Having asked your employees to install the software, or gone all Anna Chapman and done it anyway, your workforce will be presented with simple instructions to get the Big Brother tool up and running. From that point onwards you can happily sit in your mahogany-lined office, observing an impossible number of television monitors, god-forbid stroking an albino cat, safe in the knowledge that your employees can’t slip anything past you.

DeskTime keeps its applications deliberately simple. You can see when individuals log on in the morning, what applications they’re working on, compare and contrast basic productivity within your firm, and so and so forth. It’s the type of software that would incense the ACLU but make the Chinese authorities feel right at home. In your office.

There’s a joke lurking in there about using the spying technology in a home office but it’s probably a bit too voyeuristic for our liking.

Let’s hope your boss hasn’t seen what you’ve just read.