Police officer fired after using popular WFH hack to pretend she was working
It was ruled as gross misconduct
A UK police officer has been sacked after a misconduct hearing found she had been using a popular work from home hack to pretend she was working.
Ever since the Coronavirus pandemic, working from home has become the new norm for millions of Brits, and sometimes the temptation of the TV is too much.
While the likes of Alan Sugar and Nigel Farage are demanding that Brits get back into the office, most of us are able to function normally while at home, especially if we're not wasting time and money on travelling.
However, for those of you lucky enough to have a job that doesn't have constant demands or deadlines, the idea of putting yourself in an important call to pretend you're busy is probably an appealing option.
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You would hope that police officers would be immune to such nonsense, given their should primarily be concerned with bringing criminals to justice, but one plucky officer decided to simply leave a photo frame on her laptop to give off the impression that she was hard at work.
The officer, who worked with Avon and Somerset police, has now been dismissed without notice following an internal investigation.
It appears that the hack isn't completely infallible, as her keystrokes were found to be between three and eight times higher than colleagues in a similar role, which prompted the investigation in June last year.
On Wednesday 25 February, that investigation came to an end at police headquarters in Portishead, with the officer barred from police and other law enforcement agencies following her actions.
She admitted to using the picture frame during a challenging period in her life between April and May 2025, as she monitored calls from another screen and prevented her working laptop from going into sleep mode.
However, former Assistant Chief Constable Craig Holden, chair of the misconduct panel, found her behaviour amounted to gross misconduct and she was promptly dismissed.
Det Supt Larisa Hunt, the head of Avon and Somerset Police’s Professional Standards Department, said: “It is extremely disappointing an officer has behaved in a way which could not only discredit the police force, but also undermine the public confidence in respect of our duties and responsibilities.
“We know officers and staff deal with immense pressure and high workloads, and while Sgt X had some mitigating circumstances, it’s unacceptable for an officer to act in this deliberate and deceitful way by abusing the trust placed in her, by making it appear she was working when she was not.
“We recognise the overwhelming majority of our officers and staff work hard to protect the public.”
James Moorhouse