Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Closed Circuit Boss


According to the Technology Review, "The monitoring of employees is increasingly being done by machines. Much more is being monitored, and the monitoring has expanded from the production line to the office."

I am talking about using closed circuit cameras and videos to monitor the performance of employees. Industries that uses these closed circuit televisions or video cameras most are banks, insurance companies, hotels, casinos, telephone companies and the airline industries. There has been much debate about the public security versus privacy over the use of such monitoring.

Advocates of computer monitoring said that the practice gives a more accurate evaluation of a worker's performance than a human manager that is subjected to his or her own prejudices. It is claimed that individual's work skills are less likely to be overlooked by a computer, thus allowing an organization to more easily identify its high-achieving employees and reward them appropriately.

On the other hand, computer monitoring increases stress (employees know that they are being watched), reduces job satisfaction, and ultimately subverts management's own goal of greater productivity. Machines can't encourage and motivate workers, they cannot understand employee problems, and they cannot foster company loyalty.

In the end, I guess most folks don't really like to be watched over their shoulder while they work.





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