How Chinese companies deal with hack workers at work (12 photos)

Chinese companies have installed timers and sensors on toilet doors to monitor their employees. They were prompted to such a decision by the fact that many employees, instead of doing their direct duties, spend time going to the toilet, where they “hang out” on the Internet.





Employees in the office

One day, while working in a small company that specialized in creating and promoting websites on the Internet, I came across an interesting feature of the organization of work that I had never encountered before. It consisted in the fact that the working day of each employee began and ended by pressing a button on the computer, which started and, accordingly, stopped the timer. The working day, as I remember, began at 9 am, which means the employee had to press the button no later than 9:00. If he was even a minute late, then an hour was deducted from his working time, and this, as you understand, affected his salary.



Employees in the office

The same principle worked at the end of the shift: the button had to be pressed at 18:00, no later, since no one paid anything extra for overtime. Moreover, the timer button had to be pressed during lunch - from 12 to 13, and every time the employee went to the toilet or for a smoke break. It is clear that all this data was analyzed and, based on it, conclusions were already drawn about the productivity of a particular employee.





Employees on a smoke break

Needless to say, I couldn’t work in this mode for a long time, because... work is work, but people should have the opportunity to at least go out of order when needed. But these are, perhaps, trifles, and it is, in fact, a sin for the employees of this company to complain! What would they say if this kind of timer, which would measure the time spent by employees outside the workplace, was installed directly in the toilet rooms?!



Office employee

Something from the category of fantasy, no less... But the Chinese were “lucky” to encounter such an innovation in practice, since several large Chinese companies installed timers and sensors on toilet doors in order to monitor their employees. They were prompted to such a decision by the fact that many employees, instead of doing their direct duties, spend time going to the toilet, where they “hang out” on the Internet.



Timer in the toilet

It is clear that idleness is not typical for the Chinese, they are used to working hard and hard, but even they sometimes need a breath and at least a few minutes of free time. Apparently, Chinese company executives think otherwise, and timers in restrooms are proof of this.



Timer in the toilet

By the way, when photos of toilet timers appeared online, this corporate decision immediately caused a wave of criticism from the public, who felt that employees were being deprived of their legal right to rest - especially those who are forced to spend many hours a day at a computer without the opportunity to go anywhere. -or leave.



Timer in the toilet

However, door timers turned out to be nothing compared to what one technology company came up with in Xiamen, Fujian Province. Its management installed CCTV cameras in the toilet stalls, ostensibly to monitor employees who spend too much time away from their workplace, hanging out in the toilet with a smartphone or a cigarette.



Camera in the toilet

The initiative, of course, is so-so, but enterprising employers would have gotten away with it if the footage from these cameras had not traditionally been “leaked” online and become public knowledge. And the public reacted with lightning speed: one of the users suggested that the footage showed a toilet of the company "China Aviation Lithium Battery Technology Co., Ltd." in Xiamen, a state-owned organization specializing in the production of lithium batteries.



"China Aviation Lithium Battery Technology Co., Ltd."

Also, one of the users revealed details of the “corrective measures” that were allegedly proposed by the human resources department in relation to the employees caught on camera. According to information from the network, two were fired, and the third's monthly performance rating was reduced to zero, which is also a very severe punishment.



Screenshots from CCTV cameras

Criticism of such radical measures forced company representatives to issue an official statement, which said that cameras in toilet stalls were installed very recently and were used only to identify violators of the smoking ban in the company's toilets. These words were confirmed by footage from surveillance cameras in which company employees were actually recorded with a cigarette in their hands. Well, also with a smartphone.



Screenshots from CCTV cameras

However, this statement hardly somehow softened the criticism of network users, most of whom were extremely outraged by such a violation of the privacy of company employees. However, there were also those who considered such measures to combat not only smoking in the office, but also the laziness of some employees, to be quite reasonable. In the end, all means are good if they work...



Chinese in the office