Feb 8

Feb 8 A Woman Is Ordered To Repay $2,000 After Her Employer Used Software To Track Her Time.

Let's have a candid conversation about remote work time tracking – the good, the bad, and everything in between.

Remote work is no longer a trend; it's a way of life for many of us. Technology has paved the way for working from the comfort of our homes, a coffee shop, or even the beach. And let's not forget the benefits – the flexibility, the potential for cost savings, and access to a global talent pool.

But, and there's always a but, time tracking has emerged as a necessary evil in this remote work revolution. On one hand, it's a productivity booster. The idea of someone watching your clock tends to keep you on your toes. You're less likely to slip into the procrastination zone when you know your work hours are being monitored.

Plus, it's a resource allocation wizard. Businesses can look at the data and figure out where they should invest more time, money, and effort. It's like having a crystal ball for decision-making.

And for those businesses that bill clients by the hour, time tracking ensures your invoices are as precise as a Swiss watch. It's all about transparency, which builds trust, and who doesn't want trust in business relationships?

But there's a downside, isn't there always? Some folks view time tracking as a digital leash, a sign of distrust. It can feel like you're being micromanaged, and nobody likes that feeling. Finding the balance between monitoring and autonomy is a tricky dance.

Implementing time tracking software isn't always a walk in the park either. It can be a tech puzzle, especially if your existing tools don't want to play nice with your new tracking buddy. Plus, you might need to show your team how to use it, which takes time and patience.

And let's not forget privacy concerns. We all have a right to a little digital privacy, and continuous monitoring can feel like someone's peeking over your virtual shoulder.

Accuracy is another thing to consider. Manual tracking can be a little like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands. If employees forget to log hours or aren't entirely honest, your data becomes about as reliable as a weather forecast in April.

And that is where this story begins…

Karlee Besse, a Canadian accountant, was fired from her job because she wasn't working hard enough. She had to fight her former boss and the software he used to track her time. Now, a Canadian civil tribunal, part of the legal system, has decided that Besse owes her old company $2,756.

This is because the software on her laptop showed that she lied about more than 50 hours of work. Reach CPA is an accounting firm based in British Columbia, Canada. Besse worked for them from home. Last year, Besse said she had been fired without "just cause." Her boss said that Besse should have been fired because she stole time from the company.

Reach CPA said that it found evidence using software called TimeCamp, which keeps track of how long files are opened and what they are. There was a difference of 50 hours between how much time Besse said she worked and how much time TimeCamp said she did work.

Besse said that the program was hard to use and that she couldn't get the software to tell the difference between work time and time spent on her laptop for personal use, which her employer let her do during off-hours.

In a Video, reach CPA showed the court that TimeCamp could record when and how long employees connect work-related documents. It can also tell when they are on non-work sites like a streaming service like Disney Plus and not on work-related documents.

The company makes the final decision about what works and what is not work. Besse also said that she spent a lot of time working on paper documents, but she didn't tell her company that because she thought they wouldn't want to know.

But TimeCamp also keeps track of what people print, and the company found no proof that she printed many documents. When Beese's boss asked her about the 50 hours she couldn't account for, she said that some of the hours she put on her timesheet were wrong.

I've put time on files I didn't touch, which wasn't right or appropriate in any way, and I know that. I'm sorry about that." A video in the ruling shows what Besse told her company in a meeting. In the end, the Civil Resolution Tribunal didn't agree with Besse.

The court also said that Besse has 30 days to pay back her former boss for the work hours she was paid for but didn't do, as well as for other costs that went along with it. More and more companies use technology to keep an eye on their employees while they work from home.

Employers see it as a way to ensure workers are not slacking off and make the workplace run more smoothly. On the other hand, workers and people who care about privacy say that this kind of tracking is invasive and worry that it will make people used to being watched at work, even when they return.