Working from home? Companies hiring private investigators to check up on you, PI says
Is your boss watching you? It’s possible, according to a private investigator.
“Calls started coming in from corporations saying, ‘We need you to watch an executive, or somebody [else]. They’re supposed to be working from home and we can’t get a hold of them,’ “ investigator Dorian Bond told Arizona station KNXV-TV.
With millions of Americans working from home amid the pandemic, some corporations are taking extra steps to ensure employees aren’t playing hooky from work. Bond, owner of the Phoenix-based Bond Investigations, Inc., said companies are turning to his team to keep tabs on employees they suspect are skipping out on their daily duties.
“If I get the call, usually, [the company] is pretty sure it’s happening. They just need the documentation evidence,” Bond told the news station. “So, when they decide to go with the termination, they have the proof.”
The private eye said he’s busted employees doing a number of non-work-related activities, including golfing and boating. A “top executive” was even caught getting cozy with a subordinate as they sheltered-in-place together, Bond told KNXV.
The shift to teleworking has since sparked increased demand for software that can supervise employees while they work from home, McClatchy News previously reported.
“Since this thing started, the coronavirus pandemic, 16 percent of companies ordered this kind of software because they’d like to monitor their employees,” San Jose State University professor Ahmed Banafa told KGO. “Companies on the other side, who provide these kind of services, they saw (a) 40 percent increase from their current customers asking for more licenses.”
The surveillance software can come in many forms, such as the “attention tracking” feature on Zoom that alerts hosts when an attendee has clicked away from a meeting for over 30 seconds, according to Recode. Other programs can take screen grabs of an employee’s monitor any given moment, the tech news website reported.
Many workers say they aren’t fans of being spied on.
“My manager knows every single damn thing I do,” “Jane,” a contractor working for a translation firm in Australia, told Recode. “I barely get to stand up and stretch, as opposed to when I am physically in the office. I feel like I have to constantly be in front of the computer and work because if not, either the TeamViewer logs me out for being idle, or my manager randomly sends a check-in email that I must reply to promptly.”
With employees out of the office, it has become harder for managers to make sure they’re staying on task. However, experts warn that infringing on workers’ privacy could breed feelings of resentment.
A Harvard Business Review guide to “managing newly remote workers” suggests several steps supervisors can take to ease the transition, including “establishing structured daily check-ins,” setting “rules of engagement” and diversifying communication technology options, according to its website.
On the flip side, Bond told KXNV that employees shouldn’t try to get over on their bosses, especially when so many others have lost their jobs because of the ongoing pandemic.
“Try to get as much work done [as you can] because the company’s going to know how the employees acted during this period of time and then when it’s time for review, was that person available to work when they needed it?” he told the news station.
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Working from home? Companies hiring private investigators to check up on you, PI says."