BIG BROTHER AT WORK

Revolution or nightmare? The boss uses a special application to monitor his workers so that they do not slack off ‘You can steal an extra ten minutes of time here and there. That's why it's good to have automated supervision of workers' Writes: Jutarnji.hrPosted: September 29, 2020 7:33 pm Illustration Illustration Wavebreak Media Ltd / Wavebreak / Profimedia Facebook Twitter Messenger E-mail Shibu Philip admits he knows what it’s like ‘maybe a little slacking off at work’, writes the BBC . Shibu is the founder of Transcend - a small London-based company that buys cosmetic products in bulk and resells them online. For the past year and a half, he has used the Hubstaff app to monitor how much time his employees spend working, how many times they press a key on the keyboard, how many they move the mouse, and which websites they visit. His seven employees are in India and this software allows him to keep an eye on them and overcome the time difference. 'I know myself. You can steal an extra ten minutes of time here and there. That's why it's good to have automated supervision of workers, 'says Shibu. ‘Looking at the screenshots and paying attention to how long it takes someone to do a certain task, I know if employees follow the procedure. And if they work better than expected, I also study the photos and ask them to share their knowledge with others so we can all improve. ' Employees are fully aware that this software is in use and can erase the recorded time they spent on a website that may have accidentally stayed on during the break, Shibu explains. House slackers Now that more people than ever work from home, the demand for employee monitoring software is growing. The American company Hubstaff says that the number of customers of their products has quadrupled annually since February. Another company called Sneek offers technology that takes photos of users via their laptops and uploads them so others can see them. Photos can be taken every few minutes, although the company describes itself as a communication platform and says that ‘all users of the platform have the same experience whether they are employees or employers’. The company's co-founder, Del Currie , said the number of their customers had quadrupled during the lockdown and now numbered more than 20,000. A recent study conducted by scientists from the University of Cardiff and Southampton found that the fear shared by all bosses is that workers will slack them, although there is no confirmation that lockdown has exacerbated the situation. The survey also found that employees themselves think their productivity is lower when they work from home. But is technology the answer and the solution for those lazy workers or for those who just have trouble adjusting to work at the kitchen table? 'I would feel bad if someone was watching me' Photographer Josh, 26, from London, admits to the BBC that his lower productivity when working from home has fallen hard.