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A Canadian woman has been ordered to pay her company thousands after being accused of “time theft” recorded by tracking software installed on her work computer.
Remote worker Karlee Besse is an accountant for Reach CPA in British Columbia and originally tried to sue the company itself for $5,000 in unpaid wages and severance pay, due to wrongful termination.
However he must pay $2,498.89 in back wages after a civil tribunal ordered to support the company.
The court revealed that Reach CPA was using TimeCamp on Besse’s computer after seeing that his work was over budget and behind schedule. The software tracks how employees spend their time including how long a document is open and how they use it.
The company claimed that their tracking proved that Besse had wasted 50 hours of non-work related tasks in the company’s time and said that “they have identified irregularities among him. [Besse’s] timesheets and software usage logs.”
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Besse defended himself saying that he was actually printing hard copies of what he was working on so the software failed to take that into account. He also said he didn’t tell his employees because he “knew they didn’t want to hear that.”
But the company says the software also links to the printer and monitors small print activity. Furthermore, they added that the work done on the prints should have been input into the company’s software which did not happen.
Besse also expressed concern that the software would not be able to distinguish between personal and work use, but the company showed the tribunal that the software does this automatically and separates time logs from activities such as streaming. movies and TV.
Besse admitted to some of his dishonesty when confronted according to a video meeting between him and Reach where he reportedly said “he’s plugging time into files that I haven’t touched and that’s not right or appropriate to any way or fashion. …and that’s why I apologize”.
After the increase in working from home during and after the pandemic, more and more companies monitor their workers in ways that exceed the capabilities of software like TimeCamp.
In 2021, a survey by Digital.com of 1,250 US employers found that 60% of remote employees use work monitoring software. Almost nine out of 10 of the companies said they fired employees after using the software.
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