Big Brother bosses

[strollingbones]

IF THE workers at Japan’s Keihin Electric Express Railway Company seem unnaturally cheerful for drizzly autumn mornings, it is because they are being watched. The firm has installed cameras with special scanners at 15 of its stations to measure employees’ smiles, ensuring that harried commuters are always greeted with a grin, however forced.

It may seem extreme to Western eyes but it is just one example of a business that is booming: employee monitoring. Companies have long kept a close eye on employees to maintain productivity and guard against theft. But the economic downturn has prompted some to redouble their efforts—and advances in technology have given them the means.

A recent report from Gartner, a consultancy, found that spending on security software rose by 18.6% to $13.5 billion in 2008. The market for security information and event management software (SIEM), which can be used to mine e-mails for keywords and security breaches, grew by 50% according to Gartner. The fastest-growing area is network forensic software, which lets firms record and playback exactly what happens on employees’ computer screens, and can even record keystrokes.

;;;;skipped over shit;l;;;;

Another use of employee-monitoring software is measuring productivity. Managers trying to decide who to make redundant can use forensic software to catch that slacking YouTube addict red-handed.

Even workers on the road are not safe from prying corporate eyes. Several start-up companies, such as Purewire and Zscaler, have launched software to monitor employees outside the company network. Workers accessing the internet from hotel rooms using a company laptop may be surprised to find their web browsing is being monitored by the IT department back in the office. Their page requests flow through a web monitoring service, which can block or report access to certain sites.

Monitoring software can also be used to spot “presenteeism”—employees who turn up in the office every day but then do nothing. Peter Cheese, managing director of Accenture’s talent and organisation practice, says that presenteeism has become more common as communications break down between managers and staff in firms that are under financial stress.

Employers spying on staff: Big Brother bosses | The Economist

word dejour: presenteeism.....

 

[Skull Pilot]

when the boss is not around, employees unfailingly become less productive.

So what is the problem with the guy paying the salaries making sure he is getting his money's worth by monitoring his employees via camera?

 

[chanel]

Very interesting. At my job there is monitoring software as well as many sites blocked. We also must sign an "internet user agreement" and a "cell phone" agreement.

I can understand the reason but I don't like being treated like a child.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Very interesting. At my job there is monitoring software as well as many sites blocked. We also must sign an "internet user agreement" and a "cell phone" agreement.

I can understand the reason but I don't like being treated like a child.

From my experience, employees have to be treated like children.

In my small company I have, on many occasions, caught employees playing solitaire, surfing face book and you tube, texting people when they should have been working. i regularly have to check the appointment schedule because it never fails that appointments near the end of the day are booked for two or even three slots when one is all that is needed.

For Christ's sake my wife and I can't even take a few days off without coming back having to referee some childish crisis over the stupidest shit.

So yeah it would be nice to treat employees like adults but they have to act like adults first and that just doesn't happen.

 

[rayboyusmc]

Not true that productivity automatically fails if the when the person in charge is not watching. That is only true if the person in charge is a boss and not a leader. This boss attitude comes from the medieval days when the word "baas" meant master. If you treat adult workers like kids, don't be suprised if you get your wish.

I have worked for both leaders and boses. I work for the leaders to accomplish the goal, too often I have to work around the boss to accomplish the goal, or just say screw it.

Go to:gettothepointbooks.com and check out their Leadership section for: It's the Boss, Stupid.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Not true that productivity automatically fails if the when the person in charge is not watching. That is only true if the person in charge is a boss and not a leader. This boss attitude comes from the medieval days when the word "baas" meant master. If you treat adult workers like kids, don't be suprised if you get your wish.

I have worked for both leaders and boses. I work for the leaders to accomplish the goal, too often I have to work around the boss to accomplish the goal, or just say screw it.

Go to:gettothepointbooks.com and check out their Leadership section for: It's the Boss, Stupid.

run a business and tell me that. I guarantee you that I have read more leadership and management books than most and yeah some good ideas but really if your employees do not desire to be better and improve themselves all the books in the world won't help you.

My wife has told our people that we will need an assistant practice manager soon and that if anyone would be interested in a promotion and the accompanying pay raise that they should talk to us but no one is interested. So we will look outside for an assistant and I guarantee you that the employees who didn't want the position will complain about the new assistant manager.

My wife and I run our business by example not decree. Both of us will mop a floor, do the grunt work etc. no job is beneath us but for some reason, if one of us is not present, no one will step up. it seems like our employees feel that we are coworkers and not the owners of the business and the ones who sign their paychecks.

We give our people power to do almost anything needed to make the business run smoothly but they never follow through. When we run low on drugs or lab supplies, no one puts it on the list to order. Even though we tell them that they can call our distributor to order a needed item no one does and we routinely get calls on a Saturday that we ran out of something even though that person was on the past 2 days and noticed that we were running low.

I will get calls to say we have no change for the drawer even though people have known that we were low for a day or two and god forbid one of them takes some fucking initiative and goes to the bank to get the change.

it never fails that 20% of the people do 80% of the work and in a company with 10 people, the 20% is me and my wife so when we're not around guess what?

 

[Barb]

Goodness, that's not "big brother," that is an abusive spouse.

 

[rayboyusmc]

And I have worked for over forty years in the military and in the civlian sector. I found that if I treated my people like adults, they acted that way. Don't blame the innocent many for the crimes of the evil few.

We make too many decisions based on the loser of life and punish the winners until they see no reward in being a winner.

You get what reward, not what you expect.