Monitoring remote employees at FinPro

Abstract

In response to the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, governments across the world have issued containment and mitigation restrictions to hinder the disease from spreading. To sustain operations and ensure continuity, businesses moved to remote working for their employees. To better hold work-from-home (WFH) employees accountable, employers have begun to use monitoring software, including emotion recognition software, to track employee productivity, their compliance with information security policy, and so on. This paper presents a teaching case based on a fictitious company inspired by the actual experiences of employees working at a global financial services provider. Educators worldwide in information systems or business courses can use the teaching case at the undergraduate or graduate level. The case introduces students to Financial Professional Services (“FinPro”), a fictitious American firm that makes the decision to monitor remote employees. It implements both software that records and controls end user activity and emotion recognition software. The teaching case overviews artificial intelligence and emotion recognition software and provides an opportunity for students to examine employers’ and employees’ different perspectives regarding monitoring.