And THAT is the real purpose behind RTO; these pathetic losers feel like they’ve lost grip on those they perceive below them
They desperately need to feel in control. (Also they want to introduce things like second-by-second AI monitoring of each employee, this is already a reality; ever heard of WADU? Sounds bad but not that bad right? wrong)
Here’s some relevant snippets
I think everyone expects their employer to track them to some extent. It is pretty standard practice for employers to monitor and run analysis on things like building badge swipes and the amount of time spent connected when working from home. It has also become very common place for employers to record audio and video at the office.
WADU is on a different level. It is an artificial intelligence & machine learning system for workforce human behavior. Starting at the moment you arrive to the building, WADU is tracking you using facial and speech recognition. Most JPMC offices and branches have been outfitted with some of the best HD AV security cameras.
Whenever you are at your desk, know that there is a HD camera tracking you the entire time. WADU uses the array of HD cameras at the office to monitor all of your non-verbal body language all throughout the day. The collected information is then fed into the AI/ML system and it is used to update your WADU profile in real time.
Every manager gets access to a dashboard that lists all the metrics about their subordinates. The productivity metrics about an employee start getting updated immediately after an employee logs into the system. If the employee is at the office, two bio-metrics are available, attention/focus and stress.
The bio-metric feeds are updated from the facial and behavioral tracking. Having a bad day? Stressed about something? WADU has already noticed this and alerted your manager. Can’t focus? Not working at your usual pace? WADU has already noticed this and alerted your manager. Did something you normally don’t do? It’s possible WADU flagged it as suspicious and alerted your manager.
WADU is also why they are pushing RTO or “return to office” so hard. Upper management does not care if some employees are more productive when they are working from home. They want everyone back in the office as much as possible so that their WADU profiles are being refined. Enhancing their insight into you is more important to them than better productivity from working from home.
A lot of teams are now required to come in two to three days per week. Director level and higher are required to come in four to five days per week. Upper management wants to see everyone at all levels back in the office five days a week. They have invested millions into the WADU system, and they want to get a return on that investment. That only happens whenever people are in the office as much as possible.
I wasn’t really involved with it but my coworker did it. We outfitted a factory with indicating lights that showed if machines/people slowed down at a station. Didn’t feel that great about that one.
Yup, “but if I can’t watch them like a hawk how do I know they’re doing all that busywork they usually do to appease me on the fact that their job duties are all mostly done before the 40 hour max they’re supposed to be working‽”
It also seems it is being heavily pushed by corporations with large commercial real-estate investments and governments to “keep downtowns alive.” There’s a lot of money tied up in those sky scrapers.
BTW I’m 100% in support of fully remote work for climate and work life balance reasons, though my next job unfortunately probably won’t be fully remote :(
And THAT is the real purpose behind RTO; these pathetic losers feel like they’ve lost grip on those they perceive below them
They desperately need to feel in control. (Also they want to introduce things like second-by-second AI monitoring of each employee, this is already a reality; ever heard of WADU? Sounds bad but not that bad right? wrong)
Here’s some relevant snippets
I wasn’t really involved with it but my coworker did it. We outfitted a factory with indicating lights that showed if machines/people slowed down at a station. Didn’t feel that great about that one.
Yup, “but if I can’t watch them like a hawk how do I know they’re doing all that busywork they usually do to appease me on the fact that their job duties are all mostly done before the 40 hour max they’re supposed to be working‽”
It also seems it is being heavily pushed by corporations with large commercial real-estate investments and governments to “keep downtowns alive.” There’s a lot of money tied up in those sky scrapers.
BTW I’m 100% in support of fully remote work for climate and work life balance reasons, though my next job unfortunately probably won’t be fully remote :(
I’d probably get fired from a company that has that, lol. I’d do random things just to throw it off, odd body movements, etc.
That, and shore up the real estate office leasing market.