WFH with privacy? 85% of Brit bosses snoop on staff

Employers remain blissfully unaware/wilfully ignorant of the impact of surveillance on staff

More than three-quarters of UK employers admit to using some form of surveillance tech to spy on their remote workers' productivity.

Eighty-five percent of the 1,000 workplaces surveyed said they were using monitoring tools to some extent.

Simple examples include tracking the websites workers visit and the apps they use – more than a third engaged in this – while more invasive approaches involved checking the actual display of the company-issued device in real time. Over a quarter of employers (27 percent) admitted to this, while 15 percent said they went as far as tracking keystrokes.

The most popular form of surveillance was monitoring active work hours, with 54 percent saying this was going on, and employees' emails and chat logs were also examined by employers (36 percent and 28 percent, respectively).

One in five confirmed they track the locations from which employees are working – bad news for the digital nomads.

ExpressVPN carried out the research, so it's worth remembering the folks over there have a vested interest in making these kinds of findings, and noted that its previous work in 2023 found 78 percent of employers were surveilling staff, so corporate snooping appears to be on the up.

The company's digital privacy advocate, Lauren Hendry Parsons, said: "These findings highlight an urgent need for greater transparency and trust in the workplace. 

"Employers must strike a balance between enabling productivity and respecting employee privacy, no matter where their employees are working."

There are no laws in the UK that specifically mandate technological monitoring of employees, nor is there one that prohibits it. The research suggested 38 percent of Brits didn't know this was the case and 79 percent believe the government should increase oversight of the practice.

The European Convention on Human Rights and Data Protection Act 2018 both have a role in governing what can and can't be done by employers, but essentially surveillance is deemed fine as long as it's proportionate, transparent, and is carried out for a legitimate business purpose.

The UK's data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), previously issued guidance on the matter as part of its Employment Practices Code. It states that employees should be clearly made aware of when and how they're monitored, although compliance with the code isn't legally enforced.

Stress and anxiety in the bullpen

Nearly half of the 1,000 employees who responded to the survey (46 percent) said the idea of their management team having access to their workplace performance data instilled a sense of anxiety and stress. Fourty-five percent also already suspect a degree of monitoring is taking place, and rightfully so, if the data is anything to go by. 

A little more than half (51 percent) said they would quit their jobs if they discovered they were being monitored, which of course is easier said than done given the current job market, and 17 percent said they'd even be happy to slash their salary by a quarter if it meant working for a company that didn't engage in the practice.

With the average UK salary standing at £36,712 ($45,578), that would equate to an annual drop of £9,178 ($11,394) just to get away with a bit of Netflix during the quieter periods.

Aside from the stress and anxiety that workplace surveillance brings, the main bugbears among workers who know they're surveilled are that they don't feel trusted, they feel pressured to work longer hours, and that it makes them take fewer breaks during the workday. For 14 percent they even feel dehumanized, according to the research.

Seventy percent of bosses told the survey's authors that they believe monitoring actually improves trust, morale, and productivity.

"Over-surveillance can lead to a toxic work environment, increased stress, lower productivity, and ultimately, higher turnover rates," said Hendry Parsons. 

"It's essential for organizations to adopt transparent and ethical monitoring practices that prioritize the well-being of their employees."

Offices become surveillance states

Recent studies have also shown how workplace tracking extends beyond software installed on individual endpoints to those simply turning up to the office too. 

A research report from Austrian nonprofit Cracked Labs stated in November: "As offices, buildings, and other corporate facilities become networked environments, there is a growing desire among employers to exploit data gathered from their existing digital infrastructure or additional sensors for various purposes.

"Whether intentionally or as a byproduct, this includes personal data about employees, their movements and behaviors."

It cited Cisco Spaces as an example of how technology is being made available to businesses, to track their workers' movements around the office. 

It's marketed to businesses as a means to transform their offices into "smart spaces," which can lead to behavioral profiling of individuals within an organization.

Wolfie Christl, who authored the Cracked Labs report, previously told The Register: "Behavioral data collected for purposes like operating a company's networking infrastructure or even highly intrusive video surveillance systems simply shouldn't be used for completely unrelated purposes.

"Generally, ubiquitous digital monitoring and profiling undermines employee privacy, dignity, autonomy, and trust in the workplace. Once deployed in the name of 'good,' whether for aggregate analysis, energy efficiency, or improved worker safety, these technologies normalize far-reaching digital surveillance, which may quickly creep into other purposes. There is a high risk that employers misuse the collected data against workers."

Christl has previously looked at Microsoft's technology, questioning the proportionality of its use for workplace monitoring.

Microsoft itself previously spoke of "productivity paranoia" that some managers get when their staff are working out of the office, citing research which claimed 85 percent of business leaders have a "hard time knowing for sure that their people are being productive."

Back in 2020, Microsoft was forced to back-pedal from the Productivity Score feature in the Microsoft 365 cloud platform due to a privcacy backlash.

Boeing also confirmed last month that after an insider leaked its intention to fill its Everett, Washington office with sensors that tracked building occupancy, it was aborting the plans and removing the sensors that were already installed. ®