It happened on an ordinary weekday. I logged on to my work computer like usual, but then I saw something strange: a notification that someone was remotely logged in to my system.

No explanation. No heads-up. Just me… and some invisible presence hovering over my digital shoulder.

At the time, I was working in a toxic environment with high levels of distrust. It wasn’t just uncomfortable - it was a clear message: we are watching you. That moment stuck with me because it wasn’t about safety or support. It was about surveillance.

While employers *can* monitor your activities - in-person and remote - there are some legal and ethical considerations. As workplace monitoring becomes more automated, normalized, and data-driven, we have to ask: When does oversight become overreach? And more importantly: What boundaries are we allowed to set when we’re the ones being watched?

Image of Homer Simpson at work with the phrase "We've been watching you on the surveillance camera" at the bottom of the image.

Data Highlights: Side Effects of Surveillance

🖥️ Nearly 7 in 10 employers with at least 500 employees now use some form of workplace surveillance, but it's more commonly used in the private sector and for remote workers. Use of surveillance technology can impact worker health, safety, and access to employment and labor protections.
→ Washington Center for Equitable Growth, 2024

🤷🏽‍♀️ Feelings about monitoring are mixed. While a larger percentage of employees say that monitoring has a positive impact on their productivity (39%) and work-life balance (31%), just as large a percentage of employees say that monitoring has a negative impact on company morale (43%) and their relationship with their employer (39%).
→ Forbes: Internet Surveillance in the Workplace, 2024

🧠 Surveillance correlates with lower job satisfaction, decreased morale, and increased burnout - especially in high-pressure or low-trust environments. Among employees who say their employer monitors them, 60% say they typically feel tense or stressed out during the workday, and 45% say their work environment has a negative impact on their mental health.
→ American Psychological Association, 2022

Infographic showing how employee monitoring positively and negatively impacts workers.

Equity & Inclusion: Who Gets Watched (and Why)

👩🏽‍🏭 Low-wage, hourly, and warehouse workers are most heavily surveilled - through productivity quotas, cameras, and algorithmic tracking systems.
→ Data & Society: The Constant Boss – Work Under Digital Surveillance, 2021

🧑🏽‍💻 Proximity bias means remote workers, especially caregivers, women, and people of color, are at a disadvantage. This can combine with other biases, like affinity bias, to limit opportunities and exacerbate exclusion.
→ Prism, Employers risk neglecting remote BIPOC workers because of proximity bias, 2022

🔄 Surveillance technology reinforces systemic bias when used in hiring, promotions, or discipline, because the bias of humans shows up in the systems they create.
→ Brookings: Algorithmic bias detection and mitigation

🧱 Workers with disabilities or mental health conditions may feel further marginalized in monitored spaces, where their behavior is tracked and misunderstood.
→ Center for Democracy and Technology: Ableism And Disability Discrimination In New Surveillance Technologies, 2022

Infographic from the American Psychological Association showing the impacts of monitoring technology on employees.

Boundary Highlight: Surveillance Is a Boundary Violation

Boundaries at work aren’t just about work-life balance. They’re about autonomy, dignity, and agency, which are essential components of mental health in the workplace.

Workplace surveillance, especially when it's secretive or punitive, strikes at the core boundary of our identity - who we are, what we think, and how we interact with the world around us.

🚫 Boundaries around surveillance and monitoring might look like:

Asking for transparency in what’s being monitored and why
Talking to your supervisor about your work habits and preferences
Pushing back on productivity metrics that reduce people to data points, while proposing metrics that center workers as people

Gif of a Black woman putting up her hand, with a phrase at the top of the image that says "You call it attitude, I call it boundaries."

Law & Policy: Where Oversight Meets Overreach

🔐 Two federal laws offer limited protection. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) restricts interception of communications. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) prohibits surveillance of union organizing activities. Some states have additional protections.
→ ADP: Workplace Monitoring: What’s Allowed, What’s Off Limits?

🧾 The Stop Spying Bosses Act (2023) would require employers to inform workers of surveillance and give them control over how data is used.
→ Washington Center for Equitable Growth

🛑 California’s proposed anti-surveillance bill (2024) was met with resistance from employer groups but signaled a national conversation on worker privacy. Some of the resistance was the failure of the bill to take into account degrees of risk associated with different types of workplace monitoring "tools."
→ Inc. Magazine

📍 Surveillance can have chilling effects on organizing and expression, which undermines workplace democracy. Under the National Labor Relations Act, employers are prohibited from engaging in or creating the impression of surveillance of union-related activity.
→ NLRB General Counsel Issues Memo on Unlawful Electronic Surveillance and Automated Management Practices

“Questions about what data is collected, where it goes, who it can be shared with, and how it is stored are all decisions that are made through the design of technology rather than through well-reasoned policy. ”

Take Action: Watch the System, Not Just the Worker

✅ Individual

Ask your employer what surveillance tools are in use and why and have conversations with a trusted colleague or supervisor if monitoring is impacting you.
Log concerns about unexplained access, tracking, or monitoring. Document, document, document!
Try not to use work resources for personal reasons - there are often policies about this.

🏢 Organizational

Be transparent about what’s monitored - how, when, and why. Create a clear policy that welcomes employee input and is responsive to ethical concerns, privacy rights, and wellbeing.
Use surveillance only when necessary - and never secretly.
Build a culture of trust that prioritizes output over control.

🌍 Systemic

Support legislation like the Stop Spying Bosses Act.
Advocate for updated federal privacy protections for workers.
Fund research and education around tech equity, algorithmic bias, and digital dignity.

Remember: belonging, dignity, and psychological safety aren’t perks. They’re the pillars of a healthy workplace. While surveillance tools may offer short-term gains, they also carry real risks to trust and wellbeing.

The goal isn’t to monitor harder. It’s to lead better.