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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”

#61

Post by mrweasel »

zem wrote: post #46
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…

you took a different lesson away from that than I did - I was fully expecting you to say "and little wonder, seeing as how the company had set up an adversarial relationship with the British employees from the get go" rather than "I suppose they had a reason not to trust people"

I actually had a similar conclusion originally, but then I also saw the level of fraud by our UK customers. They where maybe 5 - 10% of our total sales, but 90+% of fraud cases.

My take away is simply that there's less trust in the British society as a whole and it's not necessarily a fault or problem isolated to a single company.

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

#62

Post by hnick »

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…

> 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 I suppose they had a reason to not trust people.

If you're already treating me like I've done you wrong, then trust is gone and it wasn't by my choice. That cuts both ways.

If someone feels like they are being treated as though they've already broken a social contract, then they probably have fewer qualms going a step or two further.

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

#63

Post by _trampeltier »

nip wrote: post #36
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…

Just almost a good example. In this case, the biggest part from the bill would be the time to drive to your home. Also it is not just one minute work. It is also the time he took the phone call, prepare, maybe load some special tools on the car, then drive, work, drive back, clean everything, replace some tools, oils, make the paperwork and so on.

I did once a kind of such work as electrician, once on a weekend I got a pikett call, the work was done in 10 minutes. I wrote 1.5 hours, then of course a drama .. but finally, even these 1.5 hours was not enought with all the time I spend frome home to back home this saturday morning, because she could not open here electric door.

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

#65

Post by kleiba »

ende wrote: post #3

Sounds like that should be illegal.

Given that this is a London-based company and we're talking about a pre-Brexit time-frame, I'm pretty sure this practice is in breach of EU regulations. However, the employees are in India so that adds another level of complication... and also makes it a lot less likely that anyone's going to sue.

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

#66

Post by aemreunal »

nip wrote: post #36
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…

Reminds of an exchange, potentially misattributed ([1]) to Picasso:

  A woman approaches Picasso in a restaurant, asks him to scribble something on a napkin and says she would be happy to pay whatever he felt it was worth. Picasso complied and then said, "That will be $10,000."
  
  "But you did that in thirty seconds," the astonished woman replied.
  
  "No," Picasso said. "It has taken me forty years to do that."
[1]: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/01/14/time-art/

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

#67

Post by tinbucket »

raxxorrax wrote: post #53
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but with bad employers that can often result in 'wage deflation' where the amount of buttons sewn or marketing calls made required gets larger and larger - which can often result in overworked and very stressed workers - there's been quite a few cases in call centers in the last few years. When workers are paid per piece directly it can sometimes mean they will be paid less than the minimum wage.

I doubt workers in call centers are stressed because there isn't enough surveillance of their work.

Quite the contrary. I work in a call centre and we’re intensely stressed by the constant, microscopic surveillance. Everything is watched and logged and can be used against you, and the targets they measure you against creep ever higher.

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

#68

Post by blensor »

b3lvedere wrote: post #43
nip wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I fully agree with this, but it can't hurt to try and learn some of those tricks yourself. Some locks are surprisingly easy to open.

I recommend the LockPickingLawyer channel on youtube. It's fascinating how easy some locks can be picked.

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

#70

Post by ecdavis »

_trampeltier wrote: post #54
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…

A couple of years ago, was here an AskHN question. As far I remember, the guy worked from home, had just fill some excel sheets from other excel sheets. After a while he made some scripts and one week work was done in 20 minutes. He added even some errors, because there was another guy who checked all his work. The question was then, if he should tell, he work just 20 minutes and not one week. But he also said he nee…

Reminded me of this: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Classic-WTF-The-Indexer
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