I work remotely. Last week, my boss asked to take my laptop to install a \u201cproductivity\u201d tool that would track my working hours. I refused. \u201cI don\u2019t need a digital babysitter,\u201d I said. \u201cRemote work runs on trust, not control!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day, HR insisted I install it anyway. I smiled, thanked them, and complied. Turns out, this so-called \u201cproductivity\u201d software is nothing more than spyware that monitors every mouse movement and keystroke. If you stop moving the cursor for three minutes, your status turns red, and your boss receives a \u201clow activity\u201d alert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what they didn\u2019t know is that now I have my own workaround: I tape my mouse to my Roomba whenever I step away, or casually spin a pen on my mousepad when I\u2019m on my desk but doing something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, something inside me has shifted. I can\u2019t give to this job the way I once did\u2014now that I know trust has been replaced with surveillance. Before, it felt like I was building something of my own; I worked with heart, with pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s gone. The moment they decided to monitor my every move, something vital between us broke, and I don\u2019t think it can be repaired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I work remotely. Last week, my boss asked to take my laptop to install a \u201cproductivity\u201d tool that would track my working hours. I refused. \u201cI don\u2019t… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":564,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15350,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15348\/revisions\/15350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}