In May 2020, for instance, each of the 15 people in the company's IT department was instructed to make 100 unannounced video calls to employees, two people who were on the team at the time told Insider. The department's manager, Tom Chambers, told them to explain that they were calling to check the speeds and connectivity of the company's virtual private network, or VPN, which allowed employees access to the data and software needed to do their jobs remotely.
But IT team members were also told to compile information on each employee they contacted in a shared file. They were told to note whether that employee answered the call promptly and enabled their video during the chat, and to log more personal details, including a description of where that person was working and whether they were dressed professionally, the sources said.
If an employee did not respond to three attempts to connect with them, the IT workers making the calls were told to take note. One of the IT workers said they were told that the information would be used to discipline employees.
The two IT workers said that weeks later they saw that several employees they had marked as not responding to three calls had left the company. Both told Insider they believed these workers had been terminated, because their departures all came at the same time. IT workers were in a position to know when an employee was fired or quit, because the department was in charge of disconnecting their email and disabling their computer.
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Two managers told Insider that although they had been instructed not to tell their underlings that they were being so closely tracked, it became obvious.
"As a manager, I was privy to this information about my team, and they would come down on me, like, 'How did you know that I wasn't at my desk at that specific time?'" one manager who left the company last year said.
Among the most carefully watched employees at CoStar were its hundreds of researchers. Tasked with keeping CoStar's massive database current, they made up to 100 calls a day to secure and update proprietary information about real-estate assets and transactions.
One former researcher recounted an occasion while working remotely in early 2021 when they stepped away from their computer for 17 minutes, slightly overshooting their allotted 15-minute break. A manager called shortly after to ask about the discrepancy and warned that they would have to take vacation time if their breaks continued to exceed what the company had granted. Research employees receive two 15-minute paid breaks and an unpaid lunch each day.
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But IT team members were also told to compile information on each employee they contacted in a shared file. They were told to note whether that employee answered the call promptly and enabled their video during the chat, and to log more personal details, including a description of where that person was working and whether they were dressed professionally, the sources said.
If an employee did not respond to three attempts to connect with them, the IT workers making the calls were told to take note. One of the IT workers said they were told that the information would be used to discipline employees.
The two IT workers said that weeks later they saw that several employees they had marked as not responding to three calls had left the company. Both told Insider they believed these workers had been terminated, because their departures all came at the same time. IT workers were in a position to know when an employee was fired or quit, because the department was in charge of disconnecting their email and disabling their computer.
[clip]
Two managers told Insider that although they had been instructed not to tell their underlings that they were being so closely tracked, it became obvious.
"As a manager, I was privy to this information about my team, and they would come down on me, like, 'How did you know that I wasn't at my desk at that specific time?'" one manager who left the company last year said.
Among the most carefully watched employees at CoStar were its hundreds of researchers. Tasked with keeping CoStar's massive database current, they made up to 100 calls a day to secure and update proprietary information about real-estate assets and transactions.
One former researcher recounted an occasion while working remotely in early 2021 when they stepped away from their computer for 17 minutes, slightly overshooting their allotted 15-minute break. A manager called shortly after to ask about the discrepancy and warned that they would have to take vacation time if their breaks continued to exceed what the company had granted. Research employees receive two 15-minute paid breaks and an unpaid lunch each day.
Inside the mass exodus at CoStar, real estate's biggest data firm, where 29 current and former staffers say the company surveilled and humiliated them
Employees said they're fed up with CoStar's authoritarian tactics. The $26 billion company replied that it is unapologetic about its high standards.