Advanced technology to help keep a beady eye on you
By Annie Waite, North American Editor of the Internal Comms Hub, Melcrum
We ran a story on the Internal Comms Hub earlier this week about a sophisticated new program from Microsoft which could soon be helping employers keep a particularly close watch on employees.
The story outlines a system that would, “allow managers to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure."
Eeeeek! I'm curious as to how exactly you can monitor a facial expression - what constitutes an acceptable or unacceptable expression?
Unsurprisingly, unions and civil liberty groups have apparently said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer’s assessment of their physiological state.
This kind of monitoring does make sense for workers in jobs where other people's lives are at stake (pilots, surgeons, bus drivers etc) but I'm not sure I completely understand the legal implications for (and motivations of) companies who may wish to use this kind of system to monitor desk employees and so forth... but I suspect HR teams and communications functions are going to have their work cut out!
Check out the Hub for the full story.
Soundtrack to the blog: Super Furry Animals - She's Got Spies
I think some managers like the idea of monitoring their employees ever more closely. The idea that productivity is associated with certain physiological states is tempting but flawed. Am I getting all hot and bothered over this quarter's financial reports or that Angelina Jolie video I slyly downloaded earlier?
Where this kind of thing might be more useful (& indeed ethical) is in allowing employees to become more aware of their own physiological states. If I am prone to anger attacks and I am on the phone to a petulant customer, then knowing that my pulse and BP are rising might warn me to take a breather before I boil over and say something we all might regret.
Nice SFA soundtrack choice - I would counter with "The Man Don't Give a ****".
Posted by: Matt Moore | January 24, 2008 at 05:34 AM