Posted 2 hours ago2 hr comment_11836 This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: The last time I was searching for jobs was pre-Covid, and while the job market and world have changed in many ways, one of the ways I’m most concerned about in my current search is the rise of employee monitoring technologies. I work in a field that has been primarily remote since well before the pandemic and has not been subjected my recent waves of return-to-office for that reason. I also live with a number of serious but very well-managed mental health issues that would quickly spiral out of “very well-managed” under the pressure of surveillance technologies. This isn’t just a preference not to work in an environment that uses these technologies but rather a real risk of triggering a psychotic episode. The combination of highly obsessive performance anxiety and the paranoia of surveillance is untenable for me given my particular slate of mental health conditions. I have been and will remain in the regular care of a mental health team that I am confident would provide whatever I need to get accommodations in place if it came to that, but I’d prefer not to be in an environment where accommodations are even needed for this particular struggle. Is there a way to ask about whether or not an organization uses employee monitoring technology during an interview without either disclosing mental health conditions that I would rather not disclose or flagging myself as a potential slacker who doesn’t want supervisors catching on through monitoring software? To be clear, I do NOT believe that people who don’t want to work under surveillance are “slackers,” but I worry that emphasizing the point too strongly in interviews might give hiring committees that impression and hurt my chances. I generally don’t think employers should monitor their workers to the extent that current technology allows for, but I also understand why making a big deal of that point might not look great to potential employers. But I worry, too, that handling this via accommodations would force me to reveal more than I would like about my mental health in the workplace. Is there a graceful way to raise the question in interviews? Would it be better raised at the stage of an offer being made? Or is this something that I’d be best served just waiting out and then getting accommodations in place if the need arises? I welcome any advice that you or your readers might have for how to handle this! Yeah, this is a rough thing to raise in an interview without coming across strangely. In theory, it shouldn’t be that way! There are loads of reasons for people not to be interested in companies that surveil their every keystroke — such as believing that it reflects a culture and management style not aligned with how they want to work — but it’s still going to be very difficult to raise it in an interview without seeming oddly and inordinately focused on it. The same goes for asking about things like drug testing; there are plenty of good reasons not to want to work somewhere that drug tests, even if you’re not a drug user yourself, but asking about it in the interview will Create An Impression. You should be able to ask in an interview about anything that’s important to you without worrying about what subtext interviewers will read into it … but in reality, you can’t. Of course, the reverse is true, too — there are questions an interviewer could ask that would really turn off candidates — but the power dynamics are so different that it’s not the same thing. You could of course ask what they’ve found effective in managing a remote team and where the challenges have been, and that could lead to an interesting discussion that reveals something relevant about their philosophy … but it’s very unlikely that they’ll announce, “Oh, and we use keystroke loggers and take screenshots of your monitor every 10 minutes.” So unfortunately, the best time to raise it is after you have a job offer — when they’ve already decided they want to hire you and have extended you an offer, because at that point the hiring decision can’t be influenced by the question and they can’t pull your offer over you merely asking the question without violating the Americans with Disability Act. Even then, I’m struggling with how to word it, since it’s an unusual request. It might be useful to talk with your medical team about the best way to frame it so that you don’t reveal more than you need to. (And if they’re no help, an employment lawyer should be able to advise on the right way to word it.) View the full article
