Bankers beware — your desk is watching

Bankers at Barclays are being tracked by devices that keep an eye on how often they are at their desks.

Managers were peppered with queries when investment bank staff in London discovered black boxes stuck to the underside of their desks in recent months, according to several Barclays employees who asked not to be identified.

The gadgets turned out to be tracking devices called OccupEye, which use heat and motion sensors to record how long employees are spending at their posts.

Staff and the Unite union were notified before they were installed, although the bank did not send out a specific memo about them, says spokesman Tom Hoskin. The Barclays employees say they don’t remember being informed about the boxes, but spokespeople for the bank say there have been no official human-resources complaints.

The devices, made by British company Cad-Capture, are pitched as a way for companies to find out how they can reduce office space, providing a multicoloured dashboard to show managers which workstations are unoccupied and analysing usage trends.

“The sensors aren’t monitoring people or their productivity; they are assessing office space usage,” the bank said in an emailed statement. “This sort of analysis helps us to reduce costs, for example, managing energy consumption, or identifying opportunities to further adopt flexible work environments.”

Hot-desking may appeal as a costcutting strategy to Barclays chief executive Jes Staley, who has said there are “tremendous savings” to be made by reducing the bank’s realestate footprint.

Investment banks are increasingly using technology to keep tabs on how their staff spend their time.

Barclays, for example, has introduced a computer system to track how much is earned from every client, allowing bosses to determine how much time traders, analysts and salespeople should spend with each of their customers.

OccupEye boxes have caused controversy elsewhere: the Daily Telegraph newspaper removed the devices the same day they installed them after complaints from staff and a journalists’ union about “Big Brother-style surveillance.”

Lloyds, like Barclays, has been trimming its London space, aiming to save $100 million a year. “It’s important to keep office and working space under regular review,” Lloyds spokesman Ross Keany said in an email.

“While we use motion sensors in some of our sites, we also make sure to engage colleagues and seek their feedback on what would work best.”

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