Youâve been fired. According to your employerâs data, your facial expressions showed you were insubordinate and not trustworthy. You also move your hands at a rate that is considered substandard. Other companies you may want to work for could receive this data, making it difficult for you to find other work in this field.
That may sound like a scenario straight out of a George Orwell novel, but itâs the future many American workers could soon be facing.
In early February, media outlets reported that Amazon had received a patent for ultrasonic wristbands that could track the movement of warehouse workersâ hands during their shifts. If workersâ hands began moving in the wrong direction, the wristband would buzz, issuing an electronic corrective. If employed, this technology could easily be used to further surveil employees who already work under intense supervision.
Whole Foods, which is now owned by Amazon, recently instituted a complex and punitive inventory system where employees are graded based on everything from how quickly and effectively they stock shelves to how they report theft. The system is so harsh it reportedly causes employees enough stress to bring them to tears on a regular basis.
UPS drivers, who often operate individually on the road, are now becoming increasingly surveilled. Sensors in every UPS truck track when driversâ seatbelts are put on, when doors open and close and when the engines start in order to monitor employee productivity at all times.
The technology company Steelcase has experimented with monitoring employeesâ faces to judge their expressions. The company claims that this innovation, which monitors and analyzes workersâ facial movements throughout the work day, is being used for research and to inform best practices on the job. Other companies are also taking interest in this kind of mood-observing technology, from Bank of America to Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc.
These developments are part of a larger trend of workers being watched and judgedâoften at jobs that offer low pay and demand long hours. Beyond simply tracking worker performance, it is becoming more common for companies to monitor the emails and phone calls their employees make, analyzing personal traits along with output.
Some companies are now using monitoring techniquesâreferred to as âpeople analyticsââto learn as much as they can about you, from your communication patterns to what types of websites you visit to how often you use the bathroom. This type of privacy invasion can cause employees immense stress, as they work with the constant knowledge that their boss is aware of their every behaviorâand able to use that against them as they see fit.
Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute at Cornell University, tells In These Times that the level of surveillance workers are facing is increasing exponentially.
âIf you look at what some people call âpeople analytics,â itâs positively frightening,â Maltby says. âPeople analytics devices get how often you talk, the tone of your voice, where you are every single second youâre at work, your body language, your facial expressions and something called âpatterns of interaction.ââ He explains that some of these devices even record what employees say at work.
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