Working from home? Beware of “bossware”

Many of us are witnesses to working from home as a new trend that offers flexibility, comfort, and making work more personal. I, for one, have embraced the perks: waking up on a makeshift bed to my home office, no need for the daily car ride to work, and time for coffee and snacks in my comfortable kitchen. But as I got used to this kind of work, I started over hearing murmurs about something strange—bossware. If you’re not in the know – prepare yourself because it’s going to hit your work-anywhere flexibility harder than you anticipate.

How Does It Work?
Bossware extends from an everyday hour counter which tracks your working hours to executives’ programs that incorporate artificial intelligence to check whether you are working hard enough. Some of them even generate reports after installing, which then go directly to supervisors, when the application notices that your productivity is low or that you are idle for long hours. But you may need to install monitoring software on worker computers. Tools like Work Examiner are advanced monitoring solutions that allow employers to track employee activities from anywhere. Check the industry guides to know about more tools.

For this study, I interviewed friends whose bosses have installed this software and asked how it influenced their level of trust and perceived self- etc. One of the coworkers said that they get stressed each time they have a break from work expecting to get some kind of message that would appear on the activity report. Work pressure to deliver at all times creates loopholes to stress and paranoia to the mental health of those involved.

Why Should You Be Concerned?
While I understand that employers need to maintain some level of oversight, the invasive nature of bossware raises several red flags:

Privacy Concerns: The largest problem is privacy bar none. One’s work-from-home experience already messes up the line between private and work life to some extent, and bossware could only extend that line even further. To have a program that is able to freely go through your computer, record your keystrokes and potentially activate your webcam is feeling invasive.

Trust Issues: Okay, let’s be frank: one of the advantages of working from home is the trust between the employer and the employee. However, if you are being followed every second then that trust is not going to last very long. This in turn leads to a set up in which employees believe they must go the extra mile and work harder so as not to be criticised instead of working hard to deliver value.

Mental Health Impacts: Such practices provoke stress and intimidation that the employee will be perceived as ‘idle,’ even more so, under pressure and striving for the best. Erroneously, people develop feelings that are akin to and work place espionage, which may lead to stress and lower levels of worker morale.

Working in an Organisation that uses Bossware
If you find yourself in a situation where bossware is part of your work life, don’t panic, but do take steps to protect yourself:

Understand the Policy: Make it your business to know what data your employer is gathering and how it is being utilized. If nothing else, transparency can at least assist in conditioning Americans to accept the circumstances under which they are operating.

Communicate: If you feel you have privacy issues in your workplace, you should consult your boss. Explain how this software influences your work experience and recommend how one could present productivity in another method.

Work Smart: Work to it by making sure your eyes remain glued to the computer screen during work hours as well as have the sense to take a break. New idea is working not by putting more effort, which is the only thing people do in this case.