from Hacker News

The rise of workplace surveillance [audio]

by kennethfriedman on 8/26/22, 5:08 AM with 40 comments

  • by hoppyhoppy2 on 8/26/22, 7:40 PM

    For those who prefer text, the original report the podcast is based on was pretty interesting: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/14/business/work... or https://archive.ph/Bejv1

  • by bwestergard on 8/26/22, 8:50 PM

    Glad I'm a union software developer and don't need to worry about this.

    https://twitter.com/WeBuildNPR/status/1484190346217148418

  • by etempleton on 8/27/22, 1:54 PM

    My hard line is I won’t work for any company that enables the ability for the company to to turn on a web cam or microphone in my home. Web tracking software, key loggers, and automated screenshots is is the norm, unfortunately. I have a personal computer right there if I don’t want to be tracked, so that doesn’t matter to me.

    If you feel like you need these monitoring tools as a leader or manager perhaps take a long hard look in the mirror in regards to your own management abilities. I know what employees are doing their job and doing it well by the timeliness and quality of their deliverables and the amount of imitative they are taking. If an employee is not meeting expectations have a conversation with that employee and figure out why. The only thing monitoring software does is make everyone feel disrespected.

  • by mise_en_place on 8/26/22, 9:43 PM

    With this type of surveillance and the push to go back to the physical office, a lot of companies are wising up to employees who were taking multiple jobs remotely. What’s sad is that it ruins it for the rest of us, who were honest and diligently working one remote job. This is why we can’t have nice things.

  • by JohnFen on 8/26/22, 9:31 PM

    I genuinely cannot imagine any job worth being constantly spied on.

  • by givemeethekeys on 8/26/22, 10:32 PM

    Why bother working with a company that doesn't trust you?

  • by kornhole on 8/26/22, 8:44 PM

    Interesting how some workers know and like the monitoring tools on themselves. Many of the debates on HN and elsewhere around this technology are split between psychologies. Many hate to be watched and controlled while others want the opposite. Being on one side of the spectrum, I was long puzzled at the other side's position until I came to accept it. I still try to understand how people have come to their position. The lyrics come to my mind, "Some of them want to abuse you. Some of them want to be used by you."