Workers are, unsurprisingly, not thrilled with that kind of overreach, and it could push them out of those monitored jobs. A 2022 Morning Consult survey of 750 tech workers showed that half would rather quit than have their employer monitor them during the workday.
Levy thinks some employers will realise the liability, and stop monitoring rather than lose people. “I do think that employers, even acting entirely in their own best interests, may decide to limit monitoring to make their workplaces more attractive to in-demand workers, so that people want to stay in their jobs for long periods of time.”
There may also be ways to make being monitored a less objectionable experience for workers. If employers are transparent and upfront about the necessity and purposes of monitoring, Spiegel and Welsh’s studies both showed the negative effects are greatly reduced.
Welsh explains that when employees felt like they were “being treated fairly by their organisation”, they were less likely to cheat. “So, if you’re being monitored, but you think, ‘This is a fair company I’m working for, they do fair things’, you don’t have this negative reaction … [employees] want to have leaders who are ethical and treat them fairly.”
There is a way, then, for employers to feel like they know what people are up to without the alienating employees. The biggest improvement, says Levy, is involving the workers. “A clear place to start is, in a meaningful way, to bring workers into the process of determining what technology will be used, how the data it collects will be treated and who will have access to those data, and really thinking through how the technology can help workers to accomplish their work, rather than as a threat or a policing tool.”
In some cases, increased communication alone might be enough to help workers and bosses find a happy medium. When Mark reached his boiling point with his boss’ surveillance, he fired off a lengthy email explaining what made it so detrimental. He was prepared for a negative reaction to the criticism, and had decided having an angry boss was better than being watched. Instead, Mark was relieved when his boss was willing to find a solution.
“I proposed we instead send him an email report at the end of each day where we say what we did, plan to do the next day, and any problems. His response was that he only glanced at the screen on occasion and didn’t realize it was a problem, and he agreed to my proposal,” says Mark. It turned out that while Mark and his colleagues were stressed out and squirming, their boss hadn’t even noticed. It took open communication, not covert surveillance, to solve the problem.
Of course, plenty of people work under company leadership that would be a lot less open to that kind of criticism – and some employees may not have much recourse. But Levy says their leaders would do well to hear these concerns. “Even if they don’t entirely give up on monitoring,” she says, “there are ways to implement these tools with greater respect for workers.”
