Carl Lowe, a businessman who runs a computer sales company in Hong Kong, spends much of his time on business trips around the world, as well as visiting his family who live in Canada where is children go to school.
His employees are hard working, honest and good at their jobs.
But productivity charts seemed to show that more was being done when Carl was there.
Since Carl couldn't be there every day, he decided to do the next best thing.
He set up a video camera in the corner of the front office, so he could watch what the employees were doing when he wasn't there.
He chose a larger model, one that the employees could see, and that even had a small red light on it that showed when he was recording or watching.
Productivity went back up as employees wanted to make the best impression on their boss.
Carl even turned off the red light so his employees couldn't tell he was watching and was pleased to find that most of his employees continued being hardworking and industrious.
A concern many people have with setting up a camera to "spy" on their employees is that they feel it is an invasion of privacy.
Unless an employer is setting a camera up in the bathroom, it's not.
An employer pays their workers to work, and therefore have the right to watch that employee do the work.
Employees will often work harder and in a more efficient manner if they know their actions are being watched, and an employer watching their employees may prevent many problems from occurring.
Many employees complain about their coworkers affecting their productivity - maybe one worker talks too much, or didn't do their fair share of a project, or takes credit for another's ideas.
Employees won't tell the boss this, for fear of looking bad, but a video camera will show you which employees are working hard and which are causing more work for the others.
Another use for the video camera which is less pleasant is to prevent theft and otherwise protect your business.
When employees use time you are paying them for to goof off and play on the computer, or stand around and chat, they are somewhat stealing from you, depending on how flexible you are about how your employees use your time.
Many employees can get all of their work done in less than 8 hours, but you may still want them in the office to answer questions.
But when employees use your supplies to do personal things, or take your supplies home with them to keep, that is definite petty theft, and can eventually impact your bottom line.
A video camera makes it more difficult for an employee to justify "borrowing" office supplies.
How you run your office or business is up to you, but a video camera can help you feel more comfortable about being away from the office.
*****