Tracking Sensors Invade The Workplace

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A good idea or another case of technology gone wrong? Heck, why not just implant everyone at birth? It works in the movies.

As Big Data becomes a fixture of office life, companies are turning to tracking devices to gather real-time information on how teams of employees work and interact. Sensors, worn on lanyards or placed on office furniture, record how often staffers get up from their desks, consult other teams and hold meetings.
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Ooooo ... can't wait for THIS future ... "I'm sorry you have already urinated twice today ... we recommend you hold it for another 75 minutes before you visit the restroom." :eek: ... or "You haven't moved for the last 180 minutes ... please consider yourself on written warning ... if you are dead on the job then we thank you for your service and you can disregard this warning" :D
 
I remember when my old general manager had cameras install all over the building for "safety reasons". He'd just sit in his little command post of an office and stare at video feeds all day like some mall security pervert. He eventually went to jail for embezzlement and tax fraud, and his successor promptly removed the security system when he took over.
 
Fear. Fear never changes...

Well, that and the obsessive desire to control others.
 
Madoc said:
Fear. Fear never changes...

Well, that and the obsessive desire to control others.
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Business does love the famous quote from Machiavelli ... "If you cannot be both, it is better to be feared than loved" :)
 
Nothing new here, hospital where I work has had trackers on some employees for over 10 years, a lot of people have been fired in that time with the aid of a device that doesn't work right a good chunk of the time. "I see you failed to spend enough time in your patient's rooms, pack your shit and go, oh, we need that tracker back to give to your replacement".
 
"gather real-time information on how teams of employees work and interact"

This information is gathered then suggestions are made by the software on ways to increase collaboration with coworkers. See the following example.

12OLSensorsHappinessf4-1353961432202.jpg
 
Wether or not it can be seen as "paranoid" is another question. But, more and more companies are going this direction and all it really does is increase tension with everyone (in many cases...dramatically). What management (usually upper management) fails is realize is that this is NOT normally needed. Most issues are more about company policy and the general attitude toward employees. Employees end up treated as a number. This lowers moral and thus lowers productivity (and increases the likelihood of problems). The bigger the business, the bigger this problem as management gets more and more out-of-touch. This is especially true with "corporate". Smaller family-owned businesses have fewer issues (generally) with all of this since they are more likely to treat employees as humans rather than as numbers.

It's all a part of why everyone is so on-edge most of the time. People can't live that way very long before they eventually snap (or they just get numb to it all and actually become robot corporate mouth-pieces).
 
prndll said:
Wether or not it can be seen as "paranoid" is another question. But, more and more companies are going this direction and all it really does is increase tension with everyone (in many cases...dramatically). What management (usually upper management) fails is realize is that this is NOT normally needed. Most issues are more about company policy and the general attitude toward employees. Employees end up treated as a number. This lowers moral and thus lowers productivity (and increases the likelihood of problems). The bigger the business, the bigger this problem as management gets more and more out-of-touch. This is especially true with "corporate". Smaller family-owned businesses have fewer issues (generally) with all of this since they are more likely to treat employees as humans rather than as numbers.

It's all a part of why everyone is so on-edge most of the time. People can't live that way very long before they eventually snap (or they just get numb to it all and actually become robot corporate mouth-pieces).
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This is more symptomatic of corporate managers not knowing how to measure productivity in a meaningful fashion ... ideally, in a perfect world, the managers and employees should get together and discuss their short term goals and deliverables (including stretch goals, if needed) ... if everyone is aware of the "measurement" of success and if the goals are meaningful and achievable, then a good team will execute to meet the requirements

Unfortunately, it is far too common in the corporate world for employees and management to have an adversarial relationship and for management for have non-existent or unrealistic ideas for the goals or deliverables ... also, this smells a little of micromanagement (which is far too common in the corporate world) ... even though I have only worked for two employers they have both been corporate (although diametrically opposed in how they are managed) ... I have always liked the quote from General Patton, "Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results." ... alas, there are too few corporate managers who feel this way (although the really good ones do ;) )
 
@kbrickley
Micromanagement is a big problem. I like your Patton quote.

All too often there are poor decisions made by management that results in certain problems that they themselves mistakenly see as something completely opposite from reality. Much of this "tracking technology" doesn't even work (or atleast work right). So much of it ends up putting the companies security or the security of the employee at risk via out-sourced remote services that are themselves run from the other side of the planet. This is part of what I meant by "out-of-touch".

A good example of the problem is management having the IT department install remote monitoring software on ALL the computers in the office (making employees feel like they are being watched - which they are) for making sure they aren't doing things online on company time that they are not supposed to. I am absolutely against this kind of thing. It's wasteful and completely unneeded. If you setup the network to allow the office computers to access ONLY those things that employees need and nothing else, then monitoring software like this would not even need to be considered. It would increase security all the way around, improve productivity, make the computers run faster and more efficiently, and cause less stress on employees. This can be done but this gets back to the fact that so few people in this world have any real understanding of the way computers work in the first place...combined with a never ending need for management to control EVERYTHING.
 
My managers can't even understand simple job scheduling/planning programs, I hope they never try to adopt this.

I've already been through enough threats of write-up/termination for not doing what they tell me, just to have them change their mind a week later and ignore the fact I told them they were using it wrong. I can't imagine what they would do with something like this.
 
Steve said:
Heck, why not just implant everyone at birth?
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"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." - Revelation 13:16-17

You might want to rethink that idea, Steve. :eek:
 
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