• The New York Times reports that Amazon has secured two patents for a wristband that tracks an employee’s every move and can use vibrations to alert the wearer when he or she is doing something incorrectly. It could, the story says, “identify every time you paused to scratch or fidget, and for how long you took a bathroom break.”
While Amazon has not said whether it plans to actually make the device and require employees to wear it, “the patent disclosure goes to the heart about a global debate about privacy and security. Amazon already has a reputation for a workplace culture that thrives on a hard-hitting management style, and has experimented with how far it can push white-collar workers in order to reach its delivery targets.”
While Amazon has not said whether it plans to actually make the device and require employees to wear it, “the patent disclosure goes to the heart about a global debate about privacy and security. Amazon already has a reputation for a workplace culture that thrives on a hard-hitting management style, and has experimented with how far it can push white-collar workers in order to reach its delivery targets.”
- KC's View:
-
Why do I think that companies that use such a technology are going to get some pushback? It’ll be a lot easier to implement when there are more jobs than people, and unemployment is high.
At some point, one has to show some trust in the workforce.
If someone tried to put this wristband on me, I think I might employ some specific arm gestures that would be easily detectable.
