CEO sees two employees laughing he asks the IT manager to have team log every task, a month later productivity is down to 29%

A company’s attempt to monitor its IT department more closely allegedly ended up creating more administrative work than actual technical output, according to a viral post shared on X. The account describes how a CEO, after noticing two engineers laughing at around 4 pm, questioned whether employees in the department had too much time to socialise, prompting management to introduce mandatory time tracking in 15-minute blocks.

The post claims the CEO had walked past the IT team and complained to a manager about employees appearing relaxed while other departments were working. Following the incident, the company reportedly directed every IT employee to record their activities in 15-minute intervals, requiring them to account for every part of the working day.

IT employees asked to record every 15 minutes of their workday

The employee who shared the account said the team began following the new rule the following Monday. Instead of simply recording technical assignments, engineers also had to document activities connected to the monitoring system itself.

The employee described starting the day by logging time spent reading the new tracking policy, setting up the software, troubleshooting an error with the tool and discussing the requirements with the manager. Each activity was entered as a separate 15-minute slot.

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By Wednesday, the department's productivity dashboard had reportedly presented a breakdown that raised further questions about the policy. Administrative tasks accounted for 31% of the team's time, while meetings made up 22% and documentation another 18%. Only 29% was classified as actual IT work.

The CEO was reportedly unhappy with the figures and asked the department to explain the decline in productivity. The employee said the report was a direct reflection of the time spent complying with the new monitoring requirement.

CEO rejects suggestion to remove time-tracking requirement

The employee claimed that management was urged to cut administrative work after the dashboard showed how much time the new process was consuming. However, when the employee suggested scrapping the time-tracking rule itself, the CEO reportedly refused, questioning how the leadership team would otherwise know what employees were doing.

In response, the employee pointed out that the department's work had previously been evident because the company's computers and systems were functioning.

The post ended with another example of the time spent on workplace administration. Human Resources had reportedly scheduled a mandatory three-hour workshop on improving time management, which the employee said would also be recorded in the tracking system.

Social media users share experiences with workplace time tracking

The post prompted users to share their own experiences with strict employee monitoring and detailed timesheets.

One commenter recalled working at a company with a similar policy and said they had challenged the expectation by pointing out that appearing unoccupied did not necessarily mean they were not working. The user also described becoming involved in a legal dispute with the former employer over unpaid overtime. They said they eventually resigned and received a five-figure settlement.

Another user recalled a manager who introduced a comparable time-recording requirement but later became annoyed because employees were spending the final hour of each workday entering their activities into the system.

A third commenter said the constant need to account for every time increment had become frustrating enough for them to leave the job. The user added that stepping away from the arrangement had helped because the monitoring process had affected their mood.

The responses reflected a broader frustration among some employees with workplace policies that prioritise recording activity over assessing the work actually completed. However, the original account and the individual experiences shared in the replies have not been independently verified.

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