Employee discovers work tracker on laptop, confronts shady managers: 'Someone somewhere is watching idle time carefully'

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Jun 8, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

No one enjoys feeling watched at work.

Sure, your manager is meant to monitor your progress and your ability to complete tasks and responsibilities on time. That being said, installing spyware to track things like idle time on one's work laptop for even the shortest of breaks is a bit excessive, to say the least.

This employee was in the middle of a Teams meeting when he was prompted by a pop-up on his work laptop to answer why he stepped away from his computer. His managers claimed they had no idea what that could be (which we believe is nonsense). Someone is clearly tracking his every move, which is likely a waste of time for all involved. In this case, he hadn't even stepped away; he was in the middle of a work meeting. Not only is it creepy to have the tracking system, but it's also embarrassing that it doesn't even work properly.

Keep scrolling below for the full story. For more tales of workplace drama, take a look at this post about a Karen employee who replaced a door at the office without permission.