After notifying our users about the release of App & URL tracking, we have received this colorful opinion from the employee’s side of view, and we’ve got a permission to post it unedited without mentioning the author’s name:
I’m not happy with this. You keep adding more and more performance indicators for workers… I don’t know how everyone else feels about this, but I feel persecuted, haunted. What’s wrong with trust anyway? Are you like this with your girlfriends or wives? I understand the means of this kind of service and I believe it’s really useful. But things are getting quite uncomfortable for me, at least.
You think only about the needs of our bosses (that will be, your clients) and not the people who work for them. You know we are not robots, right? You know we are not slaves, right? The answer might seem quite obvious to you, but I guarantee you, it will be a different answer to what I have in mind. You can ask everyone who uses your services and you will have similar answer, guaranteed.
Before you jump into conclusions, I’m not saying you should invent a way to screw up our bosses like you do to us (in my case, I have quite an awesome working relationship with my boss and I feel really in peace while I do my job). All I’m saying is it would be nice to think about developing a new feature that is completely about the worker. ‘Cause I don’t believe people like to feel like slaves without any benefit.
I hope your wife checks your e-mails and phone calls everyday, that way you’ll know how this feels. Oh… and change the app’s desktop icon for a whip, it will have more coherence.
We do agree that it may feel quite intrusive. That is why we hold on to several points that separate Screenshot Monitor from similar softwares (other than brilliant interface of course):
- We always let user know about monitoring – we never run hidden
- We show user 100% of data that is being collected
- We always allow user to delete any part of the collected data
We also will never collect webcam data, no keystrokes. Also note that it is up to employers to keep collecting this data or to disable it.
Any honest employee should have nothing to hide. And if something got caught by accident – you can always delete it.
At this point, we have no plans for collecting any additional information. Let us know what we can do for employees to make their work easier.
I’m not happy either.
I understand that you want to give a better experience to our bosses (your clients, your primary income source), that’s not a problem.
The problem is what the “we” get from you, I consider that I have an excellent job, and I also have a great relationship with my boss.
I don’t have to change my working habits, because I don’t use to fool around while at work, because I want my boss to keep trusting me, but I’m human and I have an audio streaming service to get along while I work, and sometimes facebook pops up a notification that I care, it takes 5, 10, 30 seconds for me to leave facebook after writting a senseless post about “whatever”.
So, now am I exposed to some kind of embarrasement for this?
Is not about we’re hiding something, it’s about privacy (one of the most important topics in this field for the last decade).
And why not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_work#Pros_and_cons
I would like you to notice, that 99.99% of freelancer don’t have social security, or any other kind of benefit that we could receive on a regular job.
So, more controls and no benefits.
Benefits won’t be made/added by you, so is there any solution for this?
Next update: webcam will be turned on to know that you are watching the screen.
Benefits: you can breath while working and keep alive, just don’t blink.
As we have mentioned in this post – we will never collect webcam data.
Hmm, such outrage from people who expect to be paid for time they don’t. spend. working.
“5, 10, 30 second” breaks really aren’t. Multiple studies reveal the time it takes to re-capture concentration after small interruptions. Over the course of a long project, you’re asking your employer/client to pay for literally hours that you didn’t spend on their work. That may not bother you, but it certainly bothers the person who approves your paycheck.
I’m a huge fan of privacy. By all means, be as private as you like . . . on your own time. Click out, write your “senseless post about ‘whatever’,” then click back in. Easy peasy.