Comment by crazygringo
5 hours ago
Seriously, this is not a thing. It doesn't even begin to make sense. It's made up.
If you work in a factory with time cards that need to be punched in, and you punch in a buddy's who is late, that's a thing -- a very risky thing if you get caught, since it's fraud.
But the idea that you'll give a coworker your password so they can boot up and log in and somehow make it look like you're online...? Not a thing. And doesn't even make sense today when you can just open your chat client on your phone anyways and be present there. We've been in an era of remote work for a long time now.
This was a thing. I worked in an office of 4 within a larger facility back when booting up took some time and we had staggered morning arrivals. The first arrival would power on everyone's computers so they were ready. If someone came in, they'd see a computer on without someone there. Where are they? I don't know, maybe in the bathroom, getting coffee, or running down an issue in another department.
Even in the pre-remote, desktops-only era it wouldn't have made any sense. Your boss, your co-workers, and everyone else was at the office. They could see you weren't at your desk. There was no need for tracking software and hence, no need to ask your buddy to log you in because you were late.