Thoroughly Modern Thursday: Creepy Home Office Surveillance by Employers
August 7, 2008 by Kristen King
Filed under Business
(www.bizchicksrule.com) — I shuddered when I read this article on Yahoo! Finance.
In a budding trend some employment experts say is invasive, companies are stepping up electronic monitoring and oversight of tens of thousands of home-based independent contractors. They’re taking photos of workers’ computer screens at random, counting keystrokes and mouse clicks and snapping photos of them at their computers. They’re plying sophisticated technology to instantaneously detect anger, raised voices or children crying in the background on workers’ home-office calls. Others are using Darwinian routing systems that keep calls coming so fast workers have no time to go to the bathroom. Read More >>>
Is this an acceptable use of technology, or totally inappropriate? What do you think?
Contents © Copyright 2008 Kristen King
Tags: womens business blog, women in business, women and business, women, woman, business, surveillance, spying, micromanagement, big brother, work from home, telecommute, monitoring, biz chicks rule, kristen king
TOTALLY inappropriate. If the work is completed, who cares how many bathroom breaks the employee takes? Also, do they monitor staff in the building? If not, how is it legal to discriminate against home-based employees?
Personally I’d never agree to such a demand. No job is worth that.
Creepy is the perfect word. This is just over the top. I’ve had plenty of passive-agressive control freak bosses over the years. I can do without clients who feel the need to use the same behavior…and in the privacy of my home office no less.
Lori and Tina, I am with you guys 100%! Thanks for backing me up on the creepiness angle!
kk