fredag 14 mars 2008

Snooping bosses

What should we think of bosses snooping on their employees?
May this be a result of the constantly growing competition between companies?
When all nuts and bolts are tightened elsewhere in the organisation, where is there to look but in the direction of the employees?

Surveillance is a powerful weapon, and unless handled with extreme delicacy it will not be long before you can’t even visit a restroom without being caught on film.
When the question is raised, companies monitoring their employers often defend themselves with the fact that the company owns the right to do it.

-Since the employees are hired by us to perform a task, we have the right to see to that it is performed in the most efficient way; you might hear an employer say.

The obvious hazard with this way of reasoning is that the weaker part, namely the employee, is dependent upon his employer. He needs income to be able to feed and to lead a decent life. Therefore he might unwillingly accept the fact that the employer will watch his every step.

This concept of making people work more efficient by watching and correcting them is rather frightening I would say.

I suggest you read George Orwell’s novel 1984 if you find my concerns interesting. The novel deals with the topic of a society where surveillance and thought control has gone way over the top.

We are no machines. We are humans. We can not be tweaked into maximum efficiency by watching our every step, or punishing us for stepping out of the box.

I Human.
And I want to keep it that way.

3 kommentarer:

Liselotte sa...

Hi Robert,
Interesting thought there about it being the competition between companies that creates this need for monitoring the employees. You might have a point there.

The book sounds interesting; I might have to take a closer look on that one ;)

When it comes to your English I found nothing to criticize. I even learned a new phrase; lead a decent life. Thank you for that one =)
Liselotte

Anonym sa...

If i were the boss, i would point out every place i have installed the camera. Because i believe stopping the theft before it happens is better than catching and then punishing the thief when it happens.The existence of camera can work as a kind of reminding or warning. Of course, some private places like toilets, definitely are not the suitable places for installing cameras.What do you think?

Commented by Yanyan Wang

Robert Åslund sa...

Hi! Yes you made a point there right at the start! What is the problem when a company doesn't go well? Is the problem the management or is it the workers? What can the bosses do?

Easy!

Point the camera at the workers so noone even thinks of there would be something wrong with the people running the organisation!