Software that monitors your work, wherever you are - NYTimes.com
PEOPLE need to be watched.
Back at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, Jeremy Bentham, the English philosopher, seized on that basic management precept to design a building that would become a touchstone for architects of a new age. Calling it the Panopticon, he arrayed prison cells in a semicircle. The innovative layout gave a smaller number of guards the ability to watch a greater number of prisoners.
In other words, it cut costs. The Panopticon design is still in use today, and not just in prisons around the world. It was easily adapted for factories and offices.
But what happens in the information age, when workers are no longer there in front of the manager, but working from home — maybe in their pajamas, or maybe with a cat on their lap and a peppy Lily Allen tune playing on the iPod? In many managers’ eyes, they wouldn’t do as much work.
No worries. Software becomes the new Panopticon. It can monitor workers who, conveniently, do most of their work on computers. It can also measure their efforts and direct work to those who do it best...
Back at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, Jeremy Bentham, the English philosopher, seized on that basic management precept to design a building that would become a touchstone for architects of a new age. Calling it the Panopticon, he arrayed prison cells in a semicircle. The innovative layout gave a smaller number of guards the ability to watch a greater number of prisoners.
In other words, it cut costs. The Panopticon design is still in use today, and not just in prisons around the world. It was easily adapted for factories and offices.
But what happens in the information age, when workers are no longer there in front of the manager, but working from home — maybe in their pajamas, or maybe with a cat on their lap and a peppy Lily Allen tune playing on the iPod? In many managers’ eyes, they wouldn’t do as much work.
No worries. Software becomes the new Panopticon. It can monitor workers who, conveniently, do most of their work on computers. It can also measure their efforts and direct work to those who do it best...
posted by Connect Ohio at
10:14 AM
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