Types of employee management like no other of technology-IT companies

To manage employees, some Chinese companies have applied extreme monitoring, asking employees to take screenshots of the battery status when they leave to make sure they don’t watch videos or text while working. job.

According to SCMP, a company based in Wuhan (China) asked employees to take screenshots of the battery status before finishing work. This allows the company to know what software employees are using on their phones during work.

The post shared on Weibo was quickly opposed by employees, who said the company was violating privacy rights.

A Chinese company has sparked privacy debates after asking employees to check battery health before they leave. Photo: SCMP

After employees questioned the new management policy, the company said that the battery health check was only meant to “initiate work efficiency and team spirit”. In addition, the company also wants to restrict employees from using their phones to play games, watch videos and send personal messages at work.

Sharing with SCMP, a lawyer in Guangzhou (who asked to remain anonymous) said that although a photo of the battery status can reveal the activities of employees, it is not clear whether such information violates privacy laws and privacy or not. “At this stage, we cannot judge it as a breach of employee privacy,” she said.

A representative of the hotline specializing in legal advice, said: “The employer has the right to supervise the employee by different approaches in the working process. In this case, it makes sense for an employer to ask an employee to send a screenshot of the remaining battery life on their phone. If it happens after hours, it’s a violation of employee privacy.”

Yang Wenzhan, a lawyer in Beijing, said: “If the company has informed the workers about the test, and got their consent, the testing program is legal. But these documents are in English, can the company ensure that the employees are clearly aware of the content in the documents?”.

One person wrote on Weibo: “From now on, on average, each employee will have two phones.

Another said: “The company hasn’t made enough progress to reform the business when it’s underperforming, but instead puts pressure on employees. What is the boss doing?”

This isn’t the first time Chinese employers have scrutinized employees like no other.

Last year, Hebo Technology, a technology startup based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, eastern China, tracked employee movements through office chair cushions. This cushion has a built-in smart unit to check which employees often leave their desks.

In 2019, e-commerce giant JD.com asked employees to provide the company with information about their social media accounts, such as information about family, friends and even you their study.

At the time, Qiang Meng, vice president of the Beijing Institute of Technology for Civil Law, said it was “an act of collecting too much personal information of employees and may have violated privacy rights.” their”.