![]() While the Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government, employers are not running afoul of any federal laws by tracking what their workers are doing all day through surveillance software, he said. It may feel intrusive, but it is not illegal, said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy with Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy nonprofit. "And then there's a lower-tech version of that, which is people whose managers are asking them to stay on video all day long so they can watch over them every minute of the day, which is very intrusive," Green said. She has been flooded with questions from workers who feel icky about their bosses quantifying their keystrokes and how many emails they fire off each day. "I think if people know it's happening, then people will act better than they would otherwise, because we all act better when someone is watching," Miller said.Īlison Green, who writes the syndicated advice column Ask a Manager, has a different view. Miller said when the software runs on a homebound employee's computer, it gives the worker an added incentive not to slack off. Now tracking technology is taking the place of a manager's eyes. But in the office, it is much easier to figure out if someone is doing a job well. ![]() "Remote work has gotten a huge boost as everyone has been forced to work outside of the office, and we feel like these changes may be here for good."įor bosses, keeping up with worker productivity has always been a give-and-take. "We have seen a massive increase in the number of people needing our platform," Nevogt told NPR. "That's primarily what our customers are looking to know."ĭave Nevogt, the CEO of Hubstaff, said demand has tripled for his company's monitoring software, too. "Are they generally active on programs and websites that I would consider productive like Excel, PowerPoint, Word, email, as opposed to YouTube or Facebook?" Miller asked. Each worker then gets assigned a productivity score. Its programs for managers keep a record of every task employees are doing on their computers. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Miller said that Awareness Technologies' business has tripled. "If you're not working or doing something wrong, then I guess it will tattle on you, but I don't think that's really how companies that are buying think of it as," Miller said. Your boss may know you're on Facebook even if you don't postĬritics call this kind of tracking software "tattleware." But Brad Miller, who runs the Connecticut-based company Awareness Technologies, bristles at that description. But everyone was too afraid to say anything." "My co-workers were really, really upset. I feel ashamed of myself," she said, referring to a short break she took to speak with a colleague by phone. That meant stepping away from her computer briefly could cut into her pay. "If you're idle for a few minutes, if you go to the bathroom or whatever, a pop-up will come up and it'll say, 'You have 60 seconds to start working again or we're going to pause your time,' " the woman said. It also can enable a computer's webcam to take a picture of the employee every 10 minutes. It downloads videos of employees' screens while they work. Her employer has started using software called Time Doctor. She also spoke to NPR anonymously out of fear her employer would retaliate against her for speaking out. ![]() Just ask a woman who works in marketing at a small company in Minnesota. Privacy advocates and some workers said they worry that the intensified tracking brought upon by the coronavirus will normalize workplace surveillance and that this type of digital supervision will persist when workers return to offices. In turn, companies are ramping up the use of software to monitor what their employees do all day. The coronavirus pandemic has forced about a third of U.S. Such rationales are increasingly ringing throughout workplaces nationwide. She spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing she could lose her job.Ĭompany emails that she provided to NPR show her employer believed the tracking software would improve the team's productivity and efficiency while everyone was working from home. ![]() There was no reason to start location-tracking us," the woman told NPR. They also had to download an app called TSheets to their phones to keep tabs on their whereabouts during work hours. ![]() Some workers say they feel like their privacy is being compromised.Īfter two weeks of working from her Brooklyn apartment, a 25-year-old e-commerce worker received a staffwide email from her company: Employees were to install software called Hubstaff immediately on their personal computers so it could track their mouse movements and keyboard strokes, and record the webpages they visited. With more people working remotely, companies are turning to technology that tracks what employees are doing all day on their computers. ![]()
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