The rise of (stressful, creepy, boss-beloved) work-from-home surveillance

[Nevilledog]

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Drew Harwell
@drewharwell
New: Facial recognition, now at your desk. Scan your face from three angles, then proceed to work, knowing your webcam will be watching all day. The rise of (stressful, creepy, boss-beloved) work-from-home surveillance: https://wapo.st/3EO9iHT w/ @DanielleDigest
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5:54 AM · Sep 24, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/24/remote-work-from-home-surveillance/

When Kerrie Krutchik, an attorney for 34 years, was hired this spring for one of the legal field’s fastest-growing jobs, she expected to review case files at a pandemic-safe distance from the comfort of her Ohio home.

Then she received a laptop in the mail with her instructions: To get paid, she’d have to comply with a company-mandated facial recognition system for every minute of her contract. If she looked away for too many seconds or shifted in her chair, she’d have to scan her face back in from three separate angles, a process she ended up doing several times a day.

For Krutchik, the laptop’s unblinking little camera light quickly became a nightmare — and a reminder of what her new work day might look like even after the pandemic fades. After two weeks, she ended her contract and pledged never to consent to that kind of monitoring again.

“It’s just this constant, unnecessary, nerve-racking stress: You’re trying to concentrate and in the back of your mind you know you’re on camera the entire time,” she said. “While you’re reviewing a document, you don’t know who is reviewing you.”

*snip*

[XanaDUer2]

1. Wow

maybe retiring early IS a good idea. Good for her for quitting

[Thomas Hurt]

2. "ensuring" productivity by introducing tech that destroys productivity...(smh)

[wryter2000]

5. Some bosses

Can’t stand the idea that you might have a conversation with a coworker or make a personal phone call. They don’t look at the quality of the work or how much you do.

I’ve had good ones who didn’t mind if I ran a short personal errand as long as I was there if needed and got my job done. For them, I went all out to make them happy, and I was happy to see them in the morning.

[2naSalit]

3. Yup...

Last edited Fri Sep 24, 2021, 04:31 PM - Edit history (1)

FTS!

I remember when they started putting satellite dishes on 18 wheelers and other devices that monitored everything in the truck from RPMs and MPH. That's when I retired from that line of work.

[onethatcares]

11. pee in this cup

on any given day for a paper pushing position was the start of this shit.

then the creep began.

as the op said, "you don't know who's watching" and I may be mistaken but I'd wager some bosses are taping also.

[2naSalit]

12. That too.

Only had to do it twice but that was when I decided there was some other thing for me to do at that point.

[wryter2000]

4. Glad she quit

Maybe they won’t be able to fill that job.

[Politicub]

6. Employee monitoring and surveillance software is a fast-growing

business.

Fifty percent of large corporations were using monitoring software in 2019 (source: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/the-future-of-employee-monitoring).

The study referenced above was fielded pre-Covid, and estimated that 70 percent of large companies would employee some form of surveillance in 2020. This trend accelerated because of Covid, and tens of millions in venture capital is being invested in this area.

[Dawson Leery]

9. High tech surveillance is taking the place of the (fading) drug tests.

Big Corporations always find a way to control their employees.

[Shermann]

7. Trust is a two-way street

Gathering metrics on how employees work isn't new or alarming in and of itself.

If the tools are misused in a way which demonstrates mistrust, then employees will respond accordingly.

Engineers vote with their feet.

[Hortensis]

8. Control freak bosses satisfying their own dysfunctional needs.

I'm guessing this company, and most others, will be forced to bring this nazi-supervisor stuff down big time. It's not the future for most by a long shot.

I worked from home for myself and others for a quarter century. When it was as an employee, my work product told them what I was doing with my time. My work computer was part of their system so they could monitor compliance with due diligence and security requirements, such as which files were opened and why, etc. In later years, of course, on-line meetings would have let them see how employees appeared visually to clients, if they wondered. All reasonable, very workable, and I was happy with it.

[XanaDUer2]

10. Who's watching the boss? Nt