Episode: 316

Episode Title: Tracking Your Every Move

Tracking employees’ activity is becoming more mainstream—but at what cost? Let’s talk about it, coming up next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 316 show:

Hello and welcome! This is The Perna Syndicate and I’m your host, Mark Perna. In today’s remote workforce, bosses can no longer stick their head into someone’s office to see what they’re doing. And it’s causing some employers to turn to more stealthy ways to monitor what their workers are up to. 

Amazon, for example, is considering tracking its workers’ keyboard and mouse strokes. While they cite security as the reason for this level of monitoring, imagine how their employees feel about being watched like that.

In the midst of a massive talent shortage, workers today can largely take their pick of where to work. At the same time, there have never been so many public forums where employees can share the inside scoop on what it’s like to work for a particular company. Who’s going to want to work for a company that tracks your every move? 

Employee surveillance comes with a cost—and that cost is trust. When the pandemic first started and we were all adjusting to the new reality of remote work, I wrote that trust is the secret ingredient that makes remote teams effective. 

If you don’t trust your employees—and they don’t trust you—how can anyone truly focus on the work itself? Lack of trust is a huge distraction, and one that we just can’t afford today. 

It’s true that trust may come with its own price, but the ultimate cost of such intensive employee surveillance may be much, much higher. 

Tomorrow: what exactly are employers trying to track when they monitor their remote workers? Are they measuring the wrong things? We’ll cover that and more on the next episode of The Perna Syndicate. See you then!