Ms Joanne Mangan:

Earlier I spoke about trust and monitoring tools. The use of technology to monitor employee activity goes against everything I said about trust. We would not be supportive of companies that use this technology. There are many questions around data privacy and security, particularly with regard to working from home. People are in the background when people are being monitored through cameras. There is the privacy of the people in the background to take into account. I would be very hesitant to recommend any type of monitoring tool.

I can only speak from my experience, which is that in Ireland it is not used in any real widespread way by the companies we work with. Luckily in Ireland we have GDPR regulations. We have some legislation in place to protect in terms of the use of these technologies and privacy. I would not be in favour of it. At Grow Remote we support the idea that people trust their employees. Give employees targets and outline and communicate well what is expected of them. Give them the support and guidance they need. Employers should make sure they take care of employees and give them plenty of opportunities to interact with the manager or teams and they will get their work done. That is all employers need to do rather than breathing down people's necks virtually. It is the same idea as breathing down their necks in the office. That is also bad management practice.