Ugh I sat at a desk in front of our CIO once (I was service desk). I wasnt too concerned but boy was it didtracting! I couldnt see him so he could have been watching me all day, or just doing his work. The bottom line is it made me more stressed, lowered my productivity and I got VERY good at flipping between our asset database, ticketing tool and email.
Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
301–310 of 359 posts
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#302If you need spy software to get an idea of your colleagues' productivity you've already failed on several levels.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#303Earlier 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 loved the open office I worked in (as an IC). When I worked at reddit, we all sat in a single conference room in the corner of the Wired office. There were five of us doing engineering. A huge whiteboard on one wall (with a couch underneath for naps), windows on two walls, and the fourth wall was the door. It was great. We all had headphones so we could work when we want. When some people needed to collaborate on t…
You can't build an open office with 5 people. That's a single-team office, what is a very different thing.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great! So it actually fits this situation wherein a large quantity of spyware has just been purchased... the price increase being the amount they're paying for their workers productivity.
There isn't any evidence this software improves productivity. Also, they aren't purchasing the software because they expect the software to (a) increase in price or (b) become unavailable. So it isn't panic buying.
Well if someone is in a panic and they are buying something because of that panic I am going to continue calling that panic buying.
I’m sure that the definition or your understanding of that definition will catch up to my forward thinking at some point.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#305This 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…
> 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 > The irony was that I was probably the most productive person in that office (in my humble opinion). The easiest and the most efficient way to ruin my productivity is to look at my screen. I can't work (nor can I pee - a funny coincidence, that's called "paruresis") when s…
This is one reason why it's really not natural for some of us to do whiteboard coding interviews, or even CoderPad, etc. interviews. It's like trying to pee when someone is watching you, although that's not an analogy I would encourage job seekers to make to a hiring manager.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#306And the old adage of "measure output, not input" comes to the fore again.
If you don't trust your staff to do good work when you're not looking, you hired the wrong people.
On the other hand, if productivity is within acceptable limits then why the need for monitoring in the first place?
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#307This thread is a funny coincidence. I was looking at mice to buy yesterday and came across this thing [0]. It's a dongle to make it look like your cursor moved because so many corporate laptops are locked down and it cant be done in software. People use them for everything from keeping the screen on to avoid going afk on work hours.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/WiebeTech-Programmable-Mouse-Jiggler-...
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#308honestly, if i were a manager and stuff wasn't getting done I would want to see what was going on. And that's a pretty common situation when people are implementing complex things like software.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
There isn't any evidence this software improves productivity. Also, they aren't purchasing the software because they expect the software to (a) increase in price or (b) become unavailable. So it isn't panic buying.
Well if someone is in a panic and they are buying something because of that panic I am going to continue calling that panic buying. I’m sure that the definition or your understanding of that definition will catch up to my forward thinking at some point.
The definition provided by Google is probably the the most reasonable option to use, though I can see how pandemic is shifting the colloquial use.
Re: Bosses panic-buy spy software to keep tabs on remote workers
#310If you do not trust people then why did you hire them?