To Surveil or Not Surveil

Are you sure your remote workers are productive? There’s only one way to find out: surveil them!

I am kidding. A recent Microsoft survey concluded that managers have a little something called “productivity paranoia” going on. They’re afraid that remote workers aren’t getting enough done, despite the fact that remote workers nearly unanimously report being MORE productive when working from home.

But the folks in charge of this study don’t think that proving either point with employee surveillance is the right idea:

“There’s a growing debate about employee surveillance, and we have a really strong stance—we just think that’s wrong” — Jared Spataro, a Microsoft VP.

I agree with Spataro. Measuring employee “productivity” with tech tools that keep track of things like mouse clicks and hours logged on does not account for time employees spend thinking, on the phone or otherwise working without necessarily moving their cursor around.

As a recruiter for the past 25+ years, I have seen first-hand how successful employee-employer relationships begin and end with trust.

#employeeproductivity

#productivityparanoia

#employeemonitoring