{"id":43434,"date":"2023-09-17T06:39:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T06:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/histarmar.net\/?p=43434"},"modified":"2023-09-17T06:39:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T06:39:15","slug":"tiktok-rankles-employees-with-return-to-office-tracking-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/histarmar.net\/world-news\/tiktok-rankles-employees-with-return-to-office-tracking-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok rankles employees with return-to-office tracking tools"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TikTok employees in the United States have expressed frustration and dismay after the company introduced a tool for tracking office attendance and threatened disciplinary action for failing to comply with new in-person mandates, in an unusual effort to get workers back into the office with custom data-collection technology.<\/p>\n
Employees at TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, received notices last week about the new tool, an app called MyRTO. The app, which is built into the company\u2019s internal software, monitors badge swipes and asks employees to explain \u201cdeviations\u201d \u2013 absences on days they are meant to be in the office \u2013 according to emails and screenshots shared with The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n Employees at TikTok received notices last week about a new app called MyRTO that tracks office attendance.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n A dashboard with the data is visible to employees, their supervisors and human resource staff members.<\/p>\n TikTok requires many of its roughly 7000 US employees to work in offices three times a week beginning in October. Some teams are expected in five days a week. Employees were told that \u201cany deliberate and consistent disregard may result in disciplinary action\u201d and could \u201cimpact on performance reviews\u201d.<\/p>\n TikTok\u2019s workers have been taken aback by the disciplinarian tone of the messaging and the appearance of the MyRTO dashboard, which serves as a reminder that the company is monitoring their daily whereabouts, according to interviews with multiple employees, who would speak only anonymously. One of the employees, who said some in-person work was important, added that the app and threats of punishment were unnecessary and that colleagues were now fearful about the consequences of failing to comply.<\/p>\n Zach Dunn, an expert on hybrid work and a founder of the hybrid management company Robin, said it was \u201cexceedingly rare\u201d for companies to monitor badge swipes so closely and to threaten disciplinary action on attendance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen folks say, \u2018This will be considered as part of your overall performance evaluation,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s different from saying, \u2018If you don\u2019t do this, you will be disciplined.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Jodi Seth, a spokesperson for TikTok, said the tool was meant to help set expectations for in-office attendance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ultimate goal of MyRTO is to provide greater clarity and context to both employees and leaders regarding their RTO expectations and in-office schedules and help foster more transparent communications,\u201d Seth said.<\/p>\n More than three years into the saga of return-to-office planning, many companies have settled into hybrid work arrangements. Just over a quarter of workdays performed by US workers are done from home, according to research from Stanford University, and offices across the country remain under 50 per cent of their pre-pandemic occupancy, according to Kastle, a workplace security firm.<\/p>\n Many tech companies, including Zoom and Meta, have asked employees to start reporting to the office this northern summer and autumn. Some of these policies have provoked pushback, including at Amazon, where corporate employees staged a walkout in May.<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019ve seen folks say, \u201cThis will be considered as part of your overall performance evaluation\u201d… That\u2019s different from saying, \u201cIf you don\u2019t do this, you will be disciplined.\u201d \u2019<\/p>\n Some companies are tightening their enforcement efforts, indicating they will monitor badge swipes to ensure employees are showing up. Google, which asked most of its employees to be in the office three days a week, will use badge swipes to identify prolonged absences from the office, which could be incorporated into performance review conversations.<\/p>\n But few companies have created custom tools and dashboards with daily logs of that data for employees and their managers.<\/p>\n TikTok has employees in US cities including Los Angeles, Washington and New York. The company grew significantly during the pandemic but has struggled to get its far-flung workforce into its offices.<\/p>\n In an email to employees that introduced MyRTO, TikTok described its goals for in-office work and said that \u201cwe are now providing the next suite of tools and information for both employees and leaders to better allocate time spent in the office optimising collaboration\u201d.<\/p>\n In August, the company told New York employees that a lunch stipend would be linked to an app that required a check-in from the office for access to the funds, according to two of the workers who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The employees said the app felt like another way to check on their location.<\/p>\n Dunn said TikTok\u2019s attitude toward in-person work might be influenced by TikTok and ByteDance\u2019s overseas leadership. He cited data from his firm showing that workers in the Asia-Pacific region have largely resumed their pre-pandemic commutes.<\/p>\n \u201cFor companies, especially where they have leadership based in this region, they probably don\u2019t see what the big deal is because they\u2019ve been doing this for well over a year,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cThe expectation is the office.\u201d<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in The New York Times<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. <\/i><\/b>Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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