Nowadays, along with the rapid development of the Internet, being a productive employee is becoming kind of controversial. On one hand, there are myriads of digital tools and cutting-edge statistics helping you to improve your work quality. But on the other hand, the trailer of the movie you have been looking forward to, or maybe some cute cat videos might easily distract you from your job. It is becoming a real challenge for managers and business owners to start tracking the working time of an employee with screenshots without violating their privacies.
As an employee, I’m trying to explore both sides in order to find where’s the red line between monitoring employee’s screens and keeping employees motivated.
Also: 3 Habits That Kill Your Productivity – Get Rid of Them Today!
Advantages
Monitoring employees and remote freelancers
Here is the first and the most indisputable benefit. If I get paid for my working time, isn’t it logical for my employer to see how my working time is used? Maybe I’m wasting my time completing some non-essential tasks and my employer might guide me if I am on the wrong path? No matter how it sounds, but without quality monitoring in real-time, employers are working in the dark.
Organization and coordination
In case I work for a big company with teams from different locations, time tracking with screenshots enables every team member to follow up on work progress. It really helps to gain a thorough insight into the project. When a good time tracking app is used, every employee can organize his/her own tasks and measure productivity appropriately.
Disadvantages
Invasion of employee’s privacy
Yes, time tracking has lots of benefits, but unfortunately, it has also some dark sides. Nobody likes to be “spied” by the manager. Many people believe that privacy is a basic human right. Whereas others strongly believe that employees are prohibited to do personal tasks at work. Are these concerns reasonable? There are no right answers.
Superficial reviews
Imagine I’m a motion graphic designer. In order to generate awesome stuff among pale office walls, I need tons of inspiration. So my employer calls me and shows the captures of my screen. Can you guess what’s on them? YouTube, Pinterest, Spotify… Need I justify myself? Surely not! Estimations based only on screenshots are definitely not concrete data. Every case is unique and subjective.
Also: How to Make the Most of Employee Time Tracking
Conclusion
Without aiming to find objective solutions whether to monitor employee’s working hours or not, I arrived at my subjective conclusions. In case a business owner pays money for your work done, he/she have a right to use time tracking with screenshots. It’s true that besides using a monitoring tool, an employer should also motivate and inspire employees. But it’s a subject for another article.
Summarising the pros and cons of time tracking with screenshots I’m absolutely sure that it’s a beneficial thing for both businesses and employees. When a good time tracking software is in place, productivity and professionalism of the team are developing day by day.
If you have not found your perfect time tracking software yet, start with WebWork. It’s an employee monitoring software with screenshots, activity levels, and online reporting. Try now and pay later!
