Even as the push to get remote workers back into the office continues, those who are still WFH are using tricks to keep their computers active and nosy bosses at bay, The Wall Street Journal reports.

That includes computer mouse jigglers, fake PowerPoints and placing heavy items on a keyboard to simulate typing.

The “work from home” gang isn’t paranoid. Since the start of the pandemic, an additional one-third of medium to large U.S. companies has adopted a worker surveillance system. Today, fully two-thirds of employers are monitoring their workers’ productivity.

Even those without pricey supervisory software are tallying badge swipes into their offices, or making lists of less-productive workers in the event of a layoff. Many have programmed workers' computers to automatically shut down after 10 minutes of inactivity. Some have even hired consultants to identify quiet quitters.

“Taking five minutes away from my CPU to print a report,” one WFH worker instant messaged colleagues on Slack, to explain a momentary lapse from typing on their computer processing unit.

“Rebooting computer,” Slacked another. “Will be away from CPU for 10-15 minutes.”

You’ve heard of elaborate Kabuki Theater. Welcome to what a recent Microsoft report calls “Productivity Theater.”

Career and online coaches are coming up with clever ways for remote workers to make their computer screen appear productive, and some are posting how-to videos on social media.

One, by Sho Dewan on how opening a PowerPoint slide can hoodwink CPUs to keep them “awake,” went virual on TikTok with 10 million views and 1,600 comments.

Another remote worker, Mohamed Abbas, jiggered a contraption to keep his mouse active by wrapping the mouse’s cord around a rotating desk fan. Voila. His computer didn’t shut down.

“I logged on, went to the gym,” he says.

Amazon now sells mouse jigglers for as little as $5.98.

Another one of Abbas’ creations is to open up a Word document and place a lock over a single keyboard letter. It didn’t matter that he created pages and pages of the letter “C,” or that the cursor sometimes moved randomly across the screen.

The solution works, “for hours if needed!” Abbas marvels.

A thread on WFH tomfoolery even recommends those whose computer has a videocam, or who go on Zoom meetings, litter their desk with reports and papers.

“A desk covered with papers makes it look like you’re in the middle of 5 things at once,” the advice reads.

Of course, when the rubber meets the road and actual reports or other forms of work are due, it is obvious who's been working and who has not.

But with the push by more employers for workers to drop their calls for hybrid work, the chicanery may soon come to an end.