How Black Mirror-style surveillance culture reduces worker productivity

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IIt sounds like something out of a dystopian novel, where sensors accurately track how long employees are at their desks. But it actually happened at the newspaper company where my colleague used to work. Have you ever bumped into someone in the cafeteria while drinking coffee and ended up drinking a chinwag? Your desk, your boss, probably knows.

This regime apparently didn’t last long – it’s hard to force anything when the whole newsroom is up in arms about the issue – but many other workplaces have introduced similar measures. There is. Accounting firm EY made headlines earlier this week after it was revealed that data from turnstiles at office entrances was being analyzed by senior partners to measure attendance.

Surveillance kit can include everything from monitoring emails and recording every keystroke an employee types, to using CCTV and tracking devices to monitor movements made throughout the day. Work computer webcam. Handheld scanner used by warehouse employees. An AI program that detects whether call center employees are responding “correctly” to customer questions based on a predetermined script. All of this is insidiously embedded across sectors and industries. Technology even exists to record facial expressions and tone of voice to gather “mood and emotional analysis.” It’s bone-chilling, black mirror– level stuff.

According to Top10VPN research, demand for employee monitoring software increased by 78% in January 2022, the largest increase in years. Meanwhile, a Gartner study found that 70% of large companies are likely to use tracking software by 2025. “As remote work increases, organizations are experimenting with monitoring techniques and systems to measure presence, attention, and performance,” says sociologist and Ph.D. The secret to being happy at work.

In the wake of the pandemic and the shift to hybrid working, technology is increasingly being used to monitor productivity and, in the case of EY, not only to figuratively bring employees back to the office. There are growing concerns that this may be the case. For someone like me, part of each workday may be spent researching, scrolling through social media for inspiration, or simply coming up with ideas, and the role involves Although essential, there are no specific, measurable “outcomes.” The concept of constant monitoring is very important. Become anxious.

Without stronger regulation to protect workers, “intrusive” worker surveillance technologies risk “spiraling out of control”, the TUC warned in 2022. Left unchecked, these technologies “could lead to widespread discrimination, intensification and unfair treatment,” the union argued. The report cited a poll by research organization Thinks Insights and Strategy that found 60% of workers believe they have been subjected to some form of surveillance or surveillance in their current or most recent job. did. Three in 10 (28%) agree that surveillance and surveillance in the workplace has increased since COVID-19, with employees experiencing increased monitoring of staff devices and phones compared to 2020. reported that it did.

“Employers are relying on algorithms to make critical decisions such as hiring, promotion and, in some cases, firing,” TUC general secretary Francis O’Grady said at the time. “The Post Office scandal must be a turning point. No one should have their livelihood taken away by technology.”

The Post Office scandal has recently come back into the spotlight after an ITV drama about hundreds of people being wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting due to a software error.

A report by Data & Society, an independent nonprofit research organization that examines the social impact of data, automation, and AI, found that vast amounts of employee data are tracked across industries, and that “the It collects information about almost every aspect of their personal life, and often without the informed or free consent of the employees.” Many workers believe that they They had little idea of ​​the extent to which they were being monitored or how their information was being used. The Constant Boss report cites one example in which Walmart employees were asked to install an app on their personal cell phones to check inventory, which required constant access to the phone’s camera and location information. They said they needed to access the service and unless they remembered, they had to share this data with their employers. This is to switch off when I clock out from work.

“We are alarmed by the sharp increase in workplace surveillance in recent years,” said Silky Carlo, director of British freedom and privacy campaign Big Brother Watch. “While millions of people are now working from home or in a hybrid pattern, home remains a private space, and we are all entitled to a high degree of privacy within our homes. I have.

“Intrusive surveillance violates staff privacy, workplace respect, and dignity. Good managers rely on the false assumption that there is a uniform way for employees to perform optimally. You need to know how well your co-workers are working, often without automated monitoring technology.”

Understandably, most of us hate the feeling of being watched and evaluated every moment of our working hours. A 2023 survey by trade union Prospect found that British workers are “very uncomfortable” with digital surveillance and automated decision-making in the workplace. A poll of more than 1,100 UK tech workers found that tech unions strongly oppose all forms of digital surveillance and algorithmic decision-making in the workplace.

“This research shows that many workers are deeply concerned about new and more intrusive forms of digital surveillance that are too often introduced by employers without having proper conversations with workers. Prospect’s deputy general secretary, Andrew Pakes, said: “The fundamental ‘dataification’ of workers risks leading to an intensification of work that worsens productivity, health and morale. ‘He said he believed he was being watched because he felt fearful and not trusted.’

Because of this inherent discomfort, there is a prevailing idea that using technology to monitor productivity can, somewhat ironically, have a negative impact on productivity. “It’s all about trust,” Henry Albrecht, CEO of LimeAid, a software company that provides employee benefits programs, told the Society for Human Resource Management. “If your employees don’t feel trusted, they won’t feel valued and engaged in their work. If you’re pushing… tools to make [they’re] Constantly looking over your partner’s shoulder erodes trust and is ultimately bad for your business. ”

Dr. Brouwer agreed, saying that employees generally have a negative reaction to surveillance technology, which is why so many employees invest their creative energy and effort into trying to outwit them. Ta. “People want autonomy, choice, control, trust, and respect, and surveillance technology sends the message that companies are asking employees questions and checking on their work. It tends to have a negative impact on engagement and motivation,” she says. . “People may try to game the system or put in minimal effort. An important element in relationships, including work relationships, is reciprocity. People give based on what they receive. As a result, when people feel a lack of trust or respect, they are less likely to give their best effort and more likely to leave the organization for a more rewarding culture.”

Employees are inherently suspicious of technology that is not ostensibly used to monitor productivity unless its use is clearly explained. Transparency is extremely important. Is it the tabletop sensor device mentioned at the beginning of this article? Its main function is to improve office space efficiency, track the number of desks needed, and allow employees to see in real time which desks are free. It is to do so. But when London-based Barclays installed OccupEye boxes under desks in 2017, staff at the London investment bank discovered they were there and “executives were flooded with inquiries,” Bloomberg said. reported. Anonymous employees told the news agency that they believed the device was tracking employees’ time away from their desks and were concerned about taking bathroom breaks. “The sensors are not monitoring people or their productivity. They are assessing the use of office space,” Barclays said in a statement at the time. But that didn’t stop employees from removing and disposing of the sensors, said Brian Kropp, director of human resources practices research at Gartner.

But if companies are using this technology because they truly want to drive improved performance and increased productivity, there are far more effective ways to get results. Professor Sir Cary Cooper, one of the UK’s leading organizational psychologists, encouraged companies to measure the health of their employees in order to improve productivity. “It makes perfect sense to put health and wellbeing at the heart of business strategy,” he said in a 2022 report. “It makes perfect sense to put health and wellbeing at the heart of business strategy. It helps improve productivity, improve staff retention and reduce presenteeism. Deaf,” he said.

Dr. Brouwer, on the other hand, suggests that the most effective way to improve performance is to give employees meaningful work that is as aligned with their interests as possible. “Make sure to also provide learning opportunities and opportunities for employees to build strong relationships with their leaders and team members,” she recommends. “And of course, building a strong organizational culture with a clear purpose and a focus on both people and performance. All of this improves employee performance.”

At the end of the day, treating your employees like people, not machines, can yield the best results. Until we are all replaced by AI, that is…