The 2020 Micro-wave
The year 2020 has been a unique one thus far, to say the least.
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc among the planet’s population. It has proved to be an eye-opener and shown that mankind is and always will be at the mercy of nature, despite all the technology we have today to combat it when we need to.
Coronavirus is absolutely terrible and evidently life-threatening to those vulnerable. However, it has also done some good. It has accelerated the inevitable push for flexible work environments. That is, the ability of employees to work from wherever (home). Of course, this isn’t applicable everywhere in the world – predominantly in established countries with the technical infrastructure and culture to support it. More and more employers are now allowing temporary or permanent work from home ability, and this will only grow with time. I can go over the benefits in another post, but working from home is a no-brainer for many employees. You save commute time, you can complete errands during breaks, you can often wear almost anything without being judged, and you have a sense of not being watched. It’s almost like you’re your own boss, as long as you work your hours and meet and exceed expectations!
There isn’t necessarily a need to feel like you’re not being watched, but part of the joy of being an autonomous employee (should your role allow it), is not having someone breathing down your neck and watching your every move.
The unfortunate news for us ethical, responsible employees who don’t take things for granted (this is why we can’t have nice things…) is that many workers are abusing these privileges. Currently, even at my current employer, I’m hearing nothing but positive feedback all around. The employees are happy for the most part, and our leadership is becoming more open to allowing this flexibility down the road since everyone is doing such a good job and also cutting some corporate costs (i.e. travel).
However, I have a very strong feeling that performance of remote workers will plateau and curve down to low productivity levels as time goes by. I sense this has already happened, and this is also why many organizations will begin to really crack down and install software on the employees’ machines that track productivity. To what extent the following is legal, I do not know. But do not be surprised if any or all of your microphone, camera, screen, keystrokes, mouse movement, VPN use, idle time and internet usage are tracked and monitored.
You thought being confronted about walking into the office by fifteen minutes late used to be bad? Try getting confronted about what you were doing between 3:05 and 3:25 PM on a Monday since no keyboard activity was recorded during that window. Yeah, THAT is bad. And it is inevitable.
“Remember to block your breaks and lunches and tasks on your calendar and share them with me. Oh and I see you’ve been idle for 15 minutes, do you need help with something?”
-Your Supervisor
What was once a dream-job type of work environment for many may quickly become a modern age sweat-shop through technology. It’s even easier to micro-manage employee activity through technology than it was in the old-fashion office. Maybe it isn’t significant enough to notice yet, but it will quickly become a reality.
Welcome to this new wave of micro-management.
The 2020 Micro-wave.