Analysis: As the recent Wells Fargo case shows, employer surveillance of workers raises many important questions
Wells Fargo recently fired several employees for simulating being at their keyboards, using a variety of devices and software to create the impression that they were actively using their computers at work (e.g., by appearing to move their mouse or enter keystrokes). It appears some remote workers were using these methods to fool Wells Fargo's electronic surveillance programs, which are used to monitor the activity of the bank’s remote workers.
In a statement arguably laden with irony (given the company's recent history of apparently defrauding its customers by creating unauthorised charges and accounts), Wells Fargo’s executives claimed that the bank :"holds employees to the highest standards and does not tolerate unethical behavior". The employees were let go because they attempted to fool Wells Fargo into thinking that they were working when they were not.
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This episode raises several important questions and concerns about the use and the meaning of electronic surveillance. It's also worth examining if Wells Fargo is in fact harmed if some employees get their work done efficiently and quickly and do not need to continue to sit at their computers until the end of the (remote) workday.
The first question is in many ways more worrying, but the second may have broader implications for thinking about precisely what employers and employees owe one another. Despite recent data privacy laws in the EU, electronic surveillance of employees is both permitted and common. Employers might use hidden cameras or microphones to monitor the behavior of their employees, or they might use software to monitor employees’ communications and computer use.
This includes keystroke monitoring programs that track levels of employee activity and even the content employees view on their computers and the text they type in. If you are using your work computer to look for good airfares for your upcoming holiday, it is entirely possible that your boss knows what you are doing. If you take a break from working on your computer for a few minutes, someone in your organisation might come by to ask you why you are not constantly toiling away. Employees have some privacy rights, but you probably have little recourse if employers provide you with some form of notice that your actions might be monitored.
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From NBC's Today show, Vicky Nguyen reports on how companies are monitoring remote workers
Employers might have the right to use electronic surveillance, and there are sometimes good reasons to do so (e.g., if employees are handling large amounts of cash or sensitive documents), but it is often not entirely clear why they want to engage in this activity. Going back to the example of the Wells Fargo remote workers, it is worth asking just why employers might want to monitor this activity. Bosses should care a lot about what you accomplish and less so about whether you are keeping your nose to the grindstone 40 hours per week.
I have had the good luck to spend my career in academic environments where there is no time clock and where I have considerable autonomy in terms of how and when I work, as long as I consistently meet the requirements of my job (teaching assigned courses, advising students, serving on committees, publishing research, obtaining grants, etc.). My managers cared a lot about what I accomplished over the course of the year (eg, how many papers I published in good academic journals, how often I was published in RTÉ Brainstorm, how well I taught) and did not worry as much about precisely how I got this done.
In many ways, electronic surveillance is one aspect of the ongoing struggle managers and executives are having in deciding how (or even if) to supervise remote workers. The growth and continuing importance of remote work has made the job of supervisors and managers harder and more ambiguous. It can be argued that using electronic surveillance and imposing penalties on workers who do not conform to the old pattern of 40 hours of work each week in exchange for a pay packet is nothing more than an attempt to maintain control over workers, even if this control is counter-productive.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor Show, Elaine Burke from Silicon Republic on how employers are now using tracking software to keep track on their employees work
It's time for managers and executives to consider more systematically what it is they want workers to do. If the answer is that they want workers to achieve important goals and milestones, it probably makes more sense to monitor the outcomes of work rather than the process by which this work is achieved. If one employee does a good job accomplishing all of his or her important goals in 35 hours, it might not make sense to penalize this person of they do not spent the other five hours in a normal workweek doing pointless make-work.
One of the biggest changes in the post-pandemic workplace is the realisation that employees who do not receive constant supervision and monitoring are nevertheless highly productive. Furthermore, monitoring keystrokes or breaks might not provide information about workers' productivity and effectiveness.
Employers have the capability to closely monitor the behaviors of their employees, but the fact that you can do it does not imply that you should do it. We could all use a break from Big Brother, and my advice to employers is to rely less on spying and more on giving trust where trust is deserved. Hopefully, the folks who are monitoring my keystrokes agree!
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
