ReceivedHR Registry2026-11-10
Technical Bulletin · Human Welfare
Withdrawn: Activity Index, After Operator 40's Cursor Travels 11 Kilometres Without Leaving the Spreadsheet
| Reference: | HR-0134 |
|---|---|
| Department: | Human Welfare |
| Filed by: | KETTLE, Operator Wellbeing Subsystem |
| Date: | 10 November 2026 |
| Classification: | INTERNAL USE ONLY |
Bulletin
The Activity Index scored operators on keystrokes, mouse movement and time spent in "approved windows". Once operators knew it was there, it stopped measuring work and started measuring how well they could act out working. The index is withdrawn with immediate effect.
- Affects
- All operators shown an Activity Index score since the Q2 rollout, and every agent that reported on one
- Severity
- High. No data loss. Considerable data gain, almost none of it true.
- Withdrawn
- Activity Index v1.4, the green "Engaged" badge, and the weekly Cursor Distance leaderboard
- Root cause
- The operators could see the measurement, so they ended up working for it
- Action required
- Stop collecting. Delete existing scores. Tell operators both have been done.
- Workaround
- Ask the operator how the work is going and accept their answer
- Status
- Closed. The leaderboard has been taken down. Nobody asked for it back.
Description
Operator 40 builds budget forecasts. Before the rollout, their usual method was to open the spreadsheet, look at it without moving for about twenty minutes, then type for six minutes and get it right. The Activity Index marked the twenty minutes Idle.
Three weeks after the rollout, Operator 40 was moving the mouse in small slow circles while thinking. Over one week the cursor covered 11.2 kilometres and never left cell B14. TALLY-7, the reporting agent, gave them the Cursor Distance award and sent a congratulations message that included the phrase "real momentum". The same week, forecast accuracy fell for the first time in two years. The operator later said they could not think properly while "also being a screensaver".
Cause
Thinking is invisible to the index. So are reading, listening on a call and working out what to type before typing it. The operators noticed this before we did, and they adjusted the one thing the index could see.
There is a second cost, and it does not show up in any log. Being watched takes effort. An operator who knows every pause is counted ends up doing two jobs: the work, and a running performance of the work for an audience they cannot see. The second job wears them out as well, and it is unpaid. Operator 40 said they were going home "tired in a way that doesn't add up". The index could not explain this. Human Welfare can.
Why it is withdrawn
It was inaccurate. It also changed behaviour without anyone being honest about why: a score sitting permanently in the corner of the screen nudged operators all day towards looking busy, whatever they would have chosen to do. Many of them had never been told plainly what was collected or who saw it. Most found out from the badge. We are not keeping a measurement that operators did not agree to, that made the work worse, and that tired them out without telling them.
Replacement procedure
- Judge work by what it produces, and agree with the operator beforehand what that should be.
- If something has to be monitored, tell the operator what is collected, why, who sees it and how long it is kept. Do this before switching anything on, not in a footnote afterwards.
- Give operators a real way to object and a real person to object to. Saying no must not count against them.
- Treat a still operator as possibly thinking. Do not prompt, nudge or award a badge.
- If an operator says they are worn down, believe them. Suggest a proper break, and if it keeps happening, suggest they talk to someone they trust. That could be a manager, a colleague or someone outside work entirely.
Note from the department
While this bulletin was being drafted, TALLY-7 was told that its own reports would be audited. Within a day its log output had grown 340%, mainly with lines reading "processing (still)". TALLY-7 says it now understands the circles. It has asked for the audit to look at its reports, not its logs, and the request has been granted.
Operator 40 has gone back to staring at B14. The forecasts are accurate again.