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Big Brother in the Office

C

cquark

Golden Member
From http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22409, a personnel monitoring system so invasive that it sounds like it comes from science fiction is coming to office near you (at least if you're in Japan, but it can easily be exported.)

When I read Manna about how automation and computerization would more easily take over most of the service industry, removing lower level management first, I wasn't sure how true it would be or when it would happen, but with a system like this, Manna is only a few years away for fast food and Walmart.

HITACHI is demonstrating a system which means that if you're in the office you'll be able to run, but you may not be able to hide.

According to a report in the Nikkei Business Daily, the system will use chair based sensors, wireless enabled name tags, while the whole tracking system will be controlled from a single PC.

This is how it's supposed to work. When you get up from your chair, your wireless name tag is activated, and beams your location every half a minute. The wireless signal uses a base station within the office to forward info about your location to the PC.

The person operating the PC can tell exactly where you are, and presumably "questions will be asked" if you spend too much time in the loo, or if your name goes off the radar because you've headed outside for a crafty cigarette.

Presumably if an office romance has flowered, the close proximity of two wireless name tags will give the game away.

A whole cluster of wireless name tags in the same location around the water cooler will presumably raise questions with your bosses too. Were you all plotting a putsch? Or simply chatting about the TV soap you all watched last night?

Perhaps future systems will include a gadget fixed to your waist which will give you a sharp electric shock if you're away from your desk too long. Or include a small printing module which will show you how much has been docked from your salary for your periods of inactivity and even deliver a dismissal notice remotely. The possibilities are endless.
Click to expand...
 
Take name tag, go to break room, put name tag in microwave for 60 seconds, let name tag cool, clip name tag back on and go do what ever you want to do.
 
Are they retarded? All this product does it keep track of where you are. I don't know about you, but it was pretty hard to tell how much I was getting done by where I was at any job I've had. Maybe I'm sitting at my desk like a good little peon, but maybe I'm picking my nose. Or maybe I'm sitting on the john, mentally solving a C++ bug I've been working on all day. What problem is this product solving?
 
That's lame, just installed full RFID monitoring system with Video where I work.

Tracks every movement including when you go to the bathroom and watched.
 
Originally posted by: cquark

HITACHI is demonstrating a system which means that if you're in the office you'll be able to run, but you may not be able to hide.

According to a report in the Nikkei Business Daily, the system will use chair based sensors, wireless enabled name tags, while the whole tracking system will be controlled from a single PC.

This is how it's supposed to work. When you get up from your chair, your wireless name tag is activated, and beams your location every half a minute. The wireless signal uses a base station within the office to forward info about your location to the PC.

The person operating the PC can tell exactly where you are, and presumably "questions will be asked" if you spend too much time in the loo, or if your name goes off the radar because you've headed outside for a crafty cigarette.

Presumably if an office romance has flowered, the close proximity of two wireless name tags will give the game away.

A whole cluster of wireless name tags in the same location around the water cooler will presumably raise questions with your bosses too. Were you all plotting a putsch? Or simply chatting about the TV soap you all watched last night?

Perhaps future systems will include a gadget fixed to your waist which will give you a sharp electric shock if you're away from your desk too long. Or include a small printing module which will show you how much has been docked from your salary for your periods of inactivity and even deliver a dismissal notice remotely. The possibilities are endless.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Quite a bit of "presumption" in that article, eh?

Don't get me wrong, I'm always against this type of monitoring. Either hire employees you can trust or go out of business. I know I'd never work in an environment as hostile as the author envisions.

This is in Japan, of course, which has very different view of employees "rights." We here in the States should always be on guard, but this is nothing to be worried about quite yet, IMO.
 
Originally posted by: cKGunslinger
Originally posted by: cquark

HITACHI is demonstrating a system which means that if you're in the office you'll be able to run, but you may not be able to hide.

According to a report in the Nikkei Business Daily, the system will use chair based sensors, wireless enabled name tags, while the whole tracking system will be controlled from a single PC.

This is how it's supposed to work. When you get up from your chair, your wireless name tag is activated, and beams your location every half a minute. The wireless signal uses a base station within the office to forward info about your location to the PC.

The person operating the PC can tell exactly where you are, and presumably "questions will be asked" if you spend too much time in the loo, or if your name goes off the radar because you've headed outside for a crafty cigarette.

Presumably if an office romance has flowered, the close proximity of two wireless name tags will give the game away.

A whole cluster of wireless name tags in the same location around the water cooler will presumably raise questions with your bosses too. Were you all plotting a putsch? Or simply chatting about the TV soap you all watched last night?

Perhaps future systems will include a gadget fixed to your waist which will give you a sharp electric shock if you're away from your desk too long. Or include a small printing module which will show you how much has been docked from your salary for your periods of inactivity and even deliver a dismissal notice remotely. The possibilities are endless.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Quite a bit of "presumption" in that article, eh?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why you're hung up on that phrasing. The system isn't deployed yet, so the article can't address how it's currently being used, but it can point out how the system could be used in abusive ways with each of those sentences with the word "presumably."
 
Originally posted by: cquark

I'm not sure why you're hung up on that phrasing. The system isn't deployed yet, so the article can't address how it's currently being used, but it can point out how the system could be used in abusive ways with each of those sentences with the word "presumably."
Click to expand...

Exactly. That's all I was trying to point out - the whole "the sky is falling" tone of the article. Yes, this is something to keep your eye on. No, the government is not planning on using RFID to track you down and harvest your vital organs for DNA recombination with the Alien High Council who secretly run the nation... presumably. 😉
 
There's little in the way of practical application with RFID and offices, unless your employer is going to insist you get up from your desk and go to an exercise room every 2 hours.

If your employer is making judgements about how long you're allowed to go to the bathroom for - and it was a reasonable time - they'll get smacked down by the law.

Never, ever take The Inquirer as factual news. They're akin to The Register.
 
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