How do you monitor your workers and how do you make sure they are not just staring at the screen, and eating chips?
What kind of software or method do you use?
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1There might be a few ways to do that, however... what is the situation/problem you are facing and why do you think this is the solution?– BogdanMay 24, 2021 at 7:45
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How does your boss ensure that you are working?– Carsten SMay 24, 2021 at 9:33
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@Bogdan I don't know of any problems and that is a problem. By gathering all the data possible, new problems are always discovered– AlanDontAskMay 24, 2021 at 9:38
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3I am not clear as to how this relates to project management. Just because someone is sitting eating chips, it doesn't mean they are not thinking about a problem or doing something constructive that will emerge in a couple of minutes as a flurry of constructive activity.– Iain9688May 24, 2021 at 14:58
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Software recommendations are always off-topic on this site. You've also asked a closely-related question here. If you have a project management related framework or process problem, you should generally ask about the underlying problem rather than requesting tool recommendations.– Todd A. Jacobs ♦May 24, 2021 at 20:42
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2 Answers
This type of micromanagement will chill motivation. There are a lot of studies and insight into that with a bit of research. So while you may "find" an issue if you did this type of inferior managing, you will exacerbate this supposed issue with others and slow progress. Building motivation--enabling purpose, AUTONOMY, and mastery, you will chill the supposed issue you're trying to find and enable progress.
Further, paying for so-called idle time is nearly always less expensive than trying to recover quality and schedule when workers are over-worked in a silly attempt to minimize the supposed issue you're trying to uncover. So idle time is available capability to use when issues arise...and they will arise.
This question also exposes or indicates a supervisor's preparedness for the role that person is in. There are times when this type of micromanagement is appropriate and the right thing to do, but never in a general management approach.
answered May 24, 2021 at 10:35
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David, this is not an answer to my question. I did not ask if one should do this or that. I asked HOW to do it. Lack of data is a predisposition for a lack of information. Recording workers the best one can 24/7 with an ability to record their neural activity is a way to go. A.I. should be used to record and control workers. I manage people and they are very effective at their work. I use my methods on myself as well. I have a set of tracking techniques. May 24, 2021 at 11:27
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We monitor computer activity, internet browsing, each document name, time spent watching each thing, clicks, keystrokes and we record their eye movement. We tested 3 workers with neural activity. If someone is sleepy, he is put on a treadmill type of table and ordered to work. You would be surprised what kind of boost in work that provides. I would have to fire 30% of my staff because of their sleepiness. Others also have sleepy days. We can also test their performance and when is it better to work, how much breaks they need... etc etc.. There is no problem in having all this data May 24, 2021 at 11:29
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Problem is if you are using this data in a stupid way... Trying to forbid your workers from having a snack or some water for example. There is nothing wrong with knowing they do have a snack and some water... in fact it maybe boosts their work. What we discovered is that early small breakfast and then a quick snack while working like a chocolate. Keeps them awake way better, than waiting for a huge lunch at 12 or 1pm. They eat lest during the lunch so they stay more active till 3pm. Nothing wrong with knowing all this. We need to apply A.I. on them to make them work better and faster May 24, 2021 at 11:30
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We don't, because we don't care if employees stare at their screens and eat chips. We care about whether or not our company meets its contractual obligations to ship software by the dates it has committed to ship by. Whether people spend their day eating chips shouldn't affect that.
The easiest way to monitor employees is to monitor their output, e.g. whether or not code gets written before the deadline we need it by. It's really easy to monitor that; you just look at your source control tool, or the modification of items in whatever project planning software you use. Or if you're not a software company, whatever else counts as output.
If your business doesn't already have a means of measuring employee output, then it probably has other problems. Especially if it's considering inventing A.I. to measure how people spend time; that sounds like a big waste of money unless developing A.I. is your company's core business.
