Worker surveillance is spreading - podcast
This podcast (in Danish) is concerned with the rise of digital tools and systems used to surveil workers.
Read the description of the podcast in Danish here. English translation below.
Workflow ep. 26: Worker surveillance is spreading
As more of our daily work takes place on digital platforms, it has become possible for employers to collect data on everything we do. It is, however, a development that should be discussed and regulated, say critics.
As more and more of our daily work takes place on digital platforms, it has become possible for employers to collect data on everything we do: how many e-mails we write, how often we call customers or other employees, how many times we press the keyboard, how much time we spend on social media or other pastimes, and so on.
It can also be about tracking how much we move and perhaps even what we weigh, and how much we eat, if we participate in health programs in the company.
On the one hand, it might help us to plan our work better, ensure more focus time, optimize meetings and make us more productive (and perhaps even make us healthier), on the other hand there is a risk that employee monitoring becomes a huge overstepping of the boundaries of our privacy.
We have spoken to digital consultant and author Peter Svarre and consultant and trade union expert Christina Colclough about what kind of tools companies use, what the idea behind them is, and what it looks like here in Denmark.
Links / show notes
Find out about Workflow - a podcast about the future of working life
Workflow is produced by IDA the The Danish Society of Engineers by:
Lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen and labor market researcher Nana Wesley Hansen, and
Tech journalist Anders Høeg Nissen