tl;dr: RescueTime has been helping people focus and get meaningful work done for 17 years. Now, as remote work faces new challenges, so does RescueTime. We’ve launched Timesheets to help teams work smarter without the burden of surveillance, but we need your help to spread the word. Please share and support us as we push for a future where trust and flexibility define work.
Seventeen years ago, a few friends and I started RescueTime with a simple idea: to help people take control of their time. We were inspired by our own experiences, working at a company where standups often dragged on because no one had a clear picture of what they did the day before. It showed us how much clarity was missing in the way we tracked our work. Over the years, it’s been exciting and humbling to see millions of people use our tools to focus, get things done, cut through distractions, and do more of the things they want to do. We’ve stayed true to our roots, building software that empowers—not spies—and puts privacy and trust above all else.
But today, I can’t help but feel a sense of urgency about the direction things are headed.
Employee Surveillance-Based Management: The Growing Trend Shaping Workplaces
A few years ago, the world discovered what some of us had long known: with the right tools and a little trust, people could thrive outside of traditional office walls. Employees gained focus and autonomy. Commutes disappeared. Distractions and micromanagement melted away.
At RescueTime, we’ve championed flexible work for over a decade, and the data supports its benefits. Our trends show that focused work flourishes in environments where people are trusted to manage their time.
But now, we’re seeing a disturbing trend: companies rolling back remote work and doubling down on intrusive employee monitoring.
Almost every week, we hear from potential customers looking for tools to track their team’s every keystroke, click, or screen. They’re focused on control, not outcomes. And I get it. Managers want certainty. But the truth is, surveillance doesn’t create productivity. It destroys trust.
Research backs this up:
- A Forbes article notes that employee surveillance increases stress and anxiety, with 18% of workers feeling its negative effects and 16% reducing necessary breaks.
- The Government Accountability Office reports that constant monitoring undermines mental health and morale.
- The BBC highlights how surveillance erodes trust and ultimately reduces productivity.
Why We Refuse to Spy on You
At RescueTime, we’ve made a choice: we don’t do surveillance. We never have, and we never will. We’ve even made it our policy to cancel accounts if we learn a user is being forced by their boss to track and share their time data without their control over what is shared.
Why? Because it’s just wrong. It’s bad for employees, bad for culture, and ultimately bad for business. Research shows that top talent won’t stick around in environments where they’re treated like suspects instead of professionals. Forbes also reports that 27% of employees would consider quitting if their employers monitored their online activity, highlighting how surveillance undermines trust and retention. People don’t do their best work when they’re anxious about Big Brother looking over their shoulders.
Instead, we focus on giving you the tools to understand how your time is spent and to align that time with meaningful goals. We believe in equipping teams, not scaring them into compliance. Our approach is about clarity, not control.
A Better Way Forward: RescueTime Timesheets
This philosophy inspired our latest product: RescueTime Timesheets. The push to bring teams back to the office often stems from managers feeling like progress on key priorities has stalled. But the real issue usually isn’t a lack of effort—teams are often working hard, but on the wrong things.
For small businesses, consultants, and distributed teams, RescueTime’s automated timesheets can radically reduce wasted effort, while providing critical insight into what the team is focused on:
- Eliminate anxiety: No more worrying about whether you tracked every billable hour or filled out your logs “correctly.”
- Save hours of manual logging: Take the guesswork out of where the day went or how to track billable hours.
- Track your projects: Keep timelines, budgets, and tasks in check with simple project tracking and clear insights into your progress.
- Streamline accounting and planning: Whether you’re managing a small business or a remote team of 20, Timesheets makes it easy to see where your team’s effort is going.
- Pays for itself in productivity: At $180 a month for a 20-person team, the time saved adds up fast.
It’s a product that more than pays for itself, letting everyone get back to the work that actually matters. It’s a solution that respects people’s autonomy while simplifying the messy parts of running a business.
We Need Your Help
We’re at a crossroads. The way the world works is changing, but the choices we make now will shape the future. Will we embrace trust and flexibility, or slide back into outdated models of control and surveillance?
At RescueTime, we’ve chosen our path. We’ll keep building tools that respect people’s time and privacy, because we believe that’s how great work happens. But like remote work itself, our future is uncertain. We’re just a small team of makers, not a big B2B sales and marketing machine, and we need your help to get this message out. Every bit of support helps us grow and keep the RescueTime mission alive. This isn’t just about us; it’s about ensuring that work can continue to be defined by trust and autonomy rather than micromanagement.
If you believe in this vision too, please share RescueTime with your team, your network, and anyone who’s tired of traditional time tracking. Together, we can push back against the trend of surveillance and build a future where work works for everyone.
Let’s make it happen, together. Thank you for your support!
