[Mithaldu]

No, but for example in my last office job the 3 company founders tended to be walking along the main hallway of the office a lot for various reasons, and my desk was behind a glass wall along that hallway, and in one gig i was in an open plan office where people were moving around me and everyone else all the time.

[triplesec]

You are very accepting of severe authority and surveillance

[detaro]

Working in an open-plan office where people expect that it looks like you are working is "very accepting of surveillance"?

[Mithaldu]

Welcome to Germany.

On a more serious note: No, i am not. Only in my work life.

[k__]

I'm from Germany too and as far as I can tell this isn't the truth for every company here. When I find clients/employers behave like that, I warn them and then I quit. This is what everyone should do. If you accept such horrendous conditions it's your fault people begin to think this is "normal".

[Mithaldu]

You're quite privileged.

[k__]

Maybe, I don't know.

But, I lived in these conditions the past. One day I said to myself, I don't want this anymore, and quit.

What is preventing you to change your life for the better? :)

[Mithaldu]

As i said in my post, i don't mind having upwork's program send 6 screenshots an hour from my work machine while i'm working, because it keeps me from being hassled by nontechnical clients who're otherwise fine people to work with.

So i guess the only thing keeping me from making things even better than they already are is finding technical clients with Perl work that pay on the level of ~100$/h.