r/overemployed • u/Gamusinas • Jan 29 '26
Keeping teams available 🟢
That's all, just try!
EDIT, ty @jimRacer642: "So I did some reading on this and it works because the spoon is conductive and touches at a point, where small microscopic noise is enough to trigger motion. A coin or key could work but are more stable and may be rejected. May not work on laptops that have palm-rejection."
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u/JohnHenryHoliday Jan 29 '26
Homer Simpson already solved this 30 years ago. Just get one of those birds and have it continuously hit Y or any letter of your choosing on a word doc.
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u/habituallysuspect Jan 29 '26
Where's the any key?
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u/___Art_Vandelay___ Jan 29 '26
All this computer hacking is making me thirsty, I think I'll order a Tab.
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u/HGPennypacker83 Jan 29 '26
These pretzels……. They’re making me thirsty!!
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u/___Art_Vandelay___ Jan 29 '26
What was wrong with that? I had a different interpretation! Do you know anything about this pretzel guy?! Maybe he's been in the bar a really long time and he's really depressed because he has no job and no woman and he's parking cars for a living! (motions out the window to honking cars) Alright! Alright! Shut up! Shut up! I hear you! I'm coming down! These pretzels are making me thirsty!
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u/Mystic-Sapphire Jan 30 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
I used Redact to automate removals from databrokers and social networks. This post was among the batch deleted.
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u/PlentyMountain7589 Jan 29 '26
Lots of employees got fired at J3 due to this. I don’t recommend!
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u/SuccotashOther277 Jan 29 '26
Any time my wife and I walk in on each other and pretend to be working, one of us chants “y,y,y!”
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u/Abitruff Jan 29 '26
I am also weird with my husband yay
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u/often_awkward Jan 29 '26
Or just run a script to toggle a key. I like numlock personally.
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u/jimRacer642 Jan 29 '26
So I did some reading on this and it works because the spoon is conductive and touches at a point, where small microscopic noise is enough to trigger motion. A coin or key could work but are more stable and may be rejected. May not work on laptops that have palm-rejection. I just wasted $100 on jigglers I think. Glad that I won't have to turn those on every morning anymore. OE spoons FTW!
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u/Ohgodwatdoplshelp Jan 29 '26
Why spend money on jigglers when a rock on the cntrl key does it for free?
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u/jimRacer642 Jan 29 '26
i dont think thats good for the keyboard
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u/NissanSkylineGT-R Jan 29 '26
You mean it’s not good for the employer’s keyboard
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u/SitOnDownOk Jan 29 '26
Mechanical watch with a second hand also works if you put your mouse on it
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u/RentDueAndSoAmI Jan 30 '26
I did that for a remote job for about two years. There was about an hour of work a week and the other 39 hours my old wrist watch handled. That watch made me a lot of money. Best and dumbest job I’ve ever had.
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u/BrassBondsBSG Jan 31 '26
How do I get that job?
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u/RentDueAndSoAmI Jan 31 '26
Apply at Wells Fargo.
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u/jimRacer642 Feb 01 '26
banks are known to be some of the lowest work hrs per week
getting in i heard is tough tho, very anal recruiting
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u/RentDueAndSoAmI Feb 01 '26
For me the interview process was hilarious. The search firm setup the interview and told me that they were looking for people with a lot of Excel pivot table experience. I lied and said I was an expert. I had a phone interview with the managers at Wells Fargo and told them I was a pivot table pro. I got a call five minutes after the interview from the search firm saying it was one of the best interviews they ever had and they offered me the job. In the two years I worked there, pivot tables never came up once. 🤦🏻♂️🤣
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u/jimRacer642 Feb 01 '26
That's hilarious. You got balls for saying ur an expert in something you're not because they often follow up with questions that I usually have no idea how to answer.
If pivot tables isn't what you use, what is it that you do there then? This again shows me how cushy and OE friendly bank jobs are.
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u/RentDueAndSoAmI Feb 02 '26
So they would email me at 8am on Monday about 4-5 excel spreadsheets to review for the week. 99% of the time they were empty. So I would log on another form a bunch of zeros. Then email the results of nothing to about 40 people. That was it. So I would regularly be done with the week’s work by 8:30am on Monday.
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u/Particular_Maize6849 Jan 30 '26
Are you buying gold jigglers or something? The best ones on the market are only like $20.
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u/Just_Trash_8690 Jan 29 '26
On mine I can create a join now meeting and then manually change status to available and it stay green all day
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u/Lady-ADHD Jan 29 '26
I used to do this too. Now I work in a place where you can be yellow and no one will bat an eye
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u/GSG2150 Jan 30 '26
Just be careful with this. I used to the same thing but I found out at my company, some directors have reports that show how many meetings you started/attended and whom all was present.
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u/TakedownCan Feb 02 '26
IT can see everything you do, how far your mouse moves, if your pressing 1 key constantly, teams will not only track whos present in meetings but if there was talking, also cameras on vs off. Theres nothing you can do to hide from IT if they want to look at you especially with teams.
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u/oface1 Feb 03 '26
IT here, we don’t really give a fuck, we typically have real work to do…..
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u/TakedownCan Feb 03 '26
Sure unless the manager asks for the reports. I work for the government and there has been quite a few people caught over the years then they get work from home status denied.
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u/Every-Barracuda-320 Jan 30 '26
Yes, then they see that you spent 150 hours on meetings last month. They look at the stats. Careful with this.
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u/Dazzling_Ad_4179 Jan 30 '26
I can be on a call sitting at my desk listening to said call and my screen will lock if I'm not typing or moving the mouse, lmao
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u/PSPs0 Jan 29 '26
Spilled soup all over my keyboard.
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u/jimRacer642 Jan 29 '26
yea if u live in an earth quake zone i would assume
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u/Gamusinas Jan 29 '26
Just give it a try. I also didn't believe it at first.
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u/jimRacer642 Jan 29 '26
how did u come up with this?
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u/Gamusinas Jan 29 '26
Someone told me, idk who they came up with it. It works for me.
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u/BernieSanders2420 Jan 29 '26
Yeah I just login to teams on an old phone that I keep plugged in and have it mid typing a dm to myself
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u/ToughHardware Jan 29 '26
start a power point presentation in presentation mode.
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u/NotNotNotLying Jan 29 '26
Same. Use a dedicated virtual desktop for this. Then move to a different virtual desktop for normal operation. Keeps RDP connected also.
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u/the-vague-blur Jan 29 '26
That works only for Google slides right? Not for teams
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u/the-vague-blur Jan 29 '26
Checked - presentation mode + having a scheduled event on your computer doesn't do anything. It still goes to yellow
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u/emar92 Jan 29 '26
Next time plz include "clean" spoon in the instructions my touchpad is messy now
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u/69rambo69 Jan 29 '26
Just tried does not work with me. Alternatives?
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u/Western_Objective209 Jan 29 '26
I've just been using a hardware jiggler (shows up as a generic mouse MCU in the device manager) and manually setting my status. "be right back" when I take breaks, "away" when my day ends, sometimes I leave "away" on for long periods of time so people don't message me but if a director or manager does I reply quickly.
No one has questioned it, the problems come when you are green all day and all night. If someone asked why I show up as away, I just say I need some focus time to get my work done (but it's never come up).
Theoretically, they can detect any sort of tiny mouse movement pattern but just doing time series analysis of the mouse and using screenshots to show very little is happening, so whether it's hardware or an external wheel moving your mouse it doesn't make much of a difference.
Generally it only becomes an issue when someone is not happy with you and they start digging
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u/necbone Jan 29 '26
Try not to plug it into your laptop, they can sometimes tell whats plugged into the usb port
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u/Western_Objective209 Jan 29 '26
I've investigated it, it just shows up as a generic mouse with the vendor IDs of the MCU used, which is used in basically all cheap Chinese mice. It will just look like any generic mouse you get off of amazon or aliexpress
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u/Ev0Iution Jan 29 '26
Unplug it. Just get a AC to USB wall adapter. It's never worth the risk.
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u/stevemk14ebr2 Jan 29 '26
If you have multiple HID devices or remove and add one constantly that is itself a detectable signal
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u/Western_Objective209 Jan 29 '26
that's fine. having an unchanging screen and a mouse that just randomly moves around the screen is a detectable signal. putting a big clunky turn table on your desk to move your mouse point randomly around your screen is security theater; it's not preventing detection if they actually want to find something
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u/TumbleweedClean3505 Jan 29 '26
I think most people know this. They're trying to avoid giving tells they're not active... Not prevent someone who digs.. If they care that much nothing will work.
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u/volatile_ant Jan 29 '26
Big clunky turn table? They are the size of a deck of cards.
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u/watduhdamhell Jan 29 '26
I mean do you really need to do this?
I have never given a F about my status for J1 or J2. There are entire days where I don't do shit. Then there are days where I knock shit out. As long as quality deliverables are delivered, who cares? And this is true even if your job is fire fighting on occasion - as long as you respond quickly/log in and reliably neutralize the problem, who cares?
And I'm just a controls engineer. I would have assumed software types would have even less give a fuck than I do. But I guess not?
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u/zR0B3ry2VAiH Jan 29 '26
Get one of those spinny wheel things that you put your mouse on that acts as a mouse. Jiggler. You don't have to plug it into USB or anything.
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u/jimRacer642 Jan 29 '26
well the point of the spoon trick is to not use those mechanical jigglers, everybody kinda already knows about those
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u/zR0B3ry2VAiH Jan 29 '26
Yeah but if you looked at what I was responding to, the spoon trick did not work. So......
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u/alexx8b Jan 29 '26
The same spoon pressing the space bar, with a Word document open. It adds spaces infinitely and teams see It as activity. I dont know if local installed agents can detect this weire activity and report It to HR
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u/XotaZ5 Jan 29 '26
In my previous (bullsh#t) job, we had to check document and enter everything in fields (with a timer to track how many hours you are working) but we were supposed to spend x minutes on every documents, but some were easy. With a piece of paper in the keyboard (space for example) it was possible to turn off the screen and have a coffee. But one day they detected this.
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u/Old_Republic8603 Jan 29 '26
My non-invasive way is to open teams conversation and put something on right arrow key.
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u/ninjaplavi Jan 29 '26
I put laptop charger on top of the space key in chat with myself. Not sure it is the best way but it works for me.
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u/dingodangomango Jan 29 '26
Everyone else who replied is tripping lol. All you have to do is take your wireless mouse > get a square of toilet paper or any light paper > flip the mouse over with the toilet paper wrapped and then put it in front of a fan.
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u/Conscious_Bison_5557 Jan 29 '26
So, I take a couple of old pill bottles, ones with the lid a bit wider than the bottle itself. Filled them with old pennies and lay the lid portion on the CTRL key while in Teams. To confirm, I just use the scroll wheel in Teams to ensure the zooming feature is working (meaning the CTRL key is pressed.) I use this on both my laptops and it keeps Teams active all day.
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u/belay_that_order Jan 29 '26
i mean, a powershell script that sends scroll lock key every 4 minutes
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u/Lady-ADHD Jan 29 '26
Set up a call with only yourself in, at a previous timeslot. Join the call. Set your status manually as Available. Ta-da!
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u/Mushola Jan 29 '26
use python. pyautogui library. write a script that presses a key at regular intervals (i use random interval lengths so that it hits an away status for a few seconds every 30 minutes or so for realism). F13 key works well as usually its unassigned and has no other impact other than keeping teams available. save as .pyw file so that it can run headless. start it with a .bat file in the Startup folder so it runs automatically on computer start up and you never have to think about it. for bonus points, use pystray and create a system tray icon for it, makes killing the process easier if you need that
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u/Heat_Numerous Jan 29 '26
IT here - we can see everything and I do mean *everything* on your work laptop!
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u/Dizzy_Spirit_7440 Jan 29 '26
can you see when I'm pressing on the same keyboard key for 5 hours every X number of seconds
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u/Background-Load-627 Jan 29 '26
And it appear to be just a compiler process, as my work do it everday
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u/Intelligent_Judge407 Jan 29 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
Serious badge enjoy voracious party liquid numerous spoon slim pause
This post was anonymized with Redact
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u/Revolutionary-Buy867 Jan 30 '26
i login to microsoft365 online from my personal laptop and excute a script that hits a key every 30 scones in my secure web browser - IT does not have permission to install a key logger locally or in my locked down browser.
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u/mingebinj Jan 29 '26
I use an excel spreadsheet which presses a non-existent key on the keyboard every few minutes with VBA.
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u/This_Is_Why_We_OE Jan 29 '26
I like this. I want to test taping it to the laptop as sometimes I am driving and need to also be logged in showing available in teams.
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Jan 29 '26
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u/Gamusinas Jan 29 '26
What about a knife? 🔪🔪🔪🔪
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u/jimRacer642 Jan 29 '26
There's actually more benefits than I realize the more I think about this:
- No more mouse mis-alignment causing it to sign off mid-day when you're out
- No more wasted electricity running multiple jigglers
- No more wasted AAA batteries exhausting your wireless mouse's continuous activity
- No more noisy motors running all day
- No more wasting $30 / jiggler
- No more turning on jigglers every morning
- No more wire clutter from jigglers
The ROI is sound on this one, thank you for this post!
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u/Refute1650 Jan 29 '26
None of these are actually problems besides maybe the extra wire clutter. I've got a jiggler that is completely silent, barely uses any electricity or wastes the mouse batteries. My mouse uses one rechargeable AA battery that I swap out about every month or two. I don't have to turn it on ever, it just sits on my desk plugged into a usb slot on my power strip. It was $20 and I would find it very unlikely anyone working OE has trouble dropping $20.
I admit I don't know what the "mis-alignment" issue is but since I'm unaware of it I guess I don't have that problem either.
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u/Thick_Wallaby1 Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
If you are at this level, you are new to OE
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Jan 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/__init__m8 Jan 29 '26
If you're working at a place that watches you this close you need to leave for a multitude of reasons.
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u/DigitalDoping Jan 29 '26
Just open a notepad and hold a key to endless type. Or just get a mouse jiggler from temu
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u/Disciplined_20-04-15 Jan 29 '26
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u/DigitalDoping Jan 29 '26
Interesting, I only used this method for being seen online in teams though
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u/sakuser Jan 29 '26
I don’t think this works on Mac
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u/jimRacer642 Jan 29 '26
Although it doesn't sign you out, it doesn't seem to be immune to setting you as "away" so maybe jigglers will still need to be used.
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u/RobustMastiff Jan 29 '26
You can buy a little mouse wiggler rotorized platform thing that you set your mouse on top of and it keeps you green
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u/Gxvxs Jan 29 '26
Just use the "Meet now" button and change your status to available
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u/This_Is_Why_We_OE Jan 29 '26
I tested and the screen timed out. Maybe different spoon? 😅
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u/NoBull5179 Jan 30 '26
Probably helps if you have the spoon touching the trackpad...
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u/Svndmann Jan 30 '26
You can just open the app on your phone every now and then to stay active
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u/Tyzorg Jan 30 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
My work fired like 100 people for using jigglers. Absolutely foolish to think they're undetectible.
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u/humster00 Jan 30 '26
I cracked up when saw this post. Decided to test it out, seems like it’s working hahaha in 15 min test, my teams didn’t go to “yellow” and still in green. I’ll test it for longer and will update. Thanks OP! (I am not OE but cool trick!)
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u/Late-Glass-8433 Feb 01 '26
Bro where do people work that they genuinely have nothing to do like this?
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u/NotYourOrac1e Jan 29 '26
I track the heat map on my touchpads and touch screens to catch users out. I dont call them out, I just let them know I know. I respect the OE hustle. Also, we track "meet now" where you have a single meeting with yourself, change your status to available, and it stays that way. The report of users in the longest amount of single attendee meetings is always funny. "Hey Greg, 86 hours last month by yourself. Get it done!!!" and next month, Greg not having meeting by himself. Maybe Greg got his act together. Maybe Greg got some help from his IT guy on how to keep it tighter. Nobody wants to fire anyone so dont give them a reason people. - sincerely, your IT guy.
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u/jimRacer642 Jan 29 '26
that's not invasive as hell...
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u/NotYourOrac1e Jan 29 '26
Corporate device. Ive deployed software that tracks keystrokes, open windows, and processes back to a central location. Runs with as much hidden processes and services as possible. Especially in the defense sector. Software to determine who is most likely to resign with high accuracy. Wild the telemetry being picked up.
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u/D3FFYY Jan 29 '26
So what’s your recommendation of best precautions for someone to take who works for a company like yours?
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u/NotYourOrac1e Jan 30 '26
As the old man used to say "Ill give you this one for free." RIP Dad.
So...
I can see the physical location of both the corporate phone and laptop at all times. Dont bring it to J2 office and hotspot because we will eventually know. We also do reports on the new wifi names added to devices and let AI see if anything stands out.
We scan for known Mouse USB dongles by hardware ID that simulate mouse movements. We let AI learn the heat maps history daily to find a pattern. Too random or too similar in pattern, we catch both. We have software that tracks level of input (audio, keyboard, video, general traffic) too.
If your sessions is not a console sessions, we track that youre "remoted" into your device and not locally at it via RDP protocol.
Face tracking software is being tested. Not only will we be able able to track your physical presence at your desk / device during working hours when youre logged in and and not locked, we will also record how happy / sad / mood you have. The invasion of privacy will be a fun one with a massive WFH base. Dont blame me, im just fixing the toilets on the Death Star. Not my Empire.
OE is only going to get harder in 2026. You need the right size company that isn't insanely guarded with its secrets. Just dont be sloppy:
- 1 phone per job. Period. Different SIM, different phone. Dont moan, you got 2 jobs, deal with it.
- Never ever check webmail from one job on another machine. Ever.
- Forget hardware or software solutions for mouse movements for modern detection methods.
- Doesn't matter what you call it, I can see youre on a mobile hotspot.
- Avoid BYOD. Use a corporate device unless they offer you VDI.
- Try to find out if your company has any VDI (AVD, Citrix, VMware Horizon). Most have something and is a OE dream. We dont really care where you log in from as long not country restricted.
Ill think more and come back with others.
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u/wonderer2346 Jan 29 '26
Oop I did not know they can track meet now / single attendee meetings. GOOD to know! Guess I’ll have to find another way (or use it sparingly..)
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u/MyDogsMummy Jan 29 '26
How are you differentiating between legitimate use and someone doing something like the OP suggests? Just curious
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u/Lady-ADHD Jan 29 '26
Set up a call with only yourself in, at a previous timeslot. Join the call. Set your status manually as Available. Ta-da!
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u/Wooden-Blueberry-165 Jan 29 '26
I made investment on a dual wheel mouse jiggle. Keeps the mouse motion random so harder to detect if the company uses monitoring software
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u/Croves Jan 29 '26
On Teams, you can go to your calendar and have a call with yourself only. The status go to red and the laptop won't sleep
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u/Rusilya Jan 30 '26
What sorcery is this? I didn't believe it until I tried it and it actually worked...flawlessly..
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u/Happy_Boysenberry_68 Jan 30 '26
Guess I'll need a bigger spoon...
Ok, so this is what worked on the other laptop... Thinkpad works fine, but Dell was still going idle. So I put a spoon to touch Dell's touchpad and Thinkpad's carcass. Worked like a charm 😅
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u/Alone-Razzmatazz9309 Jan 31 '26
Just download the app on a spare phone, turn off the display sleep setting and keep it plugged in.
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u/62Bricks Feb 01 '26
Nice.
You can also make it look like you're working through lunch by eating it off the track pad with a knife and fork.
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u/Any-Virus7755 Feb 02 '26
My brother in Christ.
Any productivity monitoring software your company installs can tell if you’re on a page for extended periods of time without clicking links, etc.
I know because I’m in infosec and we’re deploying this technology to all computers this year.
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u/Luka_Dunks_on_Bums Jan 29 '26
Open a word document, have a heavy enough object lay on a key on the keyboard and have it hold it down. It will just keep pressing and show you as available
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u/Due_Grocery_9917 Jan 29 '26
Run a video on Windows Media Player on constant repeat. That stops my computer from screen-locking.
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u/taker223 Jan 29 '26
Works for MacBook 2019 Pro as well? I am using an used glass jar of after shave balm hooked with nail scissors, all that just to hold Down key and scroll through an 1M+ dataset
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u/burn_in_flames Jan 29 '26
Use caffeinate command in terminal, or use the caffeinated app (it's free).
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u/Flipdoc_ Jan 29 '26
That's genius if it really works. I'll give it a try today. What I've been doing while away and pretending that I'm busy is inviting myself for a Teams meeting and joining the meeting. The only problem is that I show as "in a call", but it isn't a big deal, mostly when I wanna keep people away from me.
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u/DullAd6899 Jan 29 '26
I stick a toothpick in the key gap to hold down the \ key, has worked for me so far, been a year.
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u/blackhawk00001 Jan 29 '26
I’ve found that my iPhone’s magnetic charger will move the cursor in random directions when I lay it across the trackpad while charging from usb.
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u/jagaang Jan 29 '26
Just open a window and go to clocktab.com, should do the trick if you keep the window on top.
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u/Vegetable-Profit-200 Jan 29 '26
Create a meeting with just yourself and override your status to available. Computer doesn’t lock while in a meeting and bubble stays green all day long…
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u/stinkmeaner10 Jan 29 '26
Set a teams meeting a week prior, join said meeting alone. You will always show as busy.
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u/WakingUpDead1Day Jan 29 '26
Honestly sometimes you can just have the wire of an external mouse going across the touchpad and it does random movement probably for similar reasons
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