Technology @lemmy.world misk @sopuli.xyz 2d ago

The surveillance tech waiting for workers as they return to the office

arstechnica.com The surveillance tech waiting for workers as they return to the office

Warehouse-style employee-tracking technology is coming for the office worker.

Privacy @lemmy.dbzer0.com Nemeski @lemm.ee 1d ago

arstechnica.com /information-technology/2025/02/the-surveillance-tech-waiting-for-workers-as-they-return-to-the-office/

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42 comments

'time theft'

Right. Treating human beings like robots where any ineffeciancy or time taken to not focus on corporate overlords is bad.

Fuck 'em.
- Wage theft is the largest property crime in the US but the state don't care and parasite will do it if you let them.
  
  Never give a parasite more than what was paid for
  
  And current wages, it ain't much and hence I shit on company time
"Nearly half of US employees admit to time theft!"

Nah, it's the other way around. Company profits of any kind are wage theft.
- I mean a company does need to make profit. Excessive profits is another thing.
  
  Yeah the "great work guys, we doubled the EBITDA this year. Congratulations!...Here's your 3% raise" kind of sucks
  
  Nope, any profits not reinvested in the company itself, or the employees is wage theft. Full stop. Capitalism is a scam we've been fed so rich assholes can get richer.
  
  No they do not. They need to break even only. Profit is the result of charging customers too much, paying employees too little, or enshitification.
  
  Username checks out.
My workplace installed desk presence sensors and has a stupid little robot roomba thing that drives up and down the rows documenting who’s in their seats.

Edit: this is the damn robot that we have to be seen by: https://www.globaldws.com/virbrix
- I don't know if this is a joke or not...
  
  I am genuinely not joking. We on-boarded this bullshit:
  
  https://www.globaldws.com/virbrix
  
  Best manager ever. Doesn’t chit chat and cleans the floor.
- Man, what sort of ~~sweatshop~~ industry is this so I can avoid it?
  
  IT
That was dystopian as hell to read.
there will be a $4.5 billion employee-monitoring-technology market, mostly in North America

Toxic workplaces being toxic. That said, workplace monitoring is mostly not allowed here.
It results in a lot of performance theater. If being at your desk, key presses, mouse clicks and eye movements are the most important then you can expect a lot of long winded lists, reports and mails. There'll be people doing thousands of things manually instead of thinking about it and automate things. So much productivity measured and nothing gets done.
Late stage capitalism is now turning inward. What a time to be alive.
So, in other words... Big Brother is watching
People just need to befriend the IT dept. Who do you think is having to run this shit? Easy to bypass with a beer.
Just another reason to keep away from shitty offices then!
If they only spent this time and money on training the managers to...well, manage their employees.

Stop thinking "time at your desk" is a kpi and start measuring results instead. It cuts the crap employees that are worthless and that in and of itself is a reward to good employees and team morale.

I would rather have a productive employee get results in 4 hours and then leave than a crap employee who needs the full day to get the same job done. Then the good employee will learn to streamline it so they can get the job done in 3 hours and I win because my efficiency went up. They win because they get another hour of their life back daily...or dare I say, they want more work and I give it to them along with a pay increase.
Cancer tech.

42 comments