Security News > 2021 > May > Employers are watching remote workers and they're monitoring these activities
"Employee monitoring has always been an important privacy issue, but the pandemic has ushered in a new era of heightened surveillance that is incredibly concerning. In addition to fracturing the level of trust between an employee and an employer, it can make the workplace a hostile environment for workers and puts us one dangerous step closer towards the normalization of surveillance," said Harold Li, vice president of ExpressVPN, in a press release.
About six in 10 employers said they don't trust their employees to work "Without in-person supervision" and a similar number reported the same sentiment about employees working "Without digital supervision." The vast majority of bosses and/or executives said they use software to "Track employee performance and/or online activity" and more than half have incorporated these technologies in the last six months, according to ExpressVPN. SEE: IT expense reimbursement policy.
The survey found that 81% of employees are using at least one company-issued device and about half of the respondent employees know their company is "Actively monitoring their communication and online activities." About 17% didn't know it was even possible for companies to "Monitor their communication and/or online activities."
On the employer side, virtually all respondents said they "Actively track time spent by employees doing work [versus] other activities unrelated to work." About three-quarters said that stored recordings have "Informed an employee's performance reviews" and 46% said they had fired a worker based on "Information collected related to their remote work."
Nearly half of employees believe that monitoring software is a "Violation of trust" and 28% of employees say these tools make them feel "Unappreciated." One-quarter said these monitoring tools make them "Feel resentment."
The survey was held from April 15 through 21 and involved 2,000 employers and 2,000 fully remote or hybrid workers.