To go on record here: it was a really hard decision for us to try this, but we felt there was a huge and eager audience there that was looking for a solution that was a little more restricted than what we were selling. Interestingly (and happily) 80% of businesses that monitor employees (and 75% of 'em do, supposedly) actually do it in the open. So I think what businesses wanted was a cheaper/lighter version that was entirely manager focused and didn't offer quite as many employee controls. It's a good alternative to stuff like Spectorsoft (<shiver>).
The absolutely awesome part of this is by offering the more restricted version, we've seen a notable increase in the open version (which is the one we really believe in).
So far, we're guardedly optimistic that this is a net positive for us and for the world... But we're still plenty anxious about it!
I think you're being ridiculous-- I don't say that too often to people.
First of all, painting employers as exploiters is ridiculous. Many of them aren't. The "balance of power" has nothing to do with RescueTime-- it has to do with how in-demand you and your skills are. If you are unexceptional, you have very little power.
If I, as an employer, say "Part of working here means that we keep track of how you spend your time on the computer", I don't see that as being ethically different than saying that you have to fill out a timesheet. It's just automated and accurate rather than painstaking and subjective. I also don't see it as morally different to measuring code check-ins, lines of code written, punching a timecard, or measuring the number of widgets you build on an assembly line per day. It's just data.
Bad managers can abuse software like this. Bad managers can also abuse employee review processes, boilerplate employment agreements, and lots of other things.
Good managers, on the other hand, can benefit from software like this. They can understand when employees don't have enough to do (the 2nd most common reason people quit just after being micromanaged), they can understand how a lousy new team-lead is hurting team engagement/productivity, and more.
Time is a resource, like money. Tracking how it's spent isn't evil.
It's an overreaction. We clearly don't like that our use of employers computers is monitored. But it isn't reasonable to expect that we'd have so much privacy on those computers that our managers wouldn't be allowed to see how we're spending our time. Just because we don't like it, doesn't mean it's wrong.
Of course, we're all free to work for companies that promise not to perform this kind of monitoring.
Definitely not over-reacting. I'd say that's under-reacting. Going to job everyday to work under an eye of an overseer selling best days of your life to some corporate schmuck.
Now excuse me while I go work on my side business even more as this was incredibly fucking motivating.
There is a surprisingly even, respectful, and intellectual discussion going on at the original post between Tony Wright and Sean Johnson, respective owners of RescueTime and BubbleTimer. I would urge you to read through it.
> Unlike many professions where ethical decisions must be made everyday... we in the software business are often (though not always) engaged in ethically inert pursuits
This attitude is the real problem. There scarcely exists such a thing as an ethically inert pursuit. I am reminded of a proposal I once read for something like a Hippocratic Oath for programmers:
The absolutely awesome part of this is by offering the more restricted version, we've seen a notable increase in the open version (which is the one we really believe in).
So far, we're guardedly optimistic that this is a net positive for us and for the world... But we're still plenty anxious about it!