Question

Thinking about current work environments, name at least two examples of how employers are policing or conducting surveillance on their workers and their bodies. Do you feel this is justified and fair; why or why not? Support your answers with citations from not only our Unit resources but outside ones as well. Discuss with your learning peers how these actions affect the work environment as a whole.

Answer 1

In current work environments, the incidence of employers conducting surveillance on workers and their bodies is sadly rather common. For example, there is software used by some tech companies to take periodic pictures of an employee when they are in front of their computer. This is said to meticulously track employee activity. This may be synced with a timer that measures how long employees actually sit in front of their computer. Companies might think that this results in higher productivity and more work done, as employee hours naturally increase. However, this may not necessarily result in better quality work. This is because employees might feel policed and micro-managed, resulting in lowering morale and lowered productivity. This ultimately affects work qaulity and in turn, profits.

Another example is when companies provide employees with mobile phones used specifically for office work. Smartphones today have tracking features. These features might be exploited to constantly track an employee's location. When an employee is working from home, for example, this might be misused - for example, if a manager asks why they stepped out for groceries instead of remaining in front of their screen. While location tracking of employees might be a very useful feature for safety purposes, it has the potential to be misused for other malicious purposes (tracking, keeping tabs on their schedule, etc.) It is thus a double-edged sword. The work enviornment may suffer as workers become more depressed, anxious, and suffer from low morale and physiological complaints as well.