Hi Derek... did you see this piece in The Guardian?

Employers are monitoring computers, toilet breaks – even emotions

It would be good to hear from the community... so it's a good question:

Are you happy with how your business approaches workplace monitoring?

In reply to Steve Bridger:

Sorry for the slightly flippant response on this one, but my mind has combined this thread with the ones about robots taking over in the workplace. And I found myself wondering how the monitoring technology might cope with Marvin the depressed robot from Hitchhikers Guide: www.youtube.com/watch

In reply to Anna:

Made me think of 1984 more than Hitchhiker's!

In reply to Steve Bridger:

This thread from a couple of months ago...

Monitoring employee's workloads (without losing trust)

Hi Derek, I like both this article in the telegraph and one suggested by Steve Bridger in the Guardian.

I am currently doing my Masters assignment on whether technological advances and privacy rights can work together to create true trust and data confidence in the workplace and what is the relevance of Article 8 thereto. I would have liked to have heard your opinion on it from the point of view of data protection laws in the UK and whether GDPR will improve privacy rights in this area or if there are still potential weaknesses.

In reply to sinead:

I worked in a place once where it felt like the HR manager did have eyes and spies everywhere! She'd talk to me (and indeed others) and repeat back things we'd said in another part of the building, well away from her. Another time, I wasn't feeling well and went outside for a few minutes to get some fresh air. She saw me go out, even though her office was on the other side of the building. Another time I was standing in the office, about to go out to make the tea but lingering as myself and 2 colleagues were having a (work related) discussion. The manager was sitting across the hallway in the board room and could see into our office. She's emailed my colleague to say she could see me standing there chatting! Quite what point she wished to make I dont know, given I could have sat down and carried on, and it was work related anyway (not that she would have known the topic). But to email one of the others instead of just have a quiet word to me later? (If it even really needed that!) She had also installed on her arrival a finger print clocking in and out machine that all staff (including office professionals and even the directrors) were to use! And of course it was her who could see the times people came and went at.

It was all a bit creepy and I was glad when I moved on. :-) 

I think people like that would be very much interested in the new technology and is exactly why it fills me with horror. 

Indeed its easy to conjure up images of Big Brother...

But wouldn't it be a good thing if an organisation could accurately predict when say a Call Centre workers stress was rising and they were likely to need a break rather than ranting at a customer by monitoring their blood pressure, pulse or whatever? Or similarly in a factory setting?

Monitoring an employees health "may" within appropriate guidance be the logical manifestation of wellness - making it real and practical rather than simply conceptual

So some concerns but also some real benefits....

In reply to Keith:

Agree Keith, but to take it further I'd like to see more enabling of employees to actually have the freedom to take themselves off and cool down/de-stress etc. Whereas the current climate, especially in areas such as call centres, is to monitor behaviour and punish when standards slip, and little flexibility to behave like a human being to avoid such slippage, I would like to see employers give more freedom or provide more facilities to reduce such issues arising in the first place. And when they do arise having a culture that it is ok to self-intervene before it gets too bad. So John Smith was getting stressed and instead of waiting to be told to take a break, he takes himself off for 10 minutes, cools down and then returns to work. Sure, we lost 10 minutes of productivity, except we didn't because at this point he wasn't going to be productive anyway and may have even caused more harm than good.

Yes, you will get some employees who abuse that trust and freedom but they will generally be the poor performers who can be managed out (and probably would be poor under a more regimented culture anyway). What it might just do though, is help retain the good people who look around at similar jobs elsewhere only to see more draconian measures in place that will seem old fashioned and unpleasant compared to what they are used to.

Maybe it's Friday afternoon and I am being a bit Utopian in my thinking but I just don't believe militant operational style control of staff in e.g. call centres, warehouses, etc. where you dehumanise them to an extent, is the most effective way - for either side!

In reply to William:

But you don't have to see it as dehumanising - potentially exactly the opposite. Its simply using tools and techniques that weren't available 100 or even 10 years ago to allow the employee to operate in a far better way and to enjoy their job and perform better.

Giving both the employer and the employer access to and understanding of information about how they are really reacting and responding to the stimulus of the day may be in everyone's interests. Its a new but potentially really useful part of the tool kit in managing people more intelligently and better rather than relying on a model that hasn't changed much in many generations.

In reply to Keith:

Sorry Keith I wasn't referring to that, more so the existing methods of control many of these places exert, i.e. hard to hit targets, prescribed break times, little flexibility around the times, little sympathy or understanding of mental health issues etc. where people (often being paid minimum wage) are treated like robots.

I agree it would be better for the employer to be able to say 'hey John you are getting stressed, go take a break!' but even better if John felt empowered to be able to do it for himself when he needs to and not be told.

In reply to William:

My Husband worked somewhere similar. They had CCTV in the office area where it wasn't necessary. The Director would call my Husband the minute he started to clear his desk for the day and be called in for nothing that couldn't have been dealt with earlier in the day. They eventually employed a HR professional, who immediately asked for the CCTV in non essential areas to be removed. This didn't happen and the HR professional left the business very quickly, as well as my Husband!