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For millions of workers around the world, what a typical day at work looks like has drastically shifted over the last two years due to COVID-19.
This week, a woman who documents her life working remotely on TikTok, went viral after showing how she apparently kept her status set to "active" on her computer while she stepped away from her screen for a short time.
User @loewhaley, who is based in Canada, posted the adorable video to TikTok on Wednesday and received 3 million views in under 24 hours.
"I needed to run a quick errand but wanted to keep my status as available," @loewhaley, whose first name is Laura, wrote in text over the video.
The video showed the woman grabbing a jar of peanut butter from the kitchen and then using her finger to rub some onto her computer's mouse. She then placed the mouse on the ground and let her dog lick away the treat while moving the mouse around on the ground—a win, win in her opinion.
"Thank you moistly Oakley," Laura captioned the video.
Earlier this month, Pew Research Center reported that according to new survey results "roughly six-in-10 U.S. workers who say their jobs can mainly be done from home [59 percent] are working from home all or most of the time."
Pew reported that the number is declining as 71 percent of those with jobs that could be done remotely were being done so either all or most of the time in October 2020.
The survey also found that in people who are working from home now but rarely did so before the pandemic, 64 percent said it's easier now to find a work-life balance.
Below the viral video, which seemed to strike a chord with many who watched it, commenters related to the woman's hack with some even sharing their own.
"PSA: If you play a gif in a Teams chat, it keeps replaying and keeps your status as available," one person wrote.
"Open a '10 hour study music video' on YouTube," another person added.
On the other hand, some commenters noted that leaving a computer screen unattended should not be seen as a bad thing.
"[I]n all seriousness I would never work for a company that micro manages [sic] their workers so hard," one person wrote in a comment that was liked over 500 times.
"Normalize meandering outside for hours while you're supposed to be working," wrote another.
Many commenters, though, found the video entertaining, calling the TikToker "genius."
"Haha...my friend, you can get a mouse juggler for $10 on Amazon," one commenter added below the video. " Work smarter not harder!"
Newsweek contacted Laura for comment.
