Amid the rise of remote and hybrid work, employers turned to surveillance tools that claimed to measure their workers’ productivity by tracking keystrokes, mouse movements, and online activity. Many workers responded by finding ways to circumvent the scrutiny, using mouse jigglers and other hacks to ensure they weren’t penalized for stepping away from their desks.
In recent months, however, companies have sought to wrest back control by imposing stricter return-to-office policies and cracking down on workers who they believe are shirking their duties. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Wells Fargo had fired more than a dozen employees in May for faking active work—specifically through the “simulation of keyboard activity.” Many employers have become aware of workers using hacks like mouse jigglers, which can be detected by monitoring software, The Wall Street Journal reported recently.
Workplace privacy concerns
It’s little surprise, then, that many Americans are alarmed by the growing breach of their autonomy in the workplace. In a new survey conducted by background check platform Checkr, nearly half of the 3,000 respondents said they would consider taking a pay cut in exchange for their employer not tracking their online activity. Younger workers felt especially strongly about the issue, with 54% of Gen Z respondents saying they agreed with or were on the fence about taking a pay cut, as compared to 47% of millennials, 44% of Gen Xers and 45% of baby boomers. (The survey had an equal distribution of respondents from each generation.)
More than half of those surveyed—56%—said they believed their employer was monitoring their activity during the workday. The vast majority of respondents saw that as a problem, in keeping with broader views on consumer privacy: About 84% said they had general concerns about the security of the data they provided in the workplace, and 65% agreed with or were on the fence about the sentiment that employers monitoring online activity violated their privacy. Their perspective on being monitored at work seemed partly correlated with their age and generation; about 72% of Gen Z respondents believed it was an invasion of privacy, while only 60% of boomers felt the same way.
The impact on companies
Worker advocates and privacy experts have sounded the alarm on the potential implications of widespread workplace surveillance. Beyond privacy concerns, however, the pushback to these tools also indicates that they aren’t especially effective, either in terms of measuring output or motivating employees. Critics argue that tracking software can enable performative productivity, rather than true productivity, and that it can also be a reputational risk for companies that are trying to hire and retain talent. Perhaps most important, it can damage employee trust—so much so that workers are willing to give up part of their paycheck to avoid it.