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“I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

bbc.co.uk

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Re: “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

#31

Post by ygjb »

travbrack wrote: post #14
rdw wrote: post #12

The security implications of this software must be devastating. To prevent being defeated by the employee, it'll be essentially a rootkit already. Any black hat that finds a way to gain authorization will basically have a ready-made botnet. Let alone all the personal and corporate data they would be able to ransom and sell.

By that logic so is a configuration management client like SCCM or even Group Policy.

The difference there is that Microsoft has a huge, dedicated security team, and has spent the last ~15 years aggressively improving their security posture, as opposed to some spyware author that decided to go 'legit'.

Re: “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

#32

Post by jb1991 »

All of this is a symptom of paying people for their time rather than paying them for their actual work or achievements. We need to get away from the idea of someone renting out part of their life at an hourly rate. Just assign jobs and pay when they are done. I realize this maybe sounds simpler than it often is, but after some growing pains, it is possible to calibrate the specific work with a value that is fair. Some people will do the work faster and thus earn more for their time. That's fair also, and it is a motivator to improve skills so your time implicitly has more value.

Re: “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

#33

Post by andi999 »

wesleywt wrote: post #28

Time spent working does not equal productivity. I think most of office work is just looking busy on tasks that should take a fraction of the time to complete. If I was a leader, I would prefer tasks completed over time completed.

But then you get task creep (the small brother of feature creep). Like you set a task you thougjt takes a week. Employee does it in 1h, ok so this time he is free for the whole restbof the week. What do you do next week? Add more tasks..so eventually you give so many task he /she can finish in 40h.. welcome to the current system.

Re: “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

#34

Post by stiray »

I would just simply leave the company that trusts me so little that it needs to monitor what I am doing.

In another words if company is so worried to squeeze the last drop of money out of employee to actually use such methods there is something wrong with it.

I know one in our country that pays really good but employs such tactics. Developers are leaving on quarterly basis - not due to tactics but due to rotten relationships within company. And they are leaving for less paid positions elsewhere. They have practically lost all their seniors and are forced to pull in greenhorns.

Re: “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

#35

Post by afandian »

travbrack wrote: post #14
rdw wrote: post #12

The security implications of this software must be devastating. To prevent being defeated by the employee, it'll be essentially a rootkit already. Any black hat that finds a way to gain authorization will basically have a ready-made botnet. Let alone all the personal and corporate data they would be able to ransom and sell.

By that logic so is a configuration management client like SCCM or even Group Policy.

In those cases you own the device, so that's reasonable.

Re: “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

#36

Post by nip »

zenincognito wrote: post #5

I once went to court against a client who wouldn't pay his bills. The sum more than 35K. It took over 9 months to get to court ( as the court wouldnt give a date ) and countless docs and hours spent to come up with evidence folder. In Australia, a citizen can argue their case which I did without using any lawyers. Finally, we both argued our case to a point where the client's defence was that there was no time log fo…

One day you come home and realize that you locked yourself out of your home.

You call the locksmith.

He arrives, looks at the door, fiddles with the lock for one minute, opens the door then leaves.

The next day you receive the bill, 150€.

Are you mad for spending so much for one minute of work?

You shouldn’t: you paid for the experience that allowed him to open it in 1 minute.

—

Recalling it from a discussion with a friend of mine on a related subject: the cost of experience.

Re: “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

#38

Post by mdoing »

Even if that software is there people will just find a way around it and the process they have in place for it. Also if a manager has to check these logs to see if their employees are working, I would question why he has some free time to do this and what of the other million things they could be doing.

Unless this is written into the contract the employee signed they could find themselves in tricky waters, they are transmitting data using the users own internet connection and they could be capturing sensitive data from a machine. I used to work with so many credit card details for testing, all of it was cleaned but still some details remained.

Re: “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

#39

Post by sumosudo »

will_pseudonym wrote: post #29
Hokusai wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it didn't feel as dystopian as it sounds My mother grew up in a dictatorship, and most of the time is like any other country. People would come on vacations and they will not even notice any difference. The only problem is when you get into problems, then you have no recourse. Dystopias in movies are felt each minute of the day, real dystopias are not like that. You should read Kafka's "The Process". Everything is…

> Kafka's "The Process" This is also known as "The Trial"[0]. Just a fantastic, brutal work. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trial

And lately we have that playing out in real life at the Assange Trial.

Re: “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”

#40

Post by raxxorrax »

mrweasel wrote: post #21

I worked for a company with a UK department, the UK boss would routinely use similar software to check that people where actually working and doing things correctly. The Scandinavian bosses opted to just trust everyone to do the right thing and people always would. Interestingly enough if was always the British employees who would do things like steal customer contact lists when they left or do deals on the side, so…

If you are expected to misbehave while not under surveillance you have to cherish the time when you can let it all out.
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