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Tracking remote workers doesn’t make them more productive. Here’s what it does instead

In a new survey from Owl Labs, 45% of employees said they were stressed out about being tracked by their employers.

Tracking remote workers doesn’t make them more productive. Here’s what it does instead

[Photo: Getty Images]

BY Shalene Gupta1 minute read

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, famously ripped into remote work earlier this year, claiming it adds to procrastination. Owl Labs, which creates 360 video conferencing, surveyed 2,300 employees on the state of remote work to find out what’s really up. Despite Dimon’s office-centric stance, the survey found that procrastination is not the biggest issue that employers should be concerned about when it comes to WFH or hybrid employees. Rather, it’s lack of trust. Here are the survey’s key findings:

  • Employee surveillance has increased: 37% of employers have added or increased employee tracking software since the start of the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, 45% of employees are stressed out about being tracked by their employer. 
  • Employees are passionate about defending their right to work from home: 46% said if they can’t work from home they would “quiet quit” and put in less effort, while 39% said they’d quit for real. Meanwhile, 52% said they’d be willing to take a pay cut of 5% or more to be able to choose where they could work.
  • Getting to the office is expensive: On average, employees spend $862 a month when they work at the office versus $431 when they work remotely. Three in four workers have said they would go to the office more often if their employers paid for commuting and parking. 

The survey of full-time U.S. workers was done in collaboration with Global Workplace Analytics in July 2022. You can see the full results here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shalene Gupta is a frequent contributor to Fast Company, covering Gen Z in the workplace, the psychology of money, and health business news. She is the coauthor of The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It (Public Affairs, 2021) with Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher, and is currently working on a book about severe PMS, PMDD, and PME for Flatiron More


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