Homeshoring with ODesk
Businessweek has an interesting article about oDesk–a company that matches up freelance professionals with companies that need extra work done, either on an hourly or project basis. The rates range from $15-$100/hr depending on the skill offered, experience, etc.
Working from home saves costs on transportation, food, etc. however, does also come with some drawbacks. To make sure people are working and not just surfing online, the company implements some rather unnerving monitoring techniques.
Excerpt from Businessweek
“To keep everyone honest, oDesk takes random screen shots of what people are working on every 10 minutes. There’s also a Web cam, so employers can physically see whether someone is at their desk, and a log showing how many mouse clicks or keystrokes are made per minute. It’s not meant to be unduly intrusive, but rather to give the same degree of privacy — or lack thereof — people find in office settings where a manager can easily peer over a shoulder.”
Personally, I would feel rather uneasy about the fact a program is capturing screen shots of my screen and archiving them to look at later.
October 18th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I view it much like Nanny Watch. I don’t even know why it’s legal to be requiring someone to have a web cam ON and to be monitored on the web. In fact, I view it as an invasion of privacy. If people want a job, they san outsource it w/out having to monitor everything that the “employee” is doing as long as the jon is done!