<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/30/work-from-home-surveill...> [...] In the weeks since social distancing lockdowns abruptly scattered the American workforce, businesses across the country have scrambled to find ways to keep their employees in line, packing their social calendars and tracking their productivity to ensure they’re telling the truth about working from home. Companies’ use of thermal cameras to monitor the health of workers and customers worries civil libertarians Thousands of companies now use monitoring software to record employees’ Web browsing and active work hours, dispatching the kinds of tools built for corporate offices into workers’ phones, computers and homes. But they have also sought to watch over the workers themselves, mandating always-on webcam rules, scheduling thrice-daily check-ins and inundating workers with not-so-optional company happy hours, game nights and lunchtime chats. AD Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access. Company leaders say the systems are built to boost productivity and make the quiet isolation of remote work more chipper, connected and fun. But some workers said all of this new corporate surveillance has further blurred the lines between their work and personal lives, amping up their stress and exhaustion at a time when few feel they have the standing to push back. David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of the remote-work-software firm Basecamp, said companies are increasingly subjecting workers to closer supervision due to a fundamental distrust that they’ll stay motivated on their own. The virus lockdowns, he added, have also led some managers to frame this monitoring in the New Age language of social gathering, in hopes of eliding over the fact that workers are being watched. “What people crave is human connection. These are the crumbs of human connection,” he said. “You don’t end up extracting better, deeper, more creative work by subjecting people to ever harsher measures of surveillance.” [...]