Is this really a war they want to start, considering the people they're messing with were often hired for their computer skills?
Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
171–180 of 359 posts
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would be shocked if even half of the American workforce primarily works in an "at a desk" or equivalent type position. I'm curious about this but don't have time to look up numbers. It's hard to make a reasonable guess because while cities (and the offices within them) have the highest density, there could be a very long tail of factory, strip mall, grocery store, etc. jobs that would be higher per capita outside o…
Even in a city you're completely surrounded by people who don't have desk jobs. All the people who deliver stuff to your office, the maintenance staff, all retail and restaurant employees, law enforcement and fire/EMS, taxi and car service drivers, and on and on and on. And that's just what's in an office district . Drive down the NJ Turnpike or something and count how many massive employment centers you see that are…
It's easy to be deceived by the fact that it looks like there's one floor of non-office and 40+ floors of office in a downtown.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#173We had a bad manager at my last company who really wanted to do this sort of thing. I said to him “So this is an interesting proposal... if we install this software then I can save on management costs by replacing your position with this spyware?” He never brought it up again and we later just got rid of him completely. Micromanagement and this sort of spying rarely builds high performing teams. Managing worker produ…
I ran into this once:
Another team (team A) needed a lot of help and my team (Team B) was 'similar'. So we were brought on to help despite Team A's objections that we surely couldn't do the job.
So we went to work and were out performing them from day 1.
Team A's management was not happy and was sure we were somehow 'gaming the system'. They had all sorts of ways and theories on how Team B must be doing it and convinced another layer of management to get someone from the outside to investigate.
They investigated and found the only folks 'gaming the system' (they were doing a lot of underhanded things to manipulate KPIs and etc).... were Team A.
Sometimes the folks out there throwing a lot of shade and being excessively suspicious only think of those things about others ... because they would do it and they assume everyone else would too.
With unfounded accusations and etc, I've found that to be true time and time again.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#174This is mildly infuriating, I’d quit on the spot because of 1) dignity, I’m not a slave 2) this is illegal in most jurisdictions 3) this shit means trust between employer-employee is non-existant in both directions, that’s not a way to get any decent work done
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#175butts in seats equals results
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#176This 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…
Wow - at one consulting/project shop place I worked, a manager questioned the veracity of my buddy's time-sheet entries. We both quit that evening with zero notice and started our own company.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#177PSA for businesses: how about instead of spying on the deadweight you fire them and reward the productive employees. There are tons of work from home employees (who normally work from home) who are 10x more productive than the in-office ones, because they realize the value of what they have. It's too bad most people will only work when you're looking over their shoulder, but lets not keep that on life-support with sp…
I think deciding which human being to label as "dead weight" and overfocus on that question is on the same path to paranoia as thinking you need to monitor them all closely. How many times have you seen contributing employees who are not understood by their bosses mislabelled as "dead weight"? I think it happens pretty often, especially in performance-review-obsessed cultures.
>especially in performance-review-obsessed cultures.
I can't wait for performance reviews to just die. I'm middle-management at my institution, and I see my job as making sure my teams have what they need and are insulated from the bullshit enough to get done what they need to get done, how they see best to do it.
And then performance reviews happen. I can't do their jobs. I don't want to do their jobs. That's the reason I hire them instead of doing it myself. How can I tell them they're not doing a good job or what to improve on? Their metrics are met, their clients are being appropriately serviced. WHY???
Because we need a way to quantify human performance when we have to downsize. That's why. It's dark, but I'm convinced that's what is at the root of corporate performance reviews across the US.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's a FAQ for the situation in Germany: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https... Can my boss monitor my work computer? Permanent and comprehensive PC monitoring at the workplace based on a general suspicion is not permitted. The employer may only monitor the employee on the PC if there is sufficient concrete suspicion of improper use of the work computer. What applies to private use of the w…
>>If private use of the work computer is expressly permitted to the employee, PC monitoring at the workplace is fundamentally excluded. Cool. In most places that are not fancy IT companies where everyone is given a brand new MacBook Pro to use as a mixed work/personal machine, there is no such thing as "private use of the work computer". So given what you posted, there is no legal issue then.
How would a "mixed work/personal machine" not imply private use of the work computer?
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#179This 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…
Wow - at one consulting/project shop place I worked, a manager questioned the veracity of my buddy's time-sheet entries. We both quit that evening with zero notice and started our own company.
How'd that company turn out?
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#180I 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…
The old maxim about the low tide exposing who isn't wearing any trunks is just as true this time, but way more so.
In a situation where this quarantine could last months longer, what good is some manager whose value proposition was that they schmoozed around the office all day? See ya.