Man jokingly shares hack for making it appear like you are working when at home

‘When your boss requires you to be ‘active’ online throughout the day’

(@thelastjoey / TikTok)

A man has jokingly shared a hack for working from home, in which he attached his computer’s mouse to a Roomba automatic vacuum cleaner.

In a video posted to TikTok last month, Joey Mcdonald, @thelastjoey, showed his computer mouse tied to a string, which was attached to his robotic vacuum cleaner. The mouse could be seen being dragged by the moving Roomba.

Mcdonald joked that the work-from-home tip was his way of showing that he’s “active” on his professional and online platforms.

“When your boss requires you to be ‘active’ online throughout the day,” the text over the video reads.

As of 16 March, the video has more than 11.3 million views, with TikTok users finding humour in the situation, as they joked about the benefits of working from home and how a boss could potentially find out about the Roomba.

“You can’t make me come back, I’m so much more productive at home,” one viewer jokingly wrote.

“So we GPS tracked your mouse and noticed you seemed to have travelled a couple miles,” another said.

Many applauded Mcdonald’s idea, with one person writing: “Modern problems require modern solutions.”

However, there are a few drawbacks to this invention. One viewer acknowledged that “this will work until the Roomba runs over the string”. Mcdonald said that was exactly what happened, “two second after” filming the video, emphasising how a “shorter string” is the way to go.

Others also shared their own tips for working from home and how to make it look like you’re active on your computer.

“Open a draft in email >place something heavy on space bar>profit,” a comment reads.

“Mouse jiggler – download, set the time, and it moves your cursor on the screen,” another viewer recommended.

As noted on Amazon, a mouse jiggler is a physical item that keeps your computer active by “randomly moving your optical mouse”. It also prevents the “away” status from appearing on different computer applications, such as Zoom and WebEx.

The Independent has reached out to Mcdonald for comment.