Posted on 01/28/2022 11:52:44 AM PST by ShadowAce
The Omicron surge has forced businesses to again delay a date for a return to the office. And that means a delay to an inevitable showdown: between workers and managers over remote or office-based work.
To a degree, every business will have by now adapted to the reality of a hybrid workplace and the fact some staff will remain home-based while others will come back to the office.
Any business that cannot offer a hybrid workplace will face problems in recruitment during this worker shortage. And problems in developing in-house, the skills of managing a modern workforce.
For work at home advocates the future looks rosy. With the current jobs boom it looks certain that they'll get what they want – either at their current employer — or somewhere else.
But will workers agree to allow their employer to monitor their home office activities? Is it something that can be refused or not? How is the home different from the office where people can be seen to be working at their desks, engaged in meetings, and logging into their IT systems?
Do remote workers have a right to refuse to be monitored?
Digital.com released a survey late last year that found widespread use of remote worker monitoring software especially in IT (77%) and advertising (83%).
One in seven workers hadn't been told about it.
Working from home might not be such a wonderful thing when you consider that people worked harder – a 10% boost in productivity was reported in the survey after the software was installed.
Being away from the office can be very isolating and cause anxiety by being out of the informal communication loops.
Further anxiety comes from the jobs that aren't hourly paid – how many hours is enough to prove your worth? You'll be competing against the unknown productivity of your colleagues.
You'll feel pressured to go the extra distance especially since 88% of employers said they had fired people based on their remote work reports.
Work from home might even become the norm for some organizations because if done right, they get a lot more productivity – and also they can confidently outsource some of their operations for big savings.
The home could easily become a dismal backwater for remote workers, always-on and always watching. I'd rather leave all that at the office, imho.
In order to relieve road congestion and reduce air pollution, every government worker who is able to telecommute should be required to.
Once that is accomplished, we can outsource their jobs to the Philippines.
If the work is getting done, why monitor?
Yes.
What if it’s BYOD? If they secretly install monitoring software, I would recommend criminal prosecution.
So customers won't have to actually inspect the work.
Hi Bob:
Thanks for working 8 hours and 54 minutes yesterday....
“If the work is getting done, why monitor?”
Because you have people aching to use their business degrees to show they can improve productivity. As far as I can tell, it seems business types are being taught that if you micromanage your people down to 15 minute increments, you can really make them productive!
Not sure how that works with the young indoctrinated mush heads, but I can tell you, this old war horse would not prosper under such conditions.
Had a remote meeting today and always keep the camera turned off. Tape across it so no errors. Audio of course is on and mute button at the ready:-)
they don’t do anything useful anyways, so say they are being outsourced, but just fire them.
If they want to watch you on camera, then charge them for office rent.
-PJ
Absolutely. I’ve done that since COVID.
My screen shows my CAD work, PowerPoints, and Excels sheets.
That’s all anybody wants / needs to see. Of course they hear my fish tanks in the background when the water levels get low. 😉
Ooooooooooooo.....scary!
If they don’t tolerate being monitored they will have to tolerate being replaced.
The Philippines is not where the jobs will go. India.
A few thoughts on this. If one is employed as an exempt from overtime employee, having spyware on the company laptop should be an outrage. If an hourly worker is able to work from home, they are miss classified.
“Demand for qualified tech workers far outpaces supply. Employers are in no position to demand anything this intrusive.”
Yup - the labor market will resolve this issue. Insist on monitoring, and you’ll get employees who need to be monitored.
“So customers won’t have to actually inspect the work.”
What kind of fool doesn’t inspect what he’s purchased, regardless of where it was produced?
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