18 votes

Employee monitoring software surges as companies send staff home

19 comments

  1. [2]
    JXM
    Link
    I don’t understand why you’d hire someone if you don’t trust them enough to do their job from home without down to the keystroke monitoring...

    I don’t understand why you’d hire someone if you don’t trust them enough to do their job from home without down to the keystroke monitoring...

    19 votes
    1. stu2b50
      Link Parent
      This is more of a thing with large corporations than mom and pop shops, so the people making the decisions about employee monitoring are like 10 levels above the people who're actually hiring people.

      This is more of a thing with large corporations than mom and pop shops, so the people making the decisions about employee monitoring are like 10 levels above the people who're actually hiring people.

      15 votes
  2. [17]
    vord
    Link
    It doesn't surprise me. My employer in the USA has basically gone a touch bonkers fearing that nobody is doing their jobs when they went remote. The funny thing is that 99% of my department was...

    It doesn't surprise me. My employer in the USA has basically gone a touch bonkers fearing that nobody is doing their jobs when they went remote.

    The funny thing is that 99% of my department was already allowed to remote as much as they wanted (at the discretion of the supervisor). My supervisor was pretty good, allowing our team to work remotely 3+ days a week.

    But then COVID hit, and all the managers that weren't letting their team members work remotely more than 1 day a week are now losing their minds as they scramble to adjust to working remote full time.

    Our team, meanwhile, actually had a few very relaxing weeks when lock downs first started, as we had no role in getting people on-boarded to remote work, were already super-comfortable working remotely, and everybody else was too busy getting adjusted to fundamentals of remote work that our workload plummeted and we were actually able to pay down a bit of tech debt instead.

    Now, as a result of all the managers that are still freaking out about basic remote work things (like not being 100% beholden to office hours, taking 10-20 minute breaks periodically to help around the house, using chat and conferencing programs), our team is growing increasingly annoyed at the increased mental load from having to follow newly-enforced bureaucratic oversights at the behest of the people worried that nobody is doing their job.

    Anybody that can work remote likely doesn't need to work 8+ hours a day. They don't need to be 100% on. Nobody needs to monitor their activities if employees are completing assigned work.

    If you are worried about one of these programs, here's some tips to avoid getting screwed over:

    • If possible, never use a work machine to remote in. Employer has 100% right to do whatever they want to a machine under their control, but they could get in some trouble for installing spyware on your computer.
    • Set alarm, always log in on time or early.
    • When you need a decent break, find a very long document that is relevant to your job (vendor documentation is fantastic for this). Get an anti-idling program on your personal machine to send a scroll down every 30 seconds or so. Bonus points for trying to match it to your normal reading speed, and periodically scrolling up a bit like you needed to re-read something).
    • Don't EVER send anything that you wouldn't want your entire organization to read through any work system. Email/Chat spying has always been prevalent, and is even more so in the modern era. Current Outlook/Teams can provide detailed breakdowns of your email/chat program usage. It is very easy for Slack admins to enable export of every single message sent in slack, private or not.
    • If you're going to do some serious time wasting, do it on your personal machine at home, don't do it on your work computer. It does baffle me that people slack off on their work computer when not in the office.
    13 votes
    1. [2]
      Algernon_Asimov
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I was thinking this as I read this article. I work at home using my personal computer. I do have a company-owned laptop: it's sitting on my desk at work. I don't need to lug it back and forth...

      If you're going to do some serious time wasting, do it on your personal machine at home, don't do it on your work computer. It does baffle me that people slack off on their work computer when not in the office.

      I was thinking this as I read this article.

      I work at home using my personal computer. I do have a company-owned laptop: it's sitting on my desk at work. I don't need to lug it back and forth between home and the office because my personal computer is set up for working at home. So I just use the laptop at the office.

      If my employer ever decided to monitor my computer activity (extremely unlikely, so this is just hypothetical), I would:

      • Refuse to allow them to install anything on my personal computer.

      • Bring home my company-owned laptop (with monitoring software installed).

      • Work on the laptop, and do my time-wasting on my personal computer.

      Simple!

      10 votes
      1. frostycakes
        Link Parent
        Yeah, if I were in a position to WFH and they wanted monitoring software, it's either using the company issued laptop or setting up a VM just for work on my personal machine if it came to that....

        Yeah, if I were in a position to WFH and they wanted monitoring software, it's either using the company issued laptop or setting up a VM just for work on my personal machine if it came to that.

        Last call center job I had, my coworkers thought I was crazy for bringing my personal laptop in (we were allowed to, and I found it convenient, being in tech support for an ISP/cableco, to have my Mac around to have a physical machine to help walk customers with Macs through troubleshooting steps as well), but I couldn't believe how they'd just get on Facebook/Netflix/whatever without a care in the world on the work machines. I wouldn't want any of my employers seeing my social media/logging into my personal email or the like, especially not one that was also my home ISP.

        It's just asking for trouble to come up.

        4 votes
    2. [6]
      skybrian
      Link Parent
      Huh, if I were feeling paranoid I would keep work and home entirely separate by never doing any work on a personal device, or vice-versa. (Though, if it came down to legal action, maybe that's not...

      Huh, if I were feeling paranoid I would keep work and home entirely separate by never doing any work on a personal device, or vice-versa. (Though, if it came down to legal action, maybe that's not paranoid enough, and keeping a work diary separate from your work machine might be a good idea too.)

      The people I know who were rigorous about this carried two cellphones, for work and home. I never went that far, but I did keep work and home Google accounts separate.

      Although, Github makes it really easy to mix work and home accounts and kind of a pain to keep them separate, so unfortunately I didn't do that. It's a good idea, though. I still get notifications from stale bugs being closed from projects I used to work on.

      7 votes
      1. vord
        Link Parent
        I agree broadly speaking, but I'll allow for using my personal machine to RDP to a work machine. Especially since if I'm feeling super paranoid I can keep the VPN software relagated to a VM.

        I agree broadly speaking, but I'll allow for using my personal machine to RDP to a work machine. Especially since if I'm feeling super paranoid I can keep the VPN software relagated to a VM.

        1 vote
      2. [4]
        soks_n_sandals
        Link Parent
        A great feature in Firefox is the Containers extension. I have Microsoft Office accounts for school and work and set up a "work" and "school" container so I can be signed in to both accounts...

        A great feature in Firefox is the Containers extension. I have Microsoft Office accounts for school and work and set up a "work" and "school" container so I can be signed in to both accounts separately. It essentially works by partitioning your browser history and cookies, relagating any activity opened in a specific container to that container.

        It might be worth trying. It's made the work/home division a little better since I use my personal machine to securely remote in.

        1 vote
        1. [3]
          skybrian
          Link Parent
          Yes, Chrome profiles are useful for this too.

          Yes, Chrome profiles are useful for this too.

          1. [2]
            Algernon_Asimov
            Link Parent
            Wouldn't that require signing in to Chrome, so that, rather than your employer monitoring your activity, Google gets to monitor your activity?

            Wouldn't that require signing in to Chrome, so that, rather than your employer monitoring your activity, Google gets to monitor your activity?

            1. skybrian
              Link Parent
              Chrome profiles don't require signing into Google. But whether you trust that depends on what sort of threats you're concerned about.

              Chrome profiles don't require signing into Google. But whether you trust that depends on what sort of threats you're concerned about.

              2 votes
    3. [3]
      MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      Are you intentionally referencing Snow Crash, where a character does exactly this sort of thing at her government job?

      When you need a decent break, find a very long document that is relevant to your job (vendor documentation is fantastic for this). Get an anti-idling program on your personal machine to send a scroll down every 30 seconds or so. Bonus points for trying to match it to your normal reading speed, and periodically scrolling up a bit like you needed to re-read something).

      Are you intentionally referencing Snow Crash, where a character does exactly this sort of thing at her government job?

      4 votes
      1. [2]
        vord
        Link Parent
        Nope. Have literally done these things myself. Wasn't aware of Snowcrash until now but will be checking it out. We really are living in a boring dystopia. We have so little time for leisure, and...

        Nope. Have literally done these things myself. Wasn't aware of Snowcrash until now but will be checking it out.

        We really are living in a boring dystopia. We have so little time for leisure, and so little freedom that we have to take active measures to thwart invasive spying systems just to avoid bad metrics and risk getting laid off and becoming destitute because we've become blacklisted.

        We're all living in a terrible blend of every dystopian novel I've ever read. Something has to give, and I hope it happens before the earth become an uninhabitable wasteland.

        7 votes
        1. spctrvl
          Link Parent
          You definitely should. In addition to being just really fun and hilarious, I think it's got some of the most prescient social commentary in cyberpunk. I really can't think of any other books, let...

          You definitely should. In addition to being just really fun and hilarious, I think it's got some of the most prescient social commentary in cyberpunk. I really can't think of any other books, let alone of that vintage, that really hit upon the ideas of viral ideas and post-rationality that make so much of our current hellscape, not to mention the smaller stuff like what I also wondered if you were referencing.

          5 votes
    4. [4]
      ohyran
      Link Parent
      I really don't understand this? Wouldn't it be easier to set up a set of tasks, assign them to different people and a timeline within which to complete them - and then check if they do complete...

      I really don't understand this? Wouldn't it be easier to set up a set of tasks, assign them to different people and a timeline within which to complete them - and then check if they do complete them - than to go through all this effort to basically tell your employees that they are your adversaries?

      4 votes
      1. [3]
        vord
        Link Parent
        Yea, but that's not how it works sadly. Employers care more about extracting maximum value from their employees at any cost. Don't go above and beyond. Do what you are assigned, within a...

        Yea, but that's not how it works sadly. Employers care more about extracting maximum value from their employees at any cost.

        Don't go above and beyond. Do what you are assigned, within a reasonable timeframe, and don't do a lick more unless you're getting paid for it.

        I do everything I'm tasked with. I get it done quickly then sit on it awhile and work on building my skills, so that when the winds shift I can be ready.

        2 votes
        1. ohyran
          Link Parent
          True... I mean "one could hope tho" Which reminds me of my favourite developer life-hack a friend told me about if you work in an office landscape kind of deal: get a blue-switched mechanical...

          True... I mean "one could hope tho"
          Which reminds me of my favourite developer life-hack a friend told me about if you work in an office landscape kind of deal: get a blue-switched mechanical keyboard (the noisy bastards). That way your boss can constantly hear how you're furiously typing and wont check up if its typing code or simply replying on a tweet or something.

          1 vote
    5. patience_limited
      Link Parent
      Footnote: On a personal computer, use VMWare, VirtualBox, etc. to create a VM solely for your work-related activities. [I had to do this for the month of transition consulting while I was leaving...

      Footnote: On a personal computer, use VMWare, VirtualBox, etc. to create a VM solely for your work-related activities. [I had to do this for the month of transition consulting while I was leaving my last employer.]

      Your employer can demand all the spyware crap they want, but they should have no access to your personal activities on a platform you own.

      4 votes