Posted on 09/06/2021 4:21:16 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
... first week of remote work, David and his team were introduced to a digital surveillance platform called Sneek.
Every minute or so, the program would capture a live photo of David and his workmates via their company laptop webcams. The ever-changing headshots were splayed across the wall of a digital conference waiting room that everyone on the team could see. Clicking on a colleague’s face would unilaterally pull them into a video call. If you were lucky enough to catch someone goofing off or picking their nose, you could forward the offending image to a team chat via Sneek’s integration with the messaging platform Slack.
Every minute or so, the program would capture a live photo of David and his workmates via their company laptop webcams. The ever-changing headshots were splayed across the wall of a digital conference waiting room that everyone on the team could see. Clicking on a colleague’s face would unilaterally pull them into a video call. If you were lucky enough to catch someone goofing off or picking their nose, you could forward the offending image to a team chat via Sneek’s integration with the messaging platform Slack.
I signed up to manage their digital marketing, not to livestream my living room
...from screenshotting employees’ screens to logging their keystrokes and tracking their browsing. But in the fast-growing bossware market, each platform potentially brings something new to the table.
But the rise of tattleware changes the game. If an employee uses a spy-enabled, work-sponsored computer outside of hours, their employer could easily access their personal data, down to internet banking passwords and Facebook messages.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The only good news out of this story is that the folks who conceived of ‘sneak’ had read 1984.
Nobody that I know would want to have someone snitching every time the person took a break.
I thought one of the perks of working from home was that you get to work nekkid? I guess not, huh?
Who watches the bosses?
“unless you are doing data entry, i fail to see how many keystrokes an hour is relative to productivity”
True; I might need to think for several hours before writing five lines of code. The side effects could be very complex.
“Look at the money you are saving, not having to come into work, we can pay less for your position...”
If you can do your job 20 miles away, someone else can do it 8000 miles away.
Or pay someone even less in a lower cost area. It’s all remote, so why pay US urban wages?
I have no desire to see any of mine or co irkers either.
My camera is almost never on and stays pointed at the ceiling.
It’s funny going to some of the management offices where a lot of the people are in the same room but insist on sitting at their desks with camera and headsets when there is large station made for an audience right behind them.
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That could be Ron Jeremy’s job in the big house.
Just make sure to wear something on the top half. Also make sure that everything you’ll need is within arm’s reach.
IT stuff like this is used quite often as a substitute for actually managing your employees.
On the other hand, if a manager doesn’t have this sort of backup, any discipline will be turned around on them as “harassment” or “racism/sexism”.
What I want to know if there are folks who are able to hold multiple telework gigs down at the same time and get two paychecks.
It’s a brave new world. If you manage people, a good many of them will behave like children.
Josef Stalin is spinning in his grave with envy...
—”The worker next to you is working 14% faster and 5 workers have completed 41% more work today than you.”
A friend recently ran into an individual that worked for me for a few years, he gleefully told everyone present how his hair turned gray and fell out because I wrote the time he started an assignment on the board and much later the completion time for all to see.
Now he is a supervisor with the same company and I’m happy to hear he is doing well.
That said, IMO a constant beating with performance stats would be counterproductive.
—” i fail to see how many keystrokes an hour is relative to productivity”
Retired for over ten years, so guessing it is used to see that you are doing something, not sleeping.
My kin that had a keystroke monitor was years ago the article explains how things have advanced.
That used to scare the crap out
Of me when i was a kid!
Wonder how many have two computers side by side, one for each of their full-time work from home jobs? It would just take a little balancing, like having a mistress when you’re married.
—””Always a way for the devious and crafty worker to come out on top.”
As a trainee, I worked for a former Navy guy who often said, choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.
Usually seems to work, still, they need some oversight.
—”Nobody that I know would want to have someone snitching every time the person took a break.”
I was fortunate in having a very team. And often carried a noisy key ring and everyone could hear me coming down the hall.
If everything is going well it is better not to walk in and find them in a group telling war stories.
This. More than once I was caught reclining in my chair at my desk with hands behind my head as I was thinking out how I wanted to code something....
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