AT&T tracked employee attendance to find 'freeloaders.' Now, it admits the system is driving workers to the 'brink of frustration.'

"AT&T is reducing its reliance on an employee-attendance tracking system, admitting to workers that it hasn't been fully accurate and is "driving people to the brink of frustration." The system, known internally as presence reporting, automatically tracks the hours workers spend at their assigned office. Most are required to log at least eight hours a day, five days a week, on-site."

"Executives at these companies say the moves boost collaboration and productivity, though the results so far are mixed. In a meeting last month, chief marketing and growth officer Kellyn Kenny said her division is reducing its reliance on presence tracking in response to employee concerns about the system and its accuracy. The system was originally introduced to identify employees who weren't showing up in the office."

AT&T acknowledged inaccuracies in its presence-reporting system that automatically tracked hours employees spent at assigned offices and required most to log at least eight hours a day, five days a week. The company is reducing reliance on the system in response to employee concerns that it was driving people to frustration. Leadership is deemphasizing use of the tracking for salaried employees companywide and shifting toward analyzing behavior patterns from broad cohorts rather than individual monitoring. CEO John Stankey wrote that individual names will be associated with behavior only when data differs significantly from peers.

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