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I think an underrated part of this conversation is the amount of employee surveillance management is usually privy to. Map out your workplace. Identify the areas where employees congregate and then identify where the cameras are. I guarantee most of the cameras have a social area in view. And if you’re on company internet, they can see every site you access, at least the domain name, time, and packet size.
Some of these ghouls’ worst fears are that their employees are disrespecting them. And their idea of respect is very much tied up in a culture that no longer exists if there’s no physical office. My CEO can barely contain his contempt and rage when talking about WFH and regularly says shit like, “if we can’t follow this simple rule we’ll be making some changes. If I had my way we’d all be back in the office by now”. He knows a ton of us will walk immediately. We have him by the balls. Almost have our list of demands formalized too
Management:
Every second you’re “on the clock” I own every thing you do. If you aren’t constantly working at “approved” tasks, you are “stealing” from me/the company. I can’t make you do bullshit busywork tasks if I can’t see you. I, as a manager, can’t do my job of maximizing productivity if I can’t see you.
I know it’s obvious that this is objectively not true, but it’s worth stating why. If you are getting lunch, but are expected to answer calls and messages without waiting until your lunch is done, that’s a working lunch. If you’re hourly, you are entitled to be paid for that time. If you are salaried and doing time tracking anyway, that time should be logged as billable. Instead of “lunch”, I mark my time as “on call”.
Workers are paid for their time. If they don’t fulfill their duties, the employer can terminate their contract, but bosses absolutely do not have the right to make you do whatever they want.
Of course, this is all legal protections, which means the best case scenario is that you take your employer to court for violations, they lose after several years of proceedings, and then they have to maybe pay a fine and put up a sign that says, “we promise not to do this again” for 6 months.
Solidarity unions work, but if you can spout some legalese in the meantime to get your boss to back off it can be worth it (assuming you’re not blowing a unionization attempt in doing so)
Workers are paid for their time. If they don’t fulfill their duties, the employer can terminate their contract, but bosses absolutely do not have the right to make you do whatever they want.
The hamfisted point I was trying to make in a snark-tastic way is that a manager/supervisors job, the reason they are supposed to get paid more than their underlings, is because they need to “manage” their people. If you’re at home, with the ability to get all your daily tasks done on time and to standard without supervision, how does your boss justify to their boss their next raise or continued employment?
