. Which was kind of waste as this company only had 32 employees. I miscounted. Sometimes I would meet 5 or more of her coworkers at a restuarant at the same time just so I wouldnt have to drive all over dfw.
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    Then one weekend I get a call from the CEO of that company. See all of his workers were using these mouse turners, and he wasnt. So when the company published the report on idle times, his was abysmally low.
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    9 9 9 O 4 A D F O H J KL Z X C v B N A M >>> > option command Эк command option
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    That phone call was one of the most surreal I have ever had. At first he thought I was one of his employees. I told him I wasnt, I worked for a waste management company. (I dont but I wasnt about to tell him.) He asked me about the
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    mouse turners. I told him that I designed them for a friend, but that person no longer worked for his company. (Again lies. I was protecting my sister, not like he couldnt figure it out but still) He asked if he could get one.
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    This is where the conversation went VERY weird. See I tried convincing him to give up the idle. timer requirements as it clearly wasnt important and only harmed
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    his company. I laid out all of my points for it and pointed out that the ceo of the company is buying a device specifically designed to bypass his requirement.
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    He would not budge. He was so into his company dogma that he just wanted one from me. I already had a few left over so I told him I could make him one for 35 bucks.
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    Here is the really up part of the story. See he asked for a full list of my clients, promising that no one would be fired, he just wanted to know how many. I told him that a list would be unnecessary as its every single one of his employees. Literally all 32 excluding him.
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    His response was to have the company reimburse each employee the 25 dollars for the mouse turners and set it up where his company would contact me each time a new employee started.
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    I said I had 10 left over from the initial batch of ones I made and can just give him those and have him contact me when he runs out. He agreed.
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  • 28
    Well that kind of never happened as a company on amazon made what is basically the same thing I was making for like 15 bucks. Theirs is much nicer than mine was too lol.
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  • 29
    So a company set idle time requirements which caused issues at the company. Now the company buys devices for each employee so that bypasses the idle timer.
    via TheLightningCount1

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workplace-stories employee work stories toxic-workplace job work ceo overworked-employees Horrible Bosses reddit thread bad bosses Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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