Barclays - Sensors to See Which Bankers Are at Their Desks

Barclays is taking the meaning of "face time" to a whole new level. According to Bloomberg


Barclays Plc has installed devices that track how often bankers are at their desks.

Managers were peppered with queries when investment bank staff in London discovered black boxes stuck to the underside of their desks in recent months, according to several Barclays employees who asked not to be identified speaking about their workplace. They turned out to be tracking devices called OccupEye, which use heat and motion sensors to record how long employees are spending at their posts.

What do you guys think? Would you ever work for a company that could remotely track whether or not you are at your desk?

 

Is this really surprising? Everything I have read about Barclay's indicates that they aren't friendly with their employees.

Sensors are a big step beyond everything else, but I have never gotten good vibes from them.

 

Jesus Christ.

And that's how you run your firm's name in recruiting to the ground.

GoldenCinderblock: "I keep spending all my money on exotic fish so my armor sucks. Is it possible to romance multiple females? I got with the blue chick so far but I am also interested in the electronic chick and the face mask chick."
 

This is what happens when you let HR in banking roll out their ideas... I mean this is just plain stupid. There is software available that track computer processing power down to the CPU level and it can be rolled out to the entire enterprise... that easy. and Employees would have zero idea it is tracking them. Having a physical device is just stupid.

.
 

That's fucking stupid.

First off.....as a manager, I don't give a fuck if you are at work 5, 10, or 15 hours a day so long as you produce superior results. If you do everything I need you to do and are done at 2PM then go have yourself a wonderful afternoon so long as you will be respond quickly to any problems that come up.

I mean what are you going to do? Your best analysts/associates are probably NOT the guys there at 3AM every single day. I've seen it many times in a variety of positions/roles in both private and public sector. It's because the best employees are the ones who know how to get shit done efficiently and won't be there late unless you have a situation that really demands it....they're also much more likely to be the ones that you trust enough to let them work from home on the weekends or at night. What are you going to do? Take a great employee and tell him that he better get his shit in order by spending an extra 4 hours a day sitting at his desk twiddling his thumbs?

So no, I don't really give a shit. If I don't have anything for them to do for the next hour or two much rather have them in the gym, grabbing what they need at the corner drugstore, or getting a mocha than sitting at they're desk so they're fresh for the long night ahead.

It's also extremely creepy. This is the kind of shit that we expect virgin stalkers, not industry leading experts.

 

Yeah I would protest sensors on my desk.

I mean, my mug is priceless, lets get some footage on camera to record this level of amazing. I'm sure the Chinese would want to watch me for hours. Sell that for millions. Revive the company.

problemsolved

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

This is very strange and actually counter-productive as it assumes you must be at your desk to be productively doing your work. What about when you have meetings? What about going to a colleague's cube/office to go over some numbers? My guess is the sensor isn't advanced enough to track specific individuals in conference rooms and other people's stations.

This is really incentivizes the wrong behavior. Companies using it will see their employees communicating less, sharing less ideas, and working less collaboratively.

Note: I understand people can also work together over email or phone; but in my experience nothing really beats face-to-face conversations.

 

How long a person spends at his or her desk is not an accurate reflection of the amount of work they produce. A rough translation of this to students could be the guy that always fell asleep in class, but always scored the highest marks in the class. As long as you produce good work and comply with what your boss, superiors, etc. want and need, you should be fine. Maybe the sensors are for some study/research statistic, but I am against that.

 

The bank and sensor company say that it is not used to track time an individual spends at his/her desk but track unoccupied and under-utilized space in the building. They could be lying and the sensor is as creepy as it appears to be, or it just appears creepy but fairly harmless.

 

I don't like the idea whatsoever, but... "We were given assurances that the boxes did not monitor individuals or their performance,” Unite national officer Dominic Hook said in a statement. The union “will keep a close eye on the situation to make sure that the sensors are never used to spy on staff or as a means to measure productivity.”

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

Why is the OP deliberately misrepresenting the article? Clearly states it has nothing to do with monitoring productivity, and is solely for determining usage of "hot desks," in order to reduce office space.

 

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