Crumb
c/technology · by tonytins@pawb.social · 287d

Bossware rises as employers keep closer tabs on remote staff

https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/23/bossware_monitor_remote_employees/

The COVID-19 lockdown meant a surge in remote work, and the trend toward remote and hybrid workplaces has persisted long after the pandemic receded. That has changed the nature of workplace management as well. Bosses can't check for butts in seats or look over their employees' shoulders in the office to make sure they're working instead of having a LAN party. So they've turned to software tools to fill the gap.

So-called “bossware” lets managers keep a close eye on employees' activity, tracking everything from knowledge workers’ website visits to the gait and facial expressions of those involved in more physical activities.

263 points · 33 comments · view on lemmy.world

33 Comments

xxce2AAb@feddit.dk · 116 pts · 287d (4 replies)

It's almost like those bosses don't have any real work to do. Sounds like dead wood and ideal candidates for downsizing to me.

thebeardedpotato@lemmy.world · 71 pts · 287d (3 replies)

Ironically, my manager was someone who did very little “managing” and mostly did hands on work (I work IT), and he just got laid off.

Meanwhile all the leeches that spout BS metrics that are faulty are all still here. Idiots all around.

xxce2AAb@feddit.dk · 66 pts · 287d (1 reply)

Ah, the many joys of Middle Management. To quote The Hitchhiker's Guide to Earth:

A middle manager’s day typically consists of:

  • Attending meetings they don’t understand about projects they’re not involved in
  • Scheduling meetings for other people who don’t want to attend them
  • Asking for status updates on things that would be finished already if they’d stop asking for status updates
  • Forwarding motivational quotes about “synergy” and “thinking outside the box” while sitting firmly inside a cubicle
  • Explaining to their superiors why things went wrong and to their subordinates why things can’t be fixed
Telorand@reddthat.com · 30 pts · 287d

Man, Douglas Adams was a real one.

WHARRGARBL@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 287d
[ removed ]
nullroot@lemmy.world · 66 pts · 287d (3 replies)

That's a weird way to spell spyware.

CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 287d (2 replies)

No, I like "bossware". It tells you exactly what it is. It's "spyware from your boss".

moopet@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 287d (1 reply)

Time to create a new anti-bossware product, and call it Worker. Maybe it could be peer-to-peer to help propagate newly identified Bossware signatures. Some kind of worker's collective as it were.

varjen@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 286d

Workerware like mouse jigglers and other keepalive tools that lets you focus on work instead of having to keep the screensaver from turning on.

BingBong@sh.itjust.works · 61 pts · 287d (1 reply)

I manage a team and cannot imagine having the time or desire for this shit.

MagicShel@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 287d

My team gets a lot of stuff done per quickly and reliably. They are probably better developers than I ever was. I don't need to know how they spend minute by minute.

mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 48 pts · 287d

the more I am watched, the less productive I am. both in actual output, and in appearance.

want to watch my every move? okay, I now spend time ensuring it appears acceptable when I am using it. but I'm also going to avoid using my watched device whenever possible to do work via other methods, like writing things out in a notebook instead of digitally

thankfully I am (for now) not under any sort of digital supervision. that I am aware of.

Flamekebab@piefed.social · 44 pts · 287d (2 replies)

"to make sure they're working"

A boss' job is not to babysit. Keep the higher ups off the team's backs, run the management infrastructure needed for stuff like project planning, stuff like that. I am not at my desk for my whole work day. However not once has anyone been less than very pleased with my output. More time at my desk would not mean more work - it would mean less. The recharge time I take means that I almost universally have a good attitude at work and I'm good at untangling problems that others either can't deal with or are avoiding dealing with.

Forcing presenteeism rather than a results-based approach is utterly idiotic.

roofuskit@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 287d (1 reply)

But more face stare at screen make more money happen.

meco03211@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 287d

Line go up?

squaresinger@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 287d (3 replies)

Maybe we should do an uno-reverse and use bossware to keep tabs on our bosses.

mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 287d (2 replies)

I want to know exactly how much time they spend each week just navigating to a directory I sent them, so I know exactly how many hours I can spend on break

squaresinger@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 287d

Now let's make KPIs for them that are about as useful as the ones they make for us. Let's make "Time spent navigating directories" a positive value that should be optimized for.

Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 287d

I want to know how much time was spent "golfing for work"

sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works · 35 pts · 287d (1 reply)

As a manager of sorts, I already know if people are doing their job: the work gets done. I'm involved enough to know how much time their work should take and see through their BS since I do similar work.

Maybe these bosses should do the same: do similar work and you'll know when they're BS-ing you.

cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 287d

No, absolutely not! When you're a manager you are supposed to stop doing actual work and instead spend your time in meetings, making PowerPoints and "navigating office politics".

mctoasterson@reddthat.com · 25 pts · 287d (8 replies)

Someone tell remote managers that daily status meetings for teams of 5-10 people should never be more than an hour long.

In person, they are "stand up" meetings to encourage them to be as uncomfortable and short as possible. Over web meeting, that convention tends to fly out the window.

mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 28 pts · 287d (7 replies)

daily status of an hour is fucked

we have a weekly for our ten person team, and that is long if it goes 15 minutes

tbf, that's the team meeting, not project — project meetings are longer

mctoasterson@reddthat.com · 12 pts · 287d (6 replies)

Yeah, what you described is how it should be.

Each person:

  1. What I did yesterday.
  2. What I'm working on today.
  3. Briefly describe obstacles or assistance I need.

That could be as little as 45 seconds per person if done properly.

floofloof@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 287d (4 replies)

We stick to that format with minor variations:

  1. Recap of the morning's school run and dog walks
  2. Update on everyone's pets' health
  3. Update on peoples' kids' behaviour
  4. Update on team members' health and their families
  5. Miscellaneous gripes
  6. All the sports: what happened, what people think will happen, and details of particular players
  7. Sports statistics in depth
  8. Mutual accusations of breaking things
  9. Defence against said accusations
  10. Gripes about boss's emails
  11. Long, in-depth accounts from two team members of their last day's work, minute by minute, with digressions into big-picture frustrations and grumbles about management, customers, etc.
  12. Recounting of the history of these issues over the last 15 years or so.
  13. Each person tells us that they're working on the thing the kanban board says they're working on, and that it will take them as long as it says on the board.
  14. Holiday plans or accounts of past holidays
  15. Goodbye
  16. One guy jumps in with a 15-minute anecdote about taking his dog to the vet
  17. Goodbye
  18. Any further anecdotes about things people's dogs ate, etc.
  19. Goodbye.

Its supposed to take 10-15 minutes but it takes up to an hour, sometimes more. I usually tune in late and sometimes pretend I lost my internet connection halfway through.

filcuk@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 287d (1 reply)

That's crazy. I'd actually rather work. Or take a shit. Or do literally anything else.

floofloof@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 287d

I've become quite good at paying just enough attention that I can jump in if anything important comes up, and meanwhile continuing to work. I don't turn my camera on.

themaninblack@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 287d (1 reply)

I used to get mad at these but it unironically sounds like a nice open culture

floofloof@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 287d

It pays badly and it can be disorganized, but no one I work with is that bad of a person, what we do is more useful to real people than a lot of tech companies and there's no nasty politics to speak of. So yes, it has its upsides.

jpeps@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 287d

Honestly even that is for beginner teams, frankly. If there's good shared understanding, clear work, and good interaction regularly within the team (ie you're actually working together towards a goal), just hurry up and tell everyone what you need, and get out. Fight the sludge.

SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 287d

Scumbags

HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 287d

Just a giant circle. This shits the new cash register.

architect@thelemmy.club · 5 pts · 287d

Boss daddy!

phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 286d

So-called “bossware” lets managers keep a close eye on employees' activity, tracking everything from knowledge workers’ website visits to the gait and facial expressions of those involved in more physical activities.

It would be so hard to not furiously masturbate to the camera just to shock the fuck out of those assholes.

Anyways, this is sick behavior. If you have so little trust in your employees, than you are the problem, not them