The war against Coronavirus seems to be unending, and most of the companies have opted for Work from Home options. But, the main issue with work from home option is that you never know whether there is an increase in productivity or decrease? Are the employees working or not. Keeping these concerns in mind, many organisations have started using a tool called Sneek.
To ensure direct supervision of the team, the always-on Sneek tool is a multi-conference tool which clicks images of the users every one or five minutes. It has a feature called, "Wall of faces" which is switched on throughout the day and keeps clicking photographs with the help of the laptop camera of the individuals and updating it on the wall. The supervisor can click on the image and call the person or even opt for a conference call.
Sneek has more than 10,000 users, and many big companies like American Express, Lego, Fred Perry, and GoFish digital are opting for the tool amidst the Corona crisis. The company has faced severe criticism on Twitter as the tool helps in calling the employee just by clicking the photograph, and there is no option to accept, which means the call will automatically connect. However, there are settings of automatic or manual connect that can be changed, but that depends on the permission of the supervisor.
This shit makes my skin crawl. pic.twitter.com/UvtdrDvomn
— DHH (@dhh) March 19, 2020
Del Currie, CEO of Sneek, stated that "Sneek was never designed to spy on anyone, we'd be the worst spy company ever considering the name Sneek." He further added that most people think that it is an invasion of privacy, and he understands their situation. Still, there are also a section of people who feel happy staying connected in times of isolation.
Currie clarified that the purpose of the App is not to give a surveillance tool to the companies to spy on their Work from Home employees. Instead, it was made to develop an office culture for employees who work alone from home and want to feel connected.
