Woman sacked for not typing enough hosted TikTok lives while working from home

New details have emerged about what Suzie Cheikho was doing during some hours her “very low” keyboard movements were tracked, which led to her sacking.

When Suzie Cheikho was fired from a major insurance company after 18 years with them for not typing enough on her laptop, it wasn’t clear what she was doing instead.

Now, news.com.au has obtained video recordings and screenshots of several TikTok live streams Ms Cheikho hosted during work hours from November to December, while her employer was tracking the number of times she pressed buttons on her keyboard.

Ms Cheikho made headlines last week after news.com.au revealed she was fired from Insurance Australia Group (IAG) in February for missing deadlines and meetings, being absent and uncontactable, and failing to complete a task which caused the industry regulator to fine IAG.

A review of her output led her to be placed on a performance improvement plan with cyber activity monitoring that analysed her “keystroke activity” — being the number of times she physically pressed her keyboard — on 49 working days from October 1 to December 16 last year.

Suzie Cheikho was sacked from IAG in February. Picture: Supplied

The review found she had “very low keystroke activity”, averaging 54 strokes per hour over the duration of her surveillance.

It concluded she did not work her rostered hours for 44 days, started late on 47 days, finished early on 29 days and performed zero hours of work on four days.

The cyber activity review found that on the days she did log on, she recorded zero strokes over 117 hours in October, 143 hours in November, and 60 hours in December.

Ms Cheikho took her case to the Fair Work Commission (FWC), claiming she did not believe the data “for a minute,” though she could not provide proof of its unreliability.

Videos obtained by news.com.au show Ms Cheikho was on TikTok during work hours. Picture: Supplied

The tribunal ruled she was sacked for a “valid reason of misconduct” given she was “not performing work as required”.

During the media storm that followed, Ms Cheikho defended her work ethic to TV programs Sunrise and A Current Affair.

On Sunrise, she denied speculation that she was “lazy”, saying she was “hard worker” and a “loyal worker”.

She claimed she was “going through some personal and mental health issues” but was not supported, because IAG went on a “premeditated attack” to remove her from the company.

The FWC found she failed to provide evidence to her employers or the tribunal that she was working during the hours of low keystroke activity.

Ms Cheikho said she was fired due to a “premeditated attack”. Picture: Supplied

It has now come to light that Ms Cheikho hosted TikTok live streams on at least seven occasions during work hours — five of which were while she was being monitored.

News.com.au has obtained screenshots of the videos which were time-stamped within the dates Ms Cheikho’s keystroke activity was tracked and inside her rostered hours of 7:30am-4pm.

The videos showed her face with an array of different backgrounds, including one which appeared to imitate a European street.

In one of the recordings, Ms Cheikho spoke with several other TikTok users about having gained a woman’s personal details and being “triggered” by certain people.

The times of the TikTok lives ranged from 8:20am to 3:05pm.

Several TikTok videos were time-stamped within the times she was being monitored. Picture: Supplied

Ms Cheikho has not shied away from her reliance on TikTok to help pay her bills since being fired from IAG.

She has pivoted to become something of a microinfluencer, with almost 8000 followers.

In a recent TikTok live, she slammed the media and her former employer, expressing fury at the media coverage and declaring she “can’t get a f**king job”.

As online criticism at her continued, she made another Tiktok live with a montage of news articles and TV reports about her.

Over the pictures, a voiceover said: “This is a message for all the haters out there. If you don’t like what I do but you watch everything I am doing you’re still a fan.”

In the caption, she asked her followers to “stand up for what (they) believe in”.

“Always stay true to yourself even when the odds aren’t in your favour, opinions don’t pay my bills,” the caption read, with the hashtags “#bullyingawareness #bully #harrassmentwillnotbetolerated #viral #suziecheikho #fyp.”

Ms Cheikho was contacted for comment.