Workplace Surveillance Becoming More Common 195
An anonymous reader writes For better or worse, surveillance technology is becoming more common in the workplace. These tools are being used to measure and monitor employees, with the promise changing how people work. "Through these new means, companies have found, for example, that workers are more productive if they have more social interaction. So a bank's call center introduced a shared 15-minute coffee break, and a pharmaceutical company replaced coffee makers used by a few marketing workers with a larger cafe area. The result? Increased sales and less turnover." Of course, this kind of monitoring raises privacy concerns. "Whether this kind of monitoring is effective or not, it's a concern," said Lee Tien, a senior staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
People assume they're watched. (Score:5, Funny)
One day, I was puttering away on some project when the phone rang. "It was totally an accident!" "What was an accident." "I didn't mean to go to that website." "What website." "The porn site." Then it dawned on me that this woman actually thought I sat around all day watching what people were doing on their computers.
Re:They needed surveillance? (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously - they needed surveillance to figure out that workers were happier and more productive when they had some shared sense of purpose?
You fool! The workers must never know that the work they do has no purpose. Don't let them interact or they'll figure out the big secret. Our entire business plan depends on worker ignorance!
Re:People assume they're watched. (Score:5, Funny)
Your name wouldn't happen to be BOFH, would it?
Re:social interaction (Score:5, Funny)
You there! Stop talking! Eyes back on the computer screen!
Ha ha! Jokes on them. I can zone out and do nothing for hours while looking at a screen full of code.
Dude... http://hackertyper.net/ [hackertyper.net]
You're welcome.