Slashdot Mirror
Stealth Software Used To Spy On Employees
Baraka writes "As if reading the e-mails of their employees wasn't enough, some corporations have gone as far as to install hidden software on their client boxes. The software secretly monitors all keyboard and app activity. At the end of the day, the gathered information is e-mailed to the "offending" employee's boss. Read it and weep, folks. Looks like Big Brother is alive and well in the officeplace. "
Snooper software may catch who is surfing what sites, but is this good for business? Companies should IGNORE minor transgressions by employees, especially for employees in creative occupations (i.e., software design). To maintain a clear head and to stay creative, periodic breaks are needed. This may mean a quick game of Quake or Tetris, reading Slashdot, or netnews. So what if company resources are used for this? So long as the job gets done, let people enjoy their diversions. Cracking down on "unauthorized use" will not help the bottom line the way you may think. It will create an atmosphere of ph33r and paranoia that will actually end up hurting productivity than if you simply let things be. Can you work productively when someone's standing behind you staring over your shoulder constantly? Monitoring software is no different. So I say that as long as employees are getting their work done and not offending other employees (i.e., surfing porn where others can see it) ant not sucking up the company's whole T1 while engaging in brief periodic non-work activities from their private terminals and workstations, I say let 'em be. Happy workers are productive workers. No one wants to work for Big Brother. If my employer did this, I'd leave. Others would too. Of course, no company will explicitly say "Yes, you can surf pr0n, or play games on company time". Companies don't have to do this either. All companies need to do is evaluate employees on the results of what they produce. The means by which they do it are really a non-issue.