Hacking DeskTime: Why employees try and how to prevent it

Can DeskTime be tricked? Yes, of course. Just like any other time tracking tool has its blind spots, there are ways to trick DeskTime, if you try hard enough. 

Does that mean that DeskTime is a weak or unreliable time-tracking app? No, not at all.

DeskTime is designed to be a helpful tool, not a foolproof spying app. It’s a tool that can be customized to fit the needs of any organization and manager. 

In other words—the way to use time tracking largely depends on the manager’s vision and needs. And, if used the right way, your employees won’t feel a need to look for DeskTime hacks, but might actually see it as a way to hack their own productivity and potential.

Why do employees try to hack time trackers?

If you’re considering introducing a time tracking system to your company, we can tell you right now: yes, your employees will think about ways to hack it. Yes, they’ll consider mouse jigglers and Google “how to trick desktime” at least once. But here’s the good news: that won’t be an issue if you approach time tracking and management the right way.

To prevent employees from wasting time on DeskTime hacks, you first need to understand why they try to cheat time tracking apps. After 13 years in the business, we’ve learned that it’s rarely about the app itself. No, it’s not because the app is too simple, too complicated, or lacks enough hack-proof features.

In reality, it’s usually because the employees are unsure and afraid. They’re afraid the app won’t accurately reflect their work. They’re unsure of what management wants to achieve, and they’re worried that their entire worth as employees will suddenly be reduced to confusing numbers over which they have no control. 

It’s pretty scary when you think about it. We can admit that. But here comes the good news: as the employer, you can erase those fears. You can make time tracking work wonders for your team—DeskTime is a highly customizable tool, so you can build it as friendly and non-invasive to your employees as you want. 

How to ensure your employees don’t try to trick DeskTime?

Let’s start with the basics: honesty. Honesty is paramount when introducing time tracking software to your organization. The worst thing you can do is not say anything to your team or simply enforce time tracking software without any explanation. 

When time tracking is implemented with transparency and a focus on improvement, employees are less likely to seek workarounds. We’ve outlined four strategies to make your employees more comfortable tracking their time at work.  

1. Clarify DeskTime won’t define their work performance

Let your employees know that DeskTime data won’t be the only factor in evaluating their performance. While DeskTime is a great tool for managers, it shouldn’t define an employee’s value. 

Effective performance evaluation considers a range of factors, including project completion, quality of work, collaboration, and adherence to deadlines. DeskTime can provide insights into time allocation and work habits, but combining this data with other performance indicators is crucial for an accurate assessment. 

For example, an employee might log fewer hours but deliver exceptional results, demonstrating efficiency and focus. Conversely, an employee with high DeskTime activity might be less productive due to distractions or inefficient workflows.

2. Allow employees to control their tracked time

Your employees will feel more relaxed about tracking time at work if they know they can see and correct their data. It’s important that employees feel that DeskTime data accurately reflects the reality of their work day. 

That’s why we have features like Offline time, Calendar time, Private time, and more. These features give employees the chance to review and edit their Productivity bar, adding the time they’ve spent away from the computer, in meetings, or doing something in private mode.

Giving your employees control over how they track their data will ensure they view DeskTime as an improvement and analytics tool rather than a spying software. This means they’ll be less likely to look for ways to cheat DeskTime.   

3. Offer time tracking benefits to employees 

Time tracking works best when you approach it as a two-way street: you get something, and your employees get something. To demonstrate time tracking benefits to your team, you can introduce work-from-home or hybrid work options, flexible hours, or workations. All these flex arrangements go well together with the introduction of time tracking software.

Imagine if starting time tracking in your company also meant introducing flexible hours—thanks to DeskTime, people can start work at 10 AM or even 11 AM if they can end the workday later and gather the needed work hours. 

With Return To Office (RTO) mandates making headlines and efficiency dominating the conversation, now’s the perfect time to boost your reputation as an employer. Offering more remote and flexible work options is a smart move—and with DeskTime, it’s easier than ever.

4. Discourage micromanagement and spying

Time tracking rules vary by industry and job type, but regardless of your approach, avoid using DeskTime for surveillance—it negatively impacts morale and performance. Your employees might end up checking their DeskTime compulsively instead of focusing on their primary responsibilities because they’ll worry someone is monitoring their activity constantly. 

You can prevent these fears by being open and transparent about how often you plan to view employee data. Take a cue from our client Dāvis Kurēns, the COO of Roadgames, who checks his team’s overall data once a month just to get a sense of the overall temperature.

If you run a larger company with several teams, make sure your team leads are briefed on time tracking best practices, too. You can also introduce your employees to our Private time feature, which allows them to turn off DeskTime whenever they need a moment for something personal, for example, paying a bill or checking their bank account.   

Time tracking best practices

Our own DeskTime team works a 35-hour week, using our software to track time. We enjoy complete flexibility in how we structure those hours. Whether it’s seven hours daily, eight hours Monday through Thursday, four on Friday, or any other combination, we have the autonomy to choose a schedule that works best for us.

Why do we do this? 

Research shows that sustained productivity for eight consecutive hours is unrealistic. Take the resource depletion theory, for instance, which suggests that cognitive resources are limited and become depleted with sustained use. When we focus on a task for a long time, our mental resources get used up, leading to decreased attention, increased errors, and reduced performance.

Knowing that one cannot keep uninterrupted focus AND remain productive, many countries and regions even have laws mandating regular breaks. For example, the EU’s Working Time Directive sets minimum standards for working hours and rest periods within member states. It mandates a minimum of 20 minutes break when the working day is longer than six hours. 

One of the keys to preventing your employees from trying to trick DeskTime is to make time tracking sound like a good thing and give your employees some benefits that go along with it. Here are some more examples you can use:

• According to Gallup, 76% (!) of employees experience job burnout at least sometimes. Time tracking helps with work transparency and can assist in better workload management, potentially tackling the burnout issue. 
• Microsoft discovered that 68% of workers don’t have enough time for uninterrupted focus at work. Time tracking tools can be very useful when it comes to identifying time-wasting activities and reclaiming focus time.
• With a time tracking tool implemented, losing the unhealthy overtime work is a lot easier than when one’s work hours are not tracked. Studies show that overtime work is not only counterproductive but hazardous to one’s health as well.

Remember—your employees aren’t robots

Rather than guaranteeing eight hours of daily productivity from every employee (an unrealistic expectation), DeskTime enables a two-way street of honesty for both the employer and the employee.

At the end of the day, yes, it is impossible and unproductive to constantly monitor every employee to prevent them from trying to hack DeskTime. Instead, focus on providing guidance and support. Our experience with time tracking and productivity monitoring shows that teams thrive when managers establish clear expectations and ground rules. 

At its core, no time tracking system is completely foolproof. Our goal is not to create one; our goal is to give employers and employees a way to record what happens during work hours more clearly and make the work environment more transparent.