Were You Productive at Work Today? NewsWire

NewsWire: 9/9/22

• More white-collar companies are using digital surveillance tools that assign workers “productivity scores.” Such tools constantly track workers’ activity and idle time, often to their frustration. (The New York Times)
  
• NH: For years, Silicon Valley retailers like Amazon (AMZN) and their tech-aspirational competitors like Walmart (WMT) have been pioneering surveillance software to monitor their employees. We have all heard the horror stories of Amazon warehouse workers racing to and from the bathroom to keep their productivity score out of the red.
• Guess what? Over the last couple of years, these tools have been spreading out to a much vaster universe of firms in diverse sectors. These surveillance programs are now being introduced into finance, hospitals, healthcare, government contracting, real estate, architecture, law, and even freelance marketplaces. 
• Much of this explosion in surveillance began during the pandemic. (See “Big Brother Is in Your Laptop.”) In spring 2020, many white-collar workers went remote, and employers figured they had better do something to ensure everyone was on task. For the first time, these tools were used for online workers. And in many large firms, they are a permanent fixture. 
• Let's explore how some companies are using them.
• In May, Insider first reported that JPMorgan Chase (JPM) had adopted a new system called “Workplace Activity Data Utility.” The program tracks how employees spend their day. It records everything from how long their Zoom meetings last to how much time they spend in Excel. The company also tracks how often employees work remotely. One worker told Insider that management had threatened to withhold a promotion due to the number of days they had telecommuted. 
• UnitedHealth Group (UNH) similarly tracks workers’ keyboard activity. The software ranks social workers on a scale of 1-5 based on keyboard strokes. A low score can result in reduced pay and decreased future bonuses. Workers have complained that the system marks them as unproductive when visiting patients at treatment facilities. 
• Allina Health, a Minnesota nonprofit, even tracks the productivity of hospice workers. Employees earn points for different types of visits. Talking to mourning relatives: 0.25 points. Checking in on a dying patient: 1.0 point. Working a funeral: 1.75 points. A hired minister told the NYT she had to cut visits short with dying patients in order to accumulate a high enough score to make ends meet. Apparently, it's no fun telling dying people that you've simply run out of time to talk to them. She has since quit her job. 
• A few workers say they like the software because it sniffs out slackers on their team. Most workers, it's fair to say, are highly critical of this Orwellian surveillance regime. Their appraisals range from frustration to rage. Employers and "productivity experts," on the other hand, sing the praises of monitoring software. They say it "catches" lazy employees and "rewards" the hard workers.
• IMO, we all have a right to be alarmed by this latest tech revolution. Of course the experts say it's wonderful. They're the ones selling these packages. As for the employers, I will venture to say this: If it is true that an employer manages to achieve a significant productivity gain by submitting employees to this sort of digital panopticon, then the firm must have been experiencing terrible productivity (and morale) to begin with.
• Oh, and one more thing: Such gains will be strictly temporary, since workers will always figure out ways to game these systems. Moreover, apps are popping up that will giggle your mouse when you are away from your computer. Honestly, will launching an arms race over pretending you're working really create highly productive companies--much less a trusting and loyal workforce?
• True productivity means having a nested hierarchy of teams in which trusted supervisors are personally familiar with the work performance of every employee in their team. If a company's supervisors are so out of touch that they need these devices to know what employees are doing, then the entire management system needs a makeover. Period. This software is merely papering over corporate dysfunction in the worst way.