If you're currently working at home, you'll know how distracting family members, pets, and your Netflix backlog can be while you're trying to work. However, Microsoft wants to ensure you're kept on your toes by allowing employers to monitor their workers.

What Is Microsoft Planning for Employers?

Microsoft's new tool is called the Productivity Score, as reported on by Business Insider. The tool had a relatively silent release back on November 17, 2020. However, in the space of under ten days, it is already causing an uproar in the privacy scene.

The idea behind Productivity Score is that Microsoft grades each employee out of 800 depending on how productive they are. The tool can then use these individual scores to generate a company average, which employers can use to compare itself to rival businesses.

So, how is Microsoft getting this data? Microsoft doesn't need to do a great deal to create an employee record, as it turns out. If a business fully adopts Microsoft products as part of its workflow, the software giant has all the data it needs to score employees individually.

For instance, Productivity Score will monitor how long employees use Microsoft Outlook. It will also measure how active workers are in Teams, how much time they spend in direct messages, and the number of times they mention others in a message.

Surprisingly, Microsoft will also harshly judge employees that don't turn on their camera during business meetings. Presumably, Microsoft believes that workers that don't show their face aren't as productive and dedicated as those who do.

By moving the surveillance tools away from stalkerware and onto Microsoft products, the software giant is making it harder for employees to avoid surveillance. After all, the tools that the employee needs for work also tracks their every move.

The Backlash From Privacy Advocates

With Microsoft now measuring employee activity to generate the equivalent of a productivity credit score, you may not be surprised to hear that people have huge objections to this business model.

Some critics tackle the biggest problem with workplace surveillance, as stated by Eliot Bendinelli from Privacy International:

This productivity suite lacks transparency and do not inform employees nor requires their consent. Companies such as Microsoft should not be giving incentives to employers to turn their office suites into surveillance machines violating employees' dignity.

However, Bendinelli goes further to imagine a world where this surveillance is the norm. In this scenario, workers would naturally find ways to "game the system" and find out the best ways to pump up their scores for the least amount of effort.

This atmosphere, Bendinelli argues, would create a mindset where employees are no longer productive for the sakes of a company or a higher-up, but purely to pad out their score. At the same time, trust between employees and employers would break down in place of surveillance.

Protecting Your Privacy in the Workplace

Microsoft has created a range of fantastic tools for employees to use, but Productivity Score turns these programs into a poisoned chalice. We'll have to see if businesses decide to adopt this program and its effect on employees.

Do you have the unshakable feeling that you're being watched? If you think someone is peering back on you through your webcam, it's a good idea to take the necessary steps to protect yourself from spying.

Image Credit: Antonio Guillem / Shutterstock.com