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Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

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Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

#91
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the EU and I cannot think of a single law where the employeer cannot take screenshots of the machines they own. I'll be happily proven wrong though.

Only if the employee is informed upfront. Otherwise it's a privacy issue.

There's an expectation of privacy on company owned hardware?

Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

#92
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think less than 5% of comments on open-office design, that I have ever seen, were positive. Who are the people you are describing as being “sold”?

Managers and executives. 1. Cheaper rent because you need less space 2. Easier to look over shoulders and on to computer monitors Managers (especially product managers) delude themselves into thinking this spurs collaboration and creativity and productivity.

As a former pm I can't think of a single colleague who loved open plan. We at best tolerated but I think every one of us would have been a happy recipient of an office!

Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

#94
post #5

Two things: Productivity is going to plunge no matter what, with the possible exception of singles who don’t have roommates. There is no way that during an ad hoc and unorganized push to work remote (though necessary in this circumstance) can result in good productivity, monitoring or not. Under the best of circumstances it would take months for a mass of people to adjust and be productive. The apex for open office d…

Single person with no roommates, I can confirm that my mental health is slipping and it's really hard to maintain a positive attitude at work. Productivity will slip and employers just need to adjust their expectations.

I'm married with two children and I can assure you that not only has my mental state slipped because of the stresses of home life, but I also lost an enormous amount of social activity that I intentionally maintained in order to keep my brain and health at optimal levels.

I am OK, but my productivity is toast.

Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

#95

I have moved from "solutions architect" to "WFH consultant" at the behest of my clients. The problem I am seeing is that many managers have NO idea how their employees actually work. If you take your average MacDonalds manager they can (mostly) work every station in the joint and then know how to do MORE things. Your average corporate middle manager has NO idea what their staff does or how. To be quite honest, most o…

it will be all too obvious soon who is going to get cut now that productivity is going to be much more clearly measured.

Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

#96
Aww, that's so cute, a humans making around x500 to x1000 more money as a median humans in their companies are crying about "unfaaair". Cry some more, @#$%^&*.

PS: somehow my 1000+ ppl international company manages to work from home and deliver results without authoritarian tools.

Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

#97
post #6

This happened to me years ago. I was put in an empty office at the opposite end from my boss, and because he couldn't walk up behind me to see me working, he secretly installed a program on my computer that took a screenshot every 30 seconds (or so?). I quickly noticed that my computer was hitching regularly (when the screenshot was taken - this was in the late 90s BTW), and so investigated my computer on a day when…

Where I live what he did is a fairly serious criminal offence.

If this was 90s then as I remember there were not yet standards to deal with this kind of problem.

Actually, thinking about this now, I don't even remember they existed this type of software in 90s but I might be mistaken.

Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's assume they were informed upfront - there's nothing illegal about it then, is there?

That isn't necessarily true either. IIRC, there was a case not so long ago of a school that was using quite aggressive surveillance measures, and obtained some degree of prior consent. It was still penalised under the GDPR, because all processing of personal data must be justified. Even consent is not carte blanche to do whatever you want, and that's probably a good thing for the same reason that inalienable consumer…

Right, but both of these examples are about using personal data(facial recognition data and then fingerprints) for purposes where it's not needed. Again, I would see the issue if the employeer was taking pictures with the webcam every 30 seconds - that is definitely a privacy problem because you neither expect your employeer to be photographing you every 30 seconds, nor is it necessary for your job. But pictures of the screen? Screen that's meant to be used for work and where no reasonable expectation of privacy should exist?

Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think less than 5% of comments on open-office design, that I have ever seen, were positive. Who are the people you are describing as being “sold”?

> I think less than 5% of comments on open-office design, that I have ever seen, were positive. It's basically taboo to say anything positive about open office spaces online. There are many, many legitimately terrible open office workspaces in the world. Suggesting that open offices aren't always bad feels like an attack on those who are miserable in their open office. So it's safer to just never bring it up. In the…

University libraries are silent. Focus is the first-class activity; groups that want to work together must book a conference room or go to a dedicated collaboration floor. You might go with your friends for company, but you’re only going to speak on e.g. trips down from the workspace to the attached coffee shop.

A “library rules” open office would be just fine. That’s not what happens, though. The point of an open office is that everyone is talking all the time. If you don’t want to hear every conversation everyone in your company is having, it’s your own responsibility to jam those signals, or leave.

Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

#100
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think less than 5% of comments on open-office design, that I have ever seen, were positive. Who are the people you are describing as being “sold”?

Managers and executives. 1. Cheaper rent because you need less space 2. Easier to look over shoulders and on to computer monitors Managers (especially product managers) delude themselves into thinking this spurs collaboration and creativity and productivity.

Also cheaper because cubicle scaffolding costs $$$.
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