For some years now, especially after the 2020 pandemic, working from home has become increasingly popular, and today thousands of companies have already adopted this system within their workflow, with hybrid schedules that combine office and home work. Furthermore, among these changes, shorter workdays have also been tested in order to increase employee productivity and, consequently, company productivity. The case of Patrick Synge, commercial director of Metrickal, a Barcelona-based company, who decided to implement a four-day workweek. The executive, who implemented the four-day workweek, ended up firing one of his employees for holding two jobs simultaneously.
“I had a feeling he was doing something on his own, but since there was no proof, I didn’t want to jump to conclusions”
The co-founder and chief commercial officer of a remote recruitment company fired an employee after software installed on his computer revealed he had been working two jobs simultaneously. Patrick Synge, chief commercial officer of Metrickal, a Barcelona-based company, explained that one of his employees, hired in 2022, began missing deadlines, and the company started receiving complaints from dissatisfied clients. “I had a feeling he was doing something on his own, but since there was no proof, I didn’t want to jump to conclusions,” Synge told Business Insider.
The business owner wanted to try implementing a four-day workweek for his employees, so he needed to understand how they spent their time during the workday in order to optimize it. Because, as we’ve said, it’s not about cramming all the work into four days, but about achieving the best possible productivity by spreading out the workday. The goal is to find a balance where employees can perform their tasks in a more relaxed and calm manner, while the business owner has the work done and benefits from a more relaxed and comfortable workforce with schedules that allow them to better balance work and family life.
The first step in controlling time with the new implementation was to install DeskTime software on their work computers
The fact is that with the implementation of the new work schedule, Patrick Synge began to suspect one of his employees, so he decided to talk to him to find out what was going on. “Although there were some signs of improvement, his overall performance didn’t change much. This placed a significant burden on the rest of the team, who had to cover his workload and manage the missed deadlines,” the businessman pointed out. Synge’s suspicion wasn’t merely intuitive. According to sources close to the company, the first step in controlling time with the new implementation was to install DeskTime software on their work computers. This program allows them to track the time spent using specific programs used for work purposes.
Initially, installing DeskTime was intended to help the company and its employees better understand how they were spending their time and how productivity could be improved. However, while analyzing DeskTime data, the business owner discovered that one of his employees was using applications unrelated to his role at Metrickal. In deciding to terminate the employee, Synge made it clear that this behavior was unacceptable and showed a complete lack of teamwork: “I don’t think it’s fair to the rest of the team to have to cover up someone else’s poor performance… his actions were simply selfish.”
Ultimately, the businessman’s suspicions were confirmed. The employee spent more than half his day working for a US company, as the app’s data confirmed. “It seems he forgot about the tracking software, since once downloaded, it doesn’t require any manual on/off switching. I probably would have fired him anyway, but the tracked data was the missing piece of conclusive evidence,” the company’s CEO explained.