Would you work under these conditions? 24/7 CCTV

[ClementineKelandra]

I've been offered a job with sole charge of two young children. Everything about it looks fab except when in the house my every move will be capture on CCTV! The only exception to this is a small, downstairs toilet into which the Dc are not allowed at any point.

Is it live in ?

No no no!

I'd want to know what had happened in the past for the parents to be so concerned that they felt a need to instal CCTV.

A lot of work places now have cctv.
I don't see how it is any different to the nurseries that parents can log in and see at any moment what their child is doing.

No I wouldn't like that at all, I'm far too self conscious I would be really aware of the cameras and wouldn't be able to relax at all, I see the point that some nurseries do it but I wouldn't work their either. I suppose you could just go out a lot!

No I wouldn't like that at all, I'm far too self conscious I would be really aware of the cameras and wouldn't be able to relax at all, I see the point that some nurseries do it but I wouldn't work their either. I suppose you could just go out a lot!

No, not live in.

This is a wealthy family with a number of domestic staff so I'm not sure if the CCTV is to also monitor them too. Apparently they can watch the CCTV from work!

I'm going to have to turn it down aren't I? I don't think I could work under such constant scrutiny. :(

Personally I couldn't

Not coz I'm doing anything wrong

More the fact of invasion of privacy - is there a camera in very bathroom/toilet apart from the one kids can't use

Also would feel weird when making funny faces - singing to charges - playing hide and seek crawling round on hands and knees etc

Ie I wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy entertaining children

In my industry CCTV in all areas except the loos is standard and all calls recorded.

You mostly don't notice and certainly don't change your behaviours. I'll still hitch up me knickers in the lifts even though there's a camera a foot above my head.

And in my house I had a £6,000 watch stolen a while back and it could have been one of three staff (well, one of 2 really, the 3rd I know couldn't have done it). I rather wish I'd had CCTV in retrospect. It's not nice having to lock stuff away now because I'm not sure who to trust. I'm also sure that whichever one of the two is innocent might also have liked to have had the CCTV there to prove she was in the clear....

CCTV in nursery was the final straw that made us decide to move ds to another. We felt it was wrong for several reasons, including, how can the staff properly relax, which isn't good for kids and we wondered why they didn't trust the people they'd decided to employ. I wouldn't feel happy working for people so distrusting.

One reason I would definitely turn down a job, or leave one. Just horrible. And yes a lot of offices have cctv but how many people working in offices sing all day, crawl on the floor, chase kids around etc. I talk to the children constantly when no-one is around- even newborns, its just what I do. I'd feel so self conscious! And I have a change of clothing at work for vommity baby, getting muddy in the park etc. You can really only change in one tiny toilet? Not for me, no way.

I wouldn't like it. Wouldn't be able to relax. It's the same reason I wouldn't like a job where the parents worked from home.

i wouldn't

not because i'd be slacking on the job or anything but because i think a family with CCTV in their own home watching every move must have real big control issues and i would expect absoloutely to be very restricted on every aspect of the job. i would expect them to take issue with lots of things that aren't really issues at all but that they prefer doing in a specific way.

it isn't normal to have cctv in your home unless you dont trust the people in it or you want to be able to control what is going on when you aren't there.

I would be uncomfortable about this. I do all sorts of silly dances with the children I look after, pull strange faces for them, pretend to be an elephant etc. Maybe I would be able to forget the cameras were there after a while, but I do think some normal day-to-day activities would look ever so odd if you were watching them on cctv rather than being 'in the moment' with the children.

Also, as Booyhoo says, the parents may well have serious control issues that could make this a very difficult post.

I wouldn't purely because there would be other trust issues come up, I can imagine they would be the type of people that wouldn't let you out of the house at all!

Blimey, no. If I wanted to be in Big Brother I'd, erm, apply to go on Big Brother.

A friend of mine has CCTV in her home, she has in every room apart from the staff WC (it's in all other bathrooms and WC's)

She has a housekeeper, a nanny and PT cleaner and gardener.

She had the CCTV installed for two reasons, several valuable item went missing and she wanted to make sure it wasn't an employee stealing.
She also wanted a way to be able to 'visit' the children without having to repeatedly bother the nanny with FaceTime calls every hour or so when she went back to work. Now she can watch them playing whenever she wants to.

They don't watch all of the CCTV, it's just there is they want to log on and view a live feed, or if something happened they could go back and review it.

I don't think it is particularly intrusive, all of the staff know it is there. And most in offices, hospitals or retail have 24/7 CCTV.

I'd probably forget about the CCTV and end up changing clothes in one of the bedrooms inadvertently! [bushock]

I mean - it sounds horrible to live like that (do THEY enjoy being filmed themselves) but I wonder if something really bad has happened to them one time.

I am trying to think about why this doesn't feel the same as having CCTV at a big office workplace. I am happy we have CCTV at work because when I'm working late I don't feel like I'm 'alone' - I feel like someone would notice if someone creepy got into the building. I guess I also assume - perhaps erroneously - that the people watching it are doing it for specific reasons (wrong doing/protecting the staff as well) and are in some way accountable to a third party for their behaviour. Whereas with private individuals using it to monitor employees at home I wonder if because it's their home any sort of professional standards would be out the window. It feels like 'wrongdoing' could easily become blurred to very subjective things.

Someone concerned abuot valuables could limit the CCTV to certain areas (like a home office) where they felt that their 'staff' had no need to go to in any case. An honest staff member would have some control over the oversight - if they don't go near the area they won't be filmed - but the family also has control over the goods they are worried about people having access to.

I couldn't/wouldn't.

The most valuable thing in their house are/should be their children. If CCTV is used to monitor the children's wellbeing then IMHO they shouldn't have a nanny.

If you can't trust your childcare you shouldn't leave them with her/him.

I do like the idea though as someone posted above, having specific rooms covered to protect valuable property.

I too pull silly faces, sing (if that's what you call it) act like a clown, pirate etc and would be mortified at the thought someone was sitting in their office having a laugh

I've turned it down, although I was gutted! I just couldn't work like that. I don't think many people could work though their boss could see their every move.