surveillance software at work

John Comb · 2006-06-02T15:17:51+00:00

I work for a mid-size consulting company and now I'm facing dismissal because my boss's caught me several times doing private correspondence, chatting and downloading software from the Internet during work time. They use statlook surveillance software which tracks your activities while doing computer work. They monitor visited websites, total time spent working and pausing, keystroke/click count and so forth. The problem is, they didn't put my on a notice, they introduced the surveillance system. I didn't know being watched. I didn't even know they can grab the current screenshot and even follow it "live" just like on Big Bruv. I don't want to get a sack! What shall I do now? JC

Jun 02, 2006 42 Replies

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Cynic 20 years ago

TBH I think it is wrong to have serving staff answer phones at all if it can possibly be avoided. But if that was the way the shop was set up, I would expect the person to answer the phone and say, "I am serving a customer at the moment, would you like to hold for 10 minutes or would you prefer to call back?" Or similar.

I would decide at the time whether or not I considered the situation reasonable. The criteria is not really whether the call is or is not business-related, but whether or not it is *important* enough to keep a customer waiting. I'm tolerant of personal calls when they are non-trivial, urgent and as brief as possible (arranging an emergency baby-sitter, instructing a car mechanic etc.)

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rob 20 years ago

I appreciate that in a work situation the phone should be answered quickly. If we are too busy with customers we tkae details and call them back.

I do have a problem with people who believe that the phone is a god whose summons must be instantly obeyed on every occasion. Asside from times when we are expecting an important and urgent call, ie someone in hospital or at the airport, we ignore the phone during meals, or if we are talking with visitors etc. Similarly I can reject calls made to my mobile at inopportune times. It is my phone, I pay for it, I decide when to use it.

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Ronald Raygun 20 years ago

How do you know an unexpected call won't be important?

The trouble is that if the damn thing keeps on ringing, it creates more of a disturbance than you're trying to avoid.

I suppose, when appropriate, you could configure your landline phone like a mobile, i.e. get it to not ring, and to take a message. Or one could have one's butler answer it and bring any urgent messages through to the drawing room on a silver platter.

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