Nowhere to hide at work – new monitoring technology

Your employer may know a lot more about you than you think. The tone of your voice in a meeting. How often you’re away from your desk. How quickly you respond to emails. Where you roam in the office. What’s on your computer screen.

Published on:

22 Jul 2019, 3:02 pm

The use and abuse of workplace technology is an emotive debate and hopefully our Constitutional provisions around privacy leave us less vulnerable than citizens of the United States where exactly what you do and how you work, including your changes in emotional temperature, are available to employers on a minute-by-minute basis. It's Future Shock, Nowhere to Hide and We Own You, all rolled into one. Especially if you behave fast and loose. Enter this matrix of technologies and see what's possible. While corporates monitoring worker teams (not so much individuals, although this is eminently possible) claim they only want to find ways to increase output and sales, many staffers are doubtful. This fascinating piece outlines what's happening, both supportive and invasive. Supportive for already-productive teams whose behaviour is being replicated in training, or where microphone badges are used in Japan to monitor the moods of workaholic staffers prone to stress-induced suicide. Potentially, invasive because in the United States, employers are legally entitled to access any communications or intellectual property created in the workplace or on devices they pay for that employees use for work. Examples are thin in this piece focussing on employer benefits, but little imagination is necessary. – Chris Bateman