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

Post by HenryBemis » Mon, Mar 30, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

novok wrote: post #216

jlarocco wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. I've been working in software for almost 20 years and have never had spyware like this installed on my PCs. I've worked for companies with over 70k employees, down to start ups with fewer than 100. Both in office and remote. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's definitely not normal, and I would personally never work under those conditions.

As a contractor or a full time employee at the 70k people companies? Was it in the past 10 years? If you used a company provided computer, did you investigate what was running? Did you go beyond the typical process manager and look into the kernel modules list? They often don't disclose explicitly that this stuff is running, because it rightfully creeps people out and the 'security' types don't want people to know.

Post by martin-adams » Mon, Mar 30, 2020, 9:14 PM UTC

nepthar wrote: post #274

jlarocco wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off topic, but related to this... I had, what I felt, was the best seat in the office at my previous job. We had an open office with short cubicles and standing desks, and the cubicles were arranged so that two people shared a small area with two desks/cabinets/etc. For a while, it was wonderful. My "cube-mate" worked from home 4 days a week and only came in for meetings, and we had a window on one side and an empty…

You know, I've always wondered why there are so many stories about these middle management types who seem to pay so close attention to things that are _not_ employee productivity. I guess on first glance, it may appear that "looking busy" corrates to "getting stuff done", but why not cut out the middle man and pay attention to what the employee actually does?

Post by bussierem » Mon, Mar 30, 2020, 9:34 PM UTC

npongratz wrote: post #194

treis wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there was ever a time where every office worker had their own office. Only the big boss got their own office and everyone else had desks in a large room. The open floor plan we have now is pretty typical of what they used to look like. Here's a good example: https://www.officemuseum.com/1935_Auditor_of_Overcharge_Clai... More pictures: https://www.officemuseum.com/photo_gallery_1930s_1940s.htm

That's interesting, but I'm unsure how much we can generalize from some photos. For example, I wonder how much "photogenic bias" [0] and survivorship bias exist in such photographic evidence. How many photographers of the time would take a picture of a hallway of private offices? And what editor would keep such photographs for posterity? [0] There's probably a better term for this...

Post by obmelvin » Mon, Mar 30, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #203

dharmab wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because every place I've worked (including corporations) I've had local admin on my box and could see the entire process tree. Usually you have to be running all the antivirus and monitoring stuff to connect to the employee network/VPN, but when you're off VPN you can kill those processes off.

>Because every place I've worked (including corporations) I've had local admin on my box and could see the entire process tree. That's assuming that the spyware isn't some sort of rootkit that tries to hide its presence. If you're on windows, it's also very easy to hide behind some generic looking executables like svchost.exe

Post by godelski » Mon, Mar 30, 2020, 9:53 PM UTC

nepthar wrote: post #274

jlarocco wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off topic, but related to this... I had, what I felt, was the best seat in the office at my previous job. We had an open office with short cubicles and standing desks, and the cubicles were arranged so that two people shared a small area with two desks/cabinets/etc. For a while, it was wonderful. My "cube-mate" worked from home 4 days a week and only came in for meetings, and we had a window on one side and an empty…

You know, I've always wondered why there are so many stories about these middle management types who seem to pay so close attention to things that are _not_ employee productivity. I guess on first glance, it may appear that "looking busy" corrates to "getting stuff done", but why not cut out the middle man and pay attention to what the employee actually does?