How much they sleep, what they weigh and how long your hair is – a survey of Britain's bosses has found that they are monitoring almost all aspects of their own lives, as well as some of the personal habits of their staff.
Researchers asked 1,000 chief executives and managing directors of companies of all sizes what aspects of their home and office life they kept track of. Almost six out of 10 said they kept tabs on their employees' timekeeping and punctuality, while a similar number watched how tidy they were around the workplace. A third (31%) were checking what employees wore to work, and 27% said personal grooming, including hair length, was on their radar. This was watched more carefully by bosses in service sector providers such as retail and catering, but even in farming 14% of heads were monitoring workers' appearance. Hours spent on the internet and cigarette and toilet breaks were tracked by more than one in 10 managers.
The monitoring of staff may be unsurprising, but the survey results also suggested that some bosses are unable to switch off when they get home. Not content with just tracking their outgoings, energy use and budgets – which the majority said they did in one form or other – some said they kept detailed records of their sleeping patterns. Of those questioned, 48 said they kept a written record of how they had slept, while 69 used an app to keep track of their dozing and 46 said they had a spreadsheet of their time under the duvet. Weight and exercise were recorded in a spreadsheet by 81 company heads, while 174 used an app and 143 kept written records.
Energy firm E.ON which commissioned the research, said more than three-quarters of those questioned were revealed to be "highly engaged personal trackers of workplace performance", while 70% of respondents said tracking behaviour permeated their home lives. More than a third said it was "in their nature" to do so.
Anthony Ainsworth, E.ON's business energy director, said: "Through our research we identified some key character traits when it comes to tracking business data, ranging from the obsessive to the nonchalant.
"We found more than three-quarters of bosses are highly engaged in performance monitoring in their workplaces, either personally or by delegating to others."
Many of those surveyed said they thought their success – both at work and at home – was linked to their ability to stay on top of daily details. More than half said it helped them feel more in control and more than a quarter said they felt calmer as a result.
Professor Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School, said he wasn't surprised by the findings. "CEO's do tend to be very concerned about the stress of their job and what impact it will have on their health," he said. "You can understand why they would want to monitor things like how much exercise they've had, what they've eaten."
Cooper said he expected there to have been more monitoring in the workplace since the financial crisis. "A lot of companies are leaner and bosses will be keen to make sure that they've got the right people doing the right jobs. They will also be looking to see 'do they appear stressed', 'are they coping well'."
