How can managers track if and when we are in the office?

I just got assigned a new manager. He is based in a different location to me, as are almost all of the team. He only comes to my office once a month.

Me and one colleague are the only ones out of the 16 team members based in our location, and we both prefer to work from home, and perform much better. This new manager being in a different location seems like a great opportunity... Can I just lie about being in the office? Can he track key card swipes, or WiFi logins to see how many days per week I go in?

I know this info is logged, but does direct managers have access to that information? I'm wondering if maybe some gdpr data protection would prohibit them from being able to casually keep track of office attendance?

Are my dreams doomed?

#Management #Office #WFH #RTO #Productivity

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Management has to trust the employees. Simple as that.

@aq this is illegal so hr won't get sh-t

I know for a fact that my manager never goes into an office. He lives 3 hours away from one and will never ever bring up RTO or hybrid. During the interview, I asked him about it and he said “that’s not a focus on this team. We’d rather just get our work done and live our lives.”

My position here is if they mandate office attendance you have office hours (9 to 5). No over time ever again.

I would, early on, go to the office 3 days a week….see if this point comes up in you manager meetings…brought up by them…as 1-2-3 months pass, I would scale back office visits weekly…or go 3 days one week, 2-3 days next…play the long game and as you get busier, the topic and worry may die on the vine…

Chucks office hours are not tracked.

It's very risky to play this game...
So much stress, anxiety and energy for (almost) no gain.

Be transparent and prepare your arguments in the negotiation: like the two hours that you lose in commute you can use them to advance in project x (pick the one that the manager likes 😀)... etc.

If he still refuse, then go to the office, do you work (with no extra hours), take your check at the end of the month and live your life...

I know directly of one manager that used badge access to track employee location.

The manager was in Germany. The employee was in the US.

In the past it has been by individual, as needed. Example, in my location we used to have individual desks (now they’re all shared). The number of seats assigned to a group depended on the number of people in that group who were coming into the office on a regular basis. Facilities had the breakdown by individual based on card swipes.
I do not know what is shared with whom, at this time. But the data certainly does exist.

as far as I know unique network logins are used to track adherence on a high level but not on a personal.

This is more about your HR than your manager.
Your manager has no obligation to monitor your attendance, which is time consuming, and sometimes not doable (You can claim you are in office A, while your mgr is in Office B.)

Bottomline: if your HR gets the data that your attendance is less than 3 days a week, without approval, it can be an issue and backfire.

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How can managers track if and when we are in the office?

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