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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”

#161

Post by cutemonster »

ImaCake wrote: post #106
shakna wrote: post #9

> For the last year and a half he has used Hubstaff software to track his workers' hours, keystrokes, mouse movements and websites visited. So much more than just screenshots. Whilst the CEO in this case seems to be fairly flexible, and says he doesn't mind if people are taking a break here and there, this kind of... Someone staring over your shoulder, albeit electronically, probably wouldn't work for me, and by infe…

I work as a research assistant in a wetlab (i.e. I physically do experiments). In a previous job the lab manager was suspicious of me appearing to not be doing any work sometimes. Once I figured out I was being watched I went to extra effort to appear busy. I couldn't actually be more busy because I already did the most I could do in a day. But I could waste some time appearing busy. It was a constant drain and I was…

> waste some time appearing busy

What did that mean, in your particular case?

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

#162

Post by rvnx »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #90
jacquesm wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A woman approaches Yves Saint Laurent, "Oh Yves, I must have a unique hat for tonights' gala". The master seats her, grabs a bunch of ribbons and proceeds to drape her hair in what turns out to be an extremely nice and harmonic creation, and all that in the space of 30 minutes. The woman is ecstatic: "Oh Yves, I knew you would come through, how much do I owe you?" "That will be 10,000 Francs" "10,000 Francs? For 30 m…

I wonder how much the person who makes up all these amusing anecdotes about famous people having to quibble about their payment rate gets paid. Probably not enough.

It's probably someone too busy "disrupting" on LinkedIn and telling the story about loyal employees and fabulous hires.

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

#163

Post by rvnx »

dspillett wrote: post #118
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much the person who makes up all these amusing anecdotes about famous people having to quibble about their payment rate gets paid. Probably not enough.

The one we were told at University was the contractor who charged £5,000 for a few hours work fixing a design, which in the end took five pencil marks. When asked to break down the costs of the job he resubmitted the invoice as: 5x 1 pencil mark = 5x £1 = £5, 1x knowing where to make the marks = 1x £4,995 = £4,995, with an offer of a discount on future pencil marks if the invoice was paid promptly.

Why should knowledge or experience be charged ? Isn't it in the interest of the whole humanity to be able to charge only for materials ?

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

#164

Post by tpxl »

b0rsuk wrote: post #139
Nursie wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, as a Brit, I think we have a pathological work culture. Employees are often treated like naughty children, and in return they behave that way.

You might find our Polish workplaces a refreshing change. Employees are often treated like feudal peasants . Poland never really had bourgeoisie/townsfolk class. Jews were the closest, in part because they were forbidden by law to own land. It was almost entirely peasants and gentry(20% at most), with clergy also playing a big role but the last two would pretty often overlap. The time when social changes happened in…

>Employees are often treated like feudal peasants.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by this, please?

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

#165

Post by jacquesm »

rvnx wrote: post #163
dspillett wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one we were told at University was the contractor who charged £5,000 for a few hours work fixing a design, which in the end took five pencil marks. When asked to break down the costs of the job he resubmitted the invoice as: 5x 1 pencil mark = 5x £1 = £5, 1x knowing where to make the marks = 1x £4,995 = £4,995, with an offer of a discount on future pencil marks if the invoice was paid promptly.

Why should knowledge or experience be charged ? Isn't it in the interest of the whole humanity to be able to charge only for materials ?

I have a very large file with lots of 1s and 0s in it, you can have them for free. If you want them ordered and that ordering takes me a year or so then I expect to be paid. Knowledge and experience are the result of an investment in time and effort on account of the person with the knowledge. They usually expect some kind of return on that investment unless it was done for hobby purposes.

Whether 'regular' labor and mental labor are compensated fairly is something worth discussing but 'materials' are rarely the major cost of anything.

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

#166

Post by kthejoker2 »

Hokusai wrote: post #13
kjakm wrote: post #4

I've experienced this kind of software working on an hourly contract via UpWork. It would take screenshots at random points in 10 minute intervals, and would track number of mouse clicks/key presses. I think everything was logged officially at the end of the day so if you happened to be on a personal site during the screenshot you could delete it and you'd lose those 10 minutes from the total number of hours you had…

> 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…

Reminds me of this harrowingly well written article about living through the Sri Lankan civil war

Some choice quotes

> People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you, while you think about dinner.

> I was looking through some old photos for this article and the mix is shocking to me now. Almost offensive. There’s a burnt body in front of my office. Then I’m playing Scrabble with friends. There’s bomb smoke rising in front of the mall. Then I’m at a concert. There’s a long line for gas. Then I’m at a nightclub. This is all within two weeks.

> [There] is not a uniform experience of chaos. For some people it destroys their bodies, others their hearts, but for most people it’s just a low-level hum at the back of their minds. https://gen.medium.com/i-lived-through-collapse-america-is-a...

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

#167

Post by 0xfaded »

Aeolun wrote: post #147
0xfaded wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of locksmiths, yes, because it's easy to open most consumer locks. I just can't do it for friends, or even a lock on a home I rent, because I don't own the physical lock. That 150 euro bill is basically regulatory capture.

Can’t your friends temporarily sell you their locks? Or is the problem that it is connected to their house?

Most of my friends rent. And don't tell anyone, but I've let one back into their apartment before ;)

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

#168

Post by jb1991 »

auggierose wrote: post #86
jb1991 wrote: post #32

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. Som…

How do you align that with minimum wage if some people just take too much time for their assigned task? How do you make sure this isn't becoming a race to the bottom, where people are getting more and more efficient, but are being paid less and less?

> How do you align that with minimum wage if some people just take too much time for their assigned task?

Ideally you'd combine this in a world with UBI.

Some day.

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

#169

Post by Darthy »

johnchristopher wrote: post #120

The other day, while looking for cheap sensors/cameras/networking solutions for a hobbyist project, I stumbled upon this: https://partners.sigfox.com/products/simplepack-office-chair Identified needs – why to focus on office chair monitoring? Data-driven managers love to monitor home officing, track work hours, save space and costs incurred by unoccupied desks when employees work away from an office or on flexible sc…

You’ve got to be kidding.

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

#170

Post by tpxl »

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.

And the privacy implications. Which is why it's illegal in parts of Europe.

>Any black hat that finds a way to gain authorization will basically have a ready-made botnet.

This has actually happened with viruses, cryptolockers, etc before. Get access to Windows group policy, add the virus to it, see it being spread around.

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