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Here’s How Not to Get Fired When You’re Working from Home

If you are not watching your back while working from home, your boss sure is watching you

A lot of us are working from home these days. And as a result, we may have let our guard down a little bit. But that doesnโ€™t mean your boss isnโ€™t still keeping an eye (and probably an ear) on what youโ€™re doing from 9 to 5. Now, more than ever, companies have lots of ways to track the sites their employees visit and the messages they send. And if youโ€™re not careful, you can end up in a lot of trouble.

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According to The Today Show, more and more companies have been using โ€œtattlewareโ€ to keep an eye on their employees since the start of the pandemic. That means everything, from your keyboard to your webcam could be fair game for your employer to monitor. โ€œWhen COVID-19 pushed people to work remotely, we saw sales of employee workplace surveillance software more than triple,โ€ said Harvard Business ethics professor J.S. Nelson.

In a now-viral LinkedIn post, Canopy CEO Davis Bell shared that managers at his software company recently discovered some employees were using their remote work situation to hold down two full-time jobs at the same time, something he considered stealing and a fireable offense. Bellโ€™s post included some of the shady behavior that tipped managers off, including slow Slack/email response times and always having cameras off in meetings. He wrote, in part:

โ€œWeโ€™ve caught and fired two recent hire engineers who never quit their last job at at a big tech co when they came to โ€œworkโ€ for us. They were following a new trend of picking up a second, full-time job while lying about it to both employers. This is not about side hustles or moonlighting. These were people holding down two, full-time synchronous jobs and lying about it - trying to be in two meetings at once, etc. Their early performance was really bad, and fortunately we have great managers who sniffed them out very quickly.โ€

You may not be holding down two full-time jobs, but you should know that your company is tracking when and how you work โ€“ even when youโ€™re not in the office. Here are a few things you should keep in mind while you work.

If it takes you hours to respond to work emails, youโ€™d better have a good explanation. Employers know that meetings and other important projects may inhibit your ability to communicate quickly. But if they notice that youโ€™re never available, it may send up a red flag that something else is going on.

Nine times out of 10, your boss is probably doing a little online shopping during work hours too. But if something goes down, you donโ€™t want to have anything come up in your Internet search history that can be used against you, including your personal social media accounts. So whether youโ€™re planning your summer vacation or looking for new dining room furniture, itโ€™s probably best to do that on your personal computer on your own time.

Hopefully, you already know this, but in case you donโ€™t, I have to tell you. Please, oh please donโ€™t type anything in Slack or email that you donโ€™t want your boss to know. Employers can access communication from Teams, Slack and other messaging apps, if necessary.

Even if your company isnโ€™t keeping track of every keystroke, itโ€™s best to be clear on their communication policy, so you know exactly whatโ€™s ok and whatโ€™s not before itโ€™s too late. Donโ€™t sign any agreements without reading them carefully. And if youโ€™re using a work-issued computer, you should know that pretty much everything is fair game.

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