Remote Productivity-Monitor, Efficiency Promotion vs Rights Violation

By Diana Howard

With the spreading of the COVID-19 and the proportion of working from home continuously increasing, the remote monitoring from employer is also gradually becoming impossible to ignore.

CouponBirds recently conducted a survey of 3,014 working-from-home employees across the nation to find out how many think that employers monitoring workers’ digital productivity should be banned. It reveals 1 in 3 workers think productivity-monitoring by employers should be banned.

The table below shows the % of workers in each state who think digitally tracking their productivity by employers should be banned.

The line between remote productivity monitoring and privacy violations is blurred, making it still in a gray area. The polarization of attitudes by employers and employees to it also reflects the need for debate over whether it should exist. Though it remains vague legally, both employees and employers should take others’ personal rights and privacy seriously.

The survey showed that employees in New Hampshire are most reluctant to be monitored, whereas 80% of them think remote productivity-monitoring should be banned. Meanwhile, employees in New Mexico appeared to be more willing to share their remote productivity efficiency data, whereas only 10% of them think this should be canceled.

Survey of 3,014 respondents.