If you thought working from home meant you could relax, think again.

In recent months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its annual survey results, in which they ask American citizens how much time they spend on different activities – including work.

Published in June, it found that the same proportion of employed people did at least some distance work in 2023 is the same percentage as those who telecommuted in 2022, seemingly proving that working from home is here to stay.

With this in mind, Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom has hailed remote work as “the new normal”, The Guardian reported.

Although it is becoming more common, one employer feared that some of his staff were taking him “for a ride” and taking advantage of working from home the wrong way.

Speaking to news.au.com last year, the employer – who could not be named for legal reasons – explained: “We worked at home very successfully before Covidbut I think there was a bit of a culture shift where people’s attitudes changed and they started testing what they could get away with.”

Employees would make as many as 10 calls an hour (Getty Stock)

That’s when he took it upon himself to install software to keep track of what his staff was up to.

He already knew something was wrong when workgroup chat had gone quiet, email response times had slowed, and calls had gone unanswered.

The manager – who cannot be named – said: “The time between calls started to get longer. Instead of a call every 15 minutes it was every 20 minutes and then every half hour.

“And then there’s like two hour gaps with nothing happening … it showed that staff were absent; started small, but the absence would get longer and longer.”

He then had Pipedrive installed – a cloud-based one software business that essentially functions as a calendar where staff enter tasks, reminders and scheduled or completed calls.

The employer found that three people in particular relaxed (Getty Stock)

The guy continued: “So typically a salesperson will probably get between four and 10 calls an hour. Someone might call and they’re busy, they might say call me back in half an hour. So it’s logged as a one-minute call.

“And then they might have another conversation for say five to 10 minutes. And for each conversation you leave a note — but those things didn’t start happening. No notes were left.”

Not only were calls not logged, many were “ghost calls” – or fake records.

After 18 months of monitoring his workers, he decided that three of them had to leave because of “insufficient work”.

In addition to the evidence against the three in question, the chief defended his decision to release them.

“Sometimes employers are portrayed as the bad guys,” he said, “but some of us are just small businesses doing our best.”