At Toggl, we strongly oppose employee surveillance. It’s ethically unacceptable, legally concerning, and, worst of all \u2014 severely damaging to companies and their people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, employee monitoring software is a booming billion-dollar market, and Toggl’s 2025 Productivity Index<\/a> revealed that 70% of leaders are comfortable using surveillance software in a remote work setting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, how did we get to a state where companies distrust their employees and cultivate productivity paranoia? Let’s unpack this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n As more teams moved from cubicles to home offices, a new term emerged \u2014 bossware<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also known as electronic employee monitoring software, bossware refers to the expanding means companies have to monitor employees\u2019 laptops, phones, and physical activity under the guise of \u2018productivity tracking.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n Browser history, app usage, mouse movements, keystrokes, break clock-outs, Slack messages \u2014 there are very few things employers can\u2019t track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such intrusive surveillance raises many questions. Is it warranted? Yes, if you ask (micro)managers who doubt their people are working. But otherwise? No, because most employee monitoring software has zero positive effect on performance<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it morally questionable? Absolutely. 83%<\/a> of employers realize the ethical issues with employee surveillance, but 78% nonetheless use monitoring tools due to fear their people aren\u2019t doing enough<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 85% of leaders say the shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to trust employee productivity. This has led to productivity paranoia, where leaders fear lost productivity is due to employees not working despite increased hours worked, meetings, and activity metrics.<\/p>\nMicrosoft<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n No one likes being watched \u2014 and people get tense. High stress levels and poor mental health naturally lead to lower performance, absenteeism, and disengagement, all of which increase the intention to quit. 63%<\/a> of workers consider monitoring technology usage a good reason to leave an employer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When quitting isn\u2019t an option, people often resort to a \u201cproductivity theater\u201d strategy \u2014 finding workarounds to dupe the apps and inflate the tracked metrics. A quick online search provides plenty of options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this only creates more antagonism. Some employers, like Wells Fargo<\/a>, have responded by firing people who used desktop activity simulation tools. Others are forcing people back to the offices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But neither addresses the real problem: Is employee monitoring software the solution to more productive work?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many employers appear to think so. Starbucks, Delta, Nestl\u00e9, and AstraZeneca are using an AI-powered tool<\/a> to monitor employees\u2019 messages (yes, private ones on social media, too) from company-owned devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barclays<\/a> installed workplace surveillance software that emailed staff daily to warn them about not being \u201cactive enough\u201d or \u201chaving too many unaccounted activities\u201d like bathroom breaks. Other options are available to snoop on office and remote workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Employee monitoring software has become a $587.8 million<\/a> market in less than five years, growing at 12% year-on-year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, we feel it’s important to clarify that not all<\/em> time tracking<\/a> or attendance management apps are inherently bad. However, some of the following new technologies take employee monitoring too far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Employee monitoring tools with keylogging features capture keyboard usage frequency and timing as a proxy of engagement. Many also collect specific user inputs like recent search queries, form submissions, file usage, browser activity, and system commands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some employers argue it can detect insider threats and breaches of workplace policies. Forcepoint software scans<\/a> for specific keywords in employee activity to predict whether an employee shows “signs of willingness to leak company information,” “engage in insider trading,” or “show other signs of illicit workplace behavior.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n This degree of monitoring borders on predictive policing<\/strong>, a morally questionable and ineffective<\/a> practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Occasional screenshot capture or desktop activity video recording<\/strong> is another feature in some employee monitoring software<\/a>. Some managers see it as \u2018proof\u2019 of employees\u2019 engagement or a justification for tracked billable hours<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Can employee outputs be measured in screenshots? If your sales manager spends most of their day chatting with clients on Zoom, should you penalize them for that? Or if they spent the day perfecting a few presentation slides that led to a multi-million dollar deal closure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Screen recordings often contain sensitive corporate and personal data, including logins, passwords, and financial records. If a monitoring app gets breached (which does happen<\/a>), all of this information will end up in the wrong hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Requiring employees to always keep their webcams and microphones on is another problematic post-pandemic practice. 37%<\/a> of employers expect workers to be on camera all day<\/strong>. Among them, 93% monitor real-time video feeds for four or more hours daily \u2014 not the best use of supervisors’ time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Video surveillance is often justified by the following: In the office, employees are monitored with security cameras or by the manager\u2019s keen eye. So equivalent measures must be in place for home-based workers. But regulators don\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Dutch court recently fined a US company<\/a> for unlawfully terminating an employee who refused to keep the webcam on during a 9-hour online training session. His behavior was deemed \u201cinsubordination\u201d and \u201crefusal to work,\u201d leading to dismissal. The court ruled that such surveillance invaded privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and ordered compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Location tracking is common in attendance and shift scheduling apps. It\u2019s not bad as long as the feature is activated with employer consent for legitimate purposes, like optimizing delivery routes or coordinating field service work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But location tracking can also promote unhealthy management habits, such as immediately questioning employees’ whereabouts when they take a different route or a “suspiciously long” break. It can also invade employee privacy. Walmart was found to collect phone cameras and location data<\/a> from employees\u2019 personal devices<\/strong> after they forgot to turn off the workplace app after work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GPS data and attendance monitoring technologies like badges or biometrics are used to build ‘point-based’ systems for tracking absences and lateness. One too many strikes (five in the case of Walmart and eight with Amazon<\/a>), and you’re out of a job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These automated systems, however, are error-prone and do not distinguish between absences protected by national labor laws and those violating company policies. Over 18 million workers<\/a> across 66 US employers were wrongfully impacted by such systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) advances, software has improved in evaluating natural language. Beyond detecting specific keywords in emails or phone calls, advanced algorithms can evaluate sentiment, do personality profiling, or seek out signals of “malicious, inappropriate, or illegal behaviors in corporate communication,” as some vendors advertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some businesses might track customer service communications to judge if workers handle complaints well. Others….to moderate internal communication channels for harassment, profanities, or bullying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But language analysis algorithms aren\u2019t perfect. They can show biases<\/a> and poorly interpret phrases out of wider context<\/a>, helping immature managers draw fast (and wrongful) conclusions. Such tools can also breach employees\u2019 legally protected rights<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collective organizing (unionization) and whistleblowing are protected by American federal, EU, and state laws. Yet, this doesn\u2019t prevent employers from overstepping boundaries. Amazon HR managers, using an<\/a> email monitoring program, surveyed minority and activism groups <\/span>to detect employee organizing around controversial issues.<\/p>\n\n\n Do you suspect employee surveillance? Learn how to detect employee monitoring software<\/a> on your devices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n\n There\u2019s a big difference between tracking how people spend their time and tracking people themselves. Here\u2019s how a trust-based approach like Toggl Track compares to surveillance-style monitoring tools:TL;DR \u2014 Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The rise in employee monitoring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The most common types of employee surveillance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Screen recordings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Webcam monitoring <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
GPS tracking <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Psycholinguistic analysis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\n Top tip:<\/span>\n <\/span>\n \n Surveillance vs. non-surveillance-based tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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