Then you found an example of how "screen sharing could work well in a very limited number of cases". I just wanted to point out that my disagreement with having screen recorded by an employer/manager is not due to hating on the whole concept of screen sharing but that there is some proper reasoning behind this stand. If at some point in future they manage to generalize the opponents to this idea as "haters of screen sharing" that's when they'll be able to slap this onto us as a norm.

markrlondon wrote:

It depends. If one is an employee then what you say is correct (although of course one can still withdraw one's labour and go elsewhere or never work there in the first place) but as a contractor it is different. A contractor has no requirement to adhere to "the company's own policy"; he or she has his or her own policies!

Well yes, a contractor has his own policies, but one of those policies should be that he must adopt the policies (policies towards contractors) of a client company he agrees to work for, in order to get hired in the first place. Only by offering an amazing amount of value can one get their clients to give in. But there is no point in throwing exceptions into the equation, I am not worried about the 1% who are either extremely well recognized as experts or are extremely crafty in negotiations, but your average independent developer.

markrlondon wrote:

Also, even as an employee, it's not necessarily so clear cut. Companies cannot necessarily just do what they want. Whilst it might seem like it sometimes, not all companies just do whatever they want and ride roughshod over the feelings and thoughts of their employees; some actually do listen and do what works best for all.

Yes, and the best examples are software development companies that are owned and managed by people who are coders themselves and who understand how developers should be treated. But these are not a majority nor do they have an infinite capacity to hire.

markrlondon wrote:

Although I expect I'd be resigning at that stage rather than going on strike

But go where? To some guy who is looking to hire a freelancer and who has read in some blog article in 2023 that he shouldn't hire a coder who doesn't agree to have his screen monitored? Or wait out a few years until one of the good companies (that are becoming a minority in this scenario) decides that they should hire you out of all people? Again, I am assuming that this hypothetical coder I am talking about is not widely recognized as an exceptional talent who can make demands. All I am implying is I believe in the future there may be an attempt to steer towards such direction, and we should come up with really good arguments against it, rather than just refuse out of principle.

markrlondon wrote:

Good grief, what benefits?

Because you have read it in the stupidest way that you could imagine. But I guess I wasn't clear enough, that tiny team would be 2-4 developers who are equally dedicated to a single project and therefore wouldn't mind sharing a room/screens and would even have benefits from that since everyone would be busy with their own work and only look at screens of others when they need to. Not the chicken coop that you described.

I very much agree with what everyone wrote and am glad to see that all is well at the moment. I guess I should have mentioned in the original question that I ponder about the near future as well. During the googling that I mentioned, where queries were variations of "should remote coder accept screen recording", I managed to find only one hit with some sort of discussion about this practice applied on coders, multiple pages of remaining hits were exclusively advertisements for existing screen tracking solutions and articles about how to most efficiently track screens of your employees and contractors, only that one hit was about moral issues and anti productivity of this idea. Looking back, when the business world adopts some unpopular and impractical method to the point that it becomes a norm (in most environments), you are not able to oppose by relying on statements such as "you must trust me", "I will never agree to this", "you are asking me to do it for your own amusement", "you are only looking for ways to pay me less", and "you are a control freak" or "you have mental problems". Not even the "I get less work done that way" would help to talk them into allowing you to breach the company's own policy. And the next thing you know, your only comfort is the assumption that your employer doesn't actually spend hours staring intensely into your screen. They don't really want to monitor you anyway, that screen recorder is just a necessary part of this hot new tool for developers that intends to really bring people closer together. At least the tool is a massive help when you code, can't live with it, can't live without it. And why would you worry if you have nothing to hide, right? So if such a hypothetical near future is possible, I guess we should be looking for the most solid arguments to prevent it from taking off. Not to appear a hater, I do think that screen sharing could work well in a very limited number of cases, for example when a tiny team of equally dedicated developers wishes to create an atmosphere of everyone sitting in the same room, where they would be able to see each other's screens anyway and reap productivity benefits from that.

I believe there may be a straightforward yes/no answer to this. I just want to find out if my way of thinking (being "hell no") is outdated. There is a surprisingly low amount of information on this topic, the most relevant thing I could find is 11 years old, and back then the person who asked for a screen recording solution in order to keep track of a hired coder has received a lot of negative response and was advised to give it up, but that was 11 years ago. remote desktop - I have a programming contractor - how do I record their screen remotely? - Server Fault[^] I've been a remote developer under various arrangements (employee, freelance..) for about 15 years now, and was always able to find work despite refusing to install any sort of screen capture / work hour tracking software. But my last application didn't go well as the employer insisted on screen capture. And while I know why I refused, that got me thinking, does one still has solid chance of acquiring a decently paid contract or a full employment these days without screen track? Is it that employer who is clueless or me? Has the situation changed with the new generations, new reality and all? Rather than opinions (we all probably still know that capturing a coder's screen is counter productive (I think?)) I'd like some information from those with insight in this area, thanks.