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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

#151

Post by hrktb »

californical wrote: post #23
ianai wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It appears to be standard practice everywhere in corporate America.

It's standard practice if you agree to it in your employment contract.

In some juridictions (mostly EU countries I think ?) your employer would be at fault if they gathered personal information (for instance a sexual orientation you didn't disclose) from a personal account you used on a work computer. Or from anything you explicitely marked as personnal, even if it's on your computer. They might still delete the data indiscriminately, just shouldn't access it.

Being at work, on company's hardware, isn't enough to completely void your expectation of privacy.

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

#152

Post by daveFNbuck »

closeparen wrote: post #105
daveFNbuck wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually enjoy open office plans despite not liking group work/study. I prefer being alone. I don't really see people other than my wife outside of work. Work is my only chance to socialize, which makes an open office plan ideal for me. It's very easy to start conversations with the people near me and have them turn into fun group discussions. Once you give up on the idea of having long unbroken periods of producti…

If I gave up on those I would find another career. They are the whole point. Flow is 100% of what I like about software engineering.

Flow is good, and fun conversations are good. Either way, I'm having a good day and getting paid well.

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

#153

Post by lb1lf »

stronglikedan wrote: post #91
lodovic wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

-While I cannot recall the exact legal aspects, years ago while I was the union representative at the engineering company I worked for, the company wanted (for very valid reasons) to go through a number of E-mails sent to/from a couple of specific employees.

The E-mails were eventually read - but in the presence of the employees in question and their (chosen by them, paid by the company) legal counsel.

I can not imagine an employer going to such lengths to accommodate the employees unless required by law to do so. This was in Norway.

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

#154

Post by lainga »

sbarre wrote: post #44
spamizbad wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised cubicles get so much hate. I loved mine at my first job. Oodles of desk space. Locking drawers and cabinets. There was a chair in the corner so a guest could sit. Made it easy to have 2 meetings without disturbing people. less aesthetically pleasing in office photographs, but overall a much better work environment than any open plan I've experienced.

I think it depends on the nature of your job. If you regularly need to interact verbally with colleagues, cubes are kind of a pain. I forget where I saw this but there was a company that had set up what were basically "team offices" so teams that worked closely together each had their own closed room where they worked, so they could collaborate in their own manner. Quiet when they needed it, loud when they needed it,…

I had something vaguely similar at an internship. Each team was in a separate room for security reasons (aerospace firm), so the co. was all groups of 6-10 people in little open-plan offices. I thought that was nice and quiet.

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

#155

Post by stronglikedan »

simias wrote: post #108
stronglikedan wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In the EU there is. For instance the company can't normally access directories or emails clearly labelled as "private". Monitoring can occur but it's pretty tightly regulated. See for instance https://gdpr.report/news/2017/11/17/5383/ > * Employers can monitor employees’ emails at work but need to approach this with caution and careful consideration. > * Follow the ICO Code and 29 WP opinion, including conducting a D…

Thanks for the answer. TIL.

However, I must say that's just weird to me, because you're not required to use company resources for private matters.

The bathroom analogy doesn't really hold in my mind, since it's reasonable to expect privacy in any bathroom, but I see where you're going with that.

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

#156

Post by lmilcin »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #85
lmilcin wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Wrong mental model. Your best bet is to hire/make/keep people interested in being productive. When this is lost there isn't going much you can do to improve productivity. Keeping employee chained to their desks will not magically make things get done. This is so naive. I wonder how humanity landed in the situation where half of all managers don't get the first thing about managing people.

Given the panic-buy, I'm sure you're right about most people thinking this will keep people productive. I've wanted something like this before, though, when I got some bad people on my team who weren't worth what they were getting paid and were sometimes a net negative on the team. We couldn't fire them because everything was at least somewhat subjective and HR and my own boss wanted a solid case. Oh they didn't get…

I feel for any person that has to deal with this type of employee. It is very demoralizing to give responsibilities you know are not going to be handled well (but you still have to do this), it is also very demoralizing to the rest of the team to observe this unfairness go unpunished.

Still, I would focus my efforts on the productive part of the team. Making them feel safe and appreciated seems to be more worth than spying on the ones that drag the team down. People do observe how you treat team members with "problems" and will see that your measured response means they can feel safe. Safety I find to be prerequisite to healthy work atmosphere.

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

#157

Post by redm »

Upwork has a system to automatically capture screenshots while a user is on the "clock". While we never request this functionality, some people enable it. I found it interesting to browse, however, I found it distracts from the ultimate goal, work product. It can also breed distrust, i.e. instead of looking at what your co-workers/team gets done, you start asking questions like, why is this person doing that. My point is, it's counterproductive.

What we found was very product was goal setting and work product review at regular intervals. I.e. once a week evaluate the code quality and velocity of work. What we found was if it's good, it's almost always good, and if it's bad, its bad from the start and doesn't really improve.

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

#158

Post by ohwaitnvm »

mc32 wrote: 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…

I’m single with no roommates and my productivity is wayy down due to the mental stresses of both the times we’re in and the huge drop of social fulfillment (used to play hockey 5x a week, other group things 2x, and individual friend hangouts too) - zoom chats just aren’t the same.

I also very much need that “work” space to switch my brain into focus mode. My place has never been setup for work-focus as I work at a place that encourages not taking your work home with you - though I am thankful that now we are fully enabled to WFH rather than lose that paycheck.

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

#159

Post by commandlinefan »

ilikehurdles wrote: post #136
ianai wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It appears to be standard practice everywhere in corporate America.

I've only been a professional for 8 years but I've never had this experience as a developer.

How can you be sure?
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