In the economic environment under the epidemic, some employees are worried that the enterprise can't afford it and will lose their jobs. However, even on the days when they can still work at home, some new troubles of employees also surface. Employees who are absent from work are not only required to be photographed by HR users for less than 5 minutes, but also required to be photographed by HR leaders every day.
As home office has become a new routine, the company's use of technical means to remotely monitor employees has been exposed, causing public attention and discussion. The work scene moves from the office to the home, and the electronic eye of the "supervisor" also extends to people's relatively private space.
Enterprises are worried about employees' fishing. Employees roast that they live under monitoring. Both sides have their own sense of insecurity, but this is also bringing more conflicts and disputes.
01 "dare not even go to the bathroom"
According to netizens, Suntech started similar monitoring operations as early as the beginning of the epidemic. The company asked home employees to install remote monitoring software overnight. Moreover, this monitoring software only supports windows System, employees who use MAC computers to work need to install virtual machines to cooperate with monitoring.
It is captured every 5 minutes. This frequency makes employees roast that they "dare not go to the toilet" and doubt that the company "has no humanity".
Netizens broke the news that Suntech institutions captured and monitored the working status of home employees| Source: pulse screenshot
According to hexun.com, Suntech has responded to the matter: "the company installs software for office work with the informed consent of employees. During working hours, the software will spot check the working status of employees, and will not spot check employees' personal time such as dining and rest."
Suntech said that the measure is currently in the trial operation stage, and the company is collecting suggestions internally, hoping to find a better balance between the company's efficiency and employee experience.
In addition, in response to the Securities Daily, Suntech said that there were untrue and exaggerated descriptions in the online disclosure. In fact, the company adopted a moderately loose principle. While ensuring the work efficiency of employees, it also gave employees sufficient rest time, and there was no absenteeism of less than 89 snapshots.
For the public discussion triggered by the incident, geek Park consulted yuan Jun, a member of the labor law professional committee of Beijing Lawyers Association and a lawyer of Zhongwen law firm.
"Home office is a change in the workplace. The nature of labor provided by employees during working hours shall remain unchanged, and the enterprise shall also pay labor remuneration. The law does not prohibit the company from managing home office employees." Lawyer yuan Jun said, "the company has the right to manage the working state of employees during home office hours."
But management cannot cross the line. Employees can refuse the company's requirements beyond the management limit or report to the labor inspection department. If the company deducts the employee's labor remuneration or punishes the employee, it can file an arbitration or lawsuit to the labor arbitration commission or the people's court to safeguard its legitimate rights.
How to identify the management boundary of the company?
In the Suntech incident, the most concerned public opinion is that it is said that the company captures the faces of employees every five minutes, and less than 89 times a day is regarded as the management measure of absenteeism, although Suntech later denied the existence of this rule.
Zhao Chunyan, CO partner of Beijing deheheng law firm, told geek park that in theory, what kind of working hour system is applicable to home employees, whether monitoring software needs to be installed, and whether capturing photos less than 89 times a day is regarded as absenteeism. The establishment of these labor employment systems should go through legal procedures, that is, through holding employee meetings for discussion and negotiation with trade unions, rather than simple notice. "This does not comply with the provisions of the labor contract law."
If the working hour system of home office has been agreed by the employees and has been subject to legal publicity procedures, the two sides will not infringe the right to privacy if they reach an agreement.
After the incident was fermented by the Internet, some Suntech employees said that the company still implemented the capture system every five minutes, but the requirement for the appearance rate was reduced to 60%.
02. Bottom line of technology and boundary of management
The "home office" in the eyes of employees and the "home office" in the eyes of enterprises have their own anxiety points.
According to the requirements pointed out by employees, home employees are photographed every 5 minutes. If they need to be photographed 89 times or more a day, they are considered qualified. Then, the total time required for employees to sit in front of the computer is about 7.5 hours. According to the standard of 8-hour working system every day, employees have a total of 7 "missed" capture opportunities, and the total time they can leave the computer is 35 minutes.
As a manager, it is reasonable to worry about the working state and output effect of employees working from home, and the business challenges under the impact of the epidemic are also real. However, if you want to use this technical means to establish the grasp of remote management, there are great questions about whether it can really improve the work efficiency of employees and whether it means good working state in front of computers.
The long epidemic has indeed accelerated the development of digital management, but when the tentacles of management appear in the form of simple and rough "supervisor", it will inevitably lead to a conflict between enterprise management and employee emotion.
It seems that the enterprise is hoping to work in the office. When working at home, ensure that employees have the same working state of "sitting at the desk". However, taking photos involving employees' family environment and the space involving employees' personal privacy will inevitably lead to doubt, and simply and rudely establish an even more stressful working environment than in the office, which can not bring the efficiency expected by the enterprise.
At the same time, the management boundary of enterprises is clearly stipulated in law. Geek Park learned from the lawyer that during home office, the enterprise should inform the employees of the mode and scope of management when conducting remote management, but if the management action itself does not involve the employees' personal information and behavior, it does not need the employees' consent.
For example, if an employee's computer is equipped by the company and is clearly specified to be used only for office purposes, there is nothing wrong with the company's behavior of grabbing the employee's computer screen; If it is an employee's own computer and there is employee's personal information, the company's forced capture of the employee's computer screen goes beyond the scope necessary for management and is suspected of violating the relevant provisions of the civil code and the personal information protection law.
The behavior of regularly starting the camera to capture home and office photos obviously has obvious problems compared with the above cases. Enterprises can manage the scope directly related to the work of employees, but they should not collect the private contents of employees; If it has been collected, it should not be preserved and used for other purposes; Desensitization shall be carried out for those that cannot be cut with the work content. Whether these "monitoring software" meet similar compliance requirements is worth exploring in depth.
In recent years, more and more enterprises begin to introduce digital means to manage employees, but the digital management systems introduced by enterprises to improve efficiency often have inconsistent standards and sometimes the relevant mechanisms are not very transparent, which leads to many "stupid formalism" and many fierce disputes.
The management boundary problem brought by digitization has been evolving in recent years. In February this year, rumors of layoffs came from an Internet company, which also let the public know a third-party service system that claims to be able to understand employees' turnover intention.
After the enterprise purchases relevant system services, employees use the office computer to browse the recruitment website and deliver resumes online. The system will record the length and number of visits. After statistical comparison, we can infer the employee's turnover intention. It can be understood that the human resources system and department heads of the enterprise have been "information strengthened", which is more conducive to preventing sudden changes in post personnel.
The R & D company behind this system is convinced that many large companies are using their products, but the types of services are different. Since we are convinced that we have not publicly disclosed the mechanism for obtaining this information, there is no answer to the question whether it involves violating the boundary of employees' personal data. However, the existence of this system can easily lead to many complex problems in actual management, such as "whether a person's idea will bring confirmation results" and whether an employee searching for a new job means that the person should be replaced.
In 2021, some companies used "smart cushions", which can collect employees' heartbeat, breathing and sitting posture, and judge employees' working status. Although the company clarified that this is the internal product test of the company and not the management system of the company, in today's technology era when cameras and AI can form similar judgment ability, the management boundary of technology empowerment needs to be seriously considered.
Technology not only expands the management ability and mode of enterprises, but also makes the ethical dilemma behind scientific and technological progress surface.
Under the epidemic, technological progress has broken through the limitations of physical space and spawned a series of changes in office methods. Home office may not become a more efficient norm in some work.
However, the efficiency of home office highly depends on the consciousness and self-discipline of employees. At this time, it is necessary to introduce a more reasonable and accurate performance management system, combined with more advanced and reasonable technical supervision means, so as to bring fairness between employees and keep the survival and development of the company in line with employees.
The boundless application of information technology in enterprise management is a kind of formalism and short-sighted behavior. In China's thousands of lines and industries, in different nature of work, although we can't use "culture and values" to cure all diseases, nor can we use one management system and tool to solve problems, we need to have basic rules and unified bottom line for the discussion of technology and management boundaries. The technical products that break through the bottom line are actually hurting the enterprise and every employee.
In the digital age and under the impact of the epidemic, these years must have a far-reaching impact on Chinese enterprise management. At this time, technology, managers and employees urgently need a common direction and consensus.