Study finds UK employers are more likely to skip the surveillance “bossware” for remote workers.
Most UK employers aren't excessively monitoring their staff. (Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva on Pexels)
If you thought micromanagement went away because more people are working from home at least part of the time, think again.
What’s different is the way micromanagement looks for hybrid and fully-remote employees. Now, employers are using software to keep tabs on things like when staff clock in and out, when they take breaks, how many times they click their mouse, how much time they spend in their email and more.
The downside to this is that a new study is showing this kind of surveillance software has become more invasive since it became widely popular during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plus side is: not in the UK!
“Bossware” has gotten worse for remote workers
Around 50% more employers are using bossware to keep track of remote staff.
(Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels)
StandOutCV undertook a study of employee monitoring of remote workers in the UK and US and found a troubling trend: employees’ daily work activities are being watched more than ever.
Around 50% more employers are using tools like location tracking and video/camera recording to keep track of where their remote staff are and what they’re doing during the workday.
More than 20% more employers than before are also now using document scanning and attendance tracking.
This trend raises concerns about the privacy of remote workers, who already face challenges like burnout and anxiety about job security.
It also coincides with the rise of “productivity paranoia”, where, despite evidence to the contrary, managers and even fellow coworkers are suspicious about how much team members are getting done each day.
One more reason to love working remotely in the UK
The good news is, this trend isn’t holding up among the British workforce.
Just 1 in 3 UK businesses are believed to use bossware. (Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels)
According to StandOutCV, “In the UK, statistics point to fewer employers monitoring their staff, estimated to be around 1 in 3 companies.
“Using the latest figures from the government of companies with employees in the UK, that could mean around 1.76 million businesses are monitoring UK staff.”
This could be because the vast majority of UK staff are working in a hybrid model, and physically go into work at least a few times each month.
But either way it spells out a win for the country’s remote work culture, which already has a much higher percentage of employees working remotely than the USA does.
Especially considering the #FlexFrom1st legislation set to come into effect in 2024, this could mean more UK workers get to benefit from working flexibly without being monitored excessively.
Find the latest remote jobs in the UK via RemoteWorker.co.uk.
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