It turns out that the company was tracking superfluous methods of productivity, from active screen time on his work laptop to Slack message volume. These metrics, of course, are superficial ways of measuring productivity, but in the eyes of upper management, they were the determining factor in deciphering who was going above and beyond and who was merely meeting expectations (as if that would be such a bad thing).
Naturally, there was a legitimate reason why the author had been more inactive online. He was working on a comprehensive project that often required him to go offline to focus. His manager was well aware of this and even encouraged him to do so. What makes this anecdote especially frustrating is that the author now has to defend himself when his manager simply shrugged off the importance of this meeting with HR.
Clearly, it was important to upper management, and the author’s supervisor was not taking the employee’s concerns seriously when it came to proving his commitment and productivity in the workplace.
Author: Kayitsi.com
