Modern Workplace Tech Linked To Lower Employee Well-Being, Study Finds (techspot.com) 39
According to a new study from the Institute for the Future of Work, contemporary technology often has a negative impact on workers' quality of life. The think tank surveyed over 6,000 people to learn how four categories of workplace technologies affected their wellbeing. TechSpot reports the findings: The study found that increased exposure to three of the categories tended to worsen workers' mental state and health. The three areas that negatively impact people most are wearable and remote sensing technologies, which covers CCTV cameras and wearable trackers; robotics, consisting of automated machines, self-driving vehicles, and other equipment; and, unsurprisingly, technologies relating to AI and ML, which includes everything from decision management to biometrics. Only one of the categories was found to be beneficial to employees, and it's one that has been around for decades: ICT tech such as laptops, tablets, phones, and real-time messaging tools.
No shit (Score:3)
Nobody gives a shit about you. When you aren't in person, you don't see people as human. Can't bond or empathize with each other the same.
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I will never understand what people bang on about H1B. There are about 600,000 H1B visa holders in the US. 510,000 can be in the tech sector (since new H1B are capped at 85,000 total - 20,000 of which are for Master's degree recipients; and the max duration is 6 years). The "discrepancy" comes from exempt areas like (STEM) academy, where there simply does not seem enough interest by Americans to fill those jobs.
There are maybe 12+ million tech jobs in the US. So H1B represents at best 4-1/4 percent of the w
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H1-B is a horrible program in that it is basically indentured servitude. So even though they are supposed to pay average wages, they don't. As someone working an H1-
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It is kinda funny though that the party that screeches constantly about immigration goes silent if H1Bs are mentioned. Probably because the top of that party lives it some cheap captive labor.
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Nobody gives a shit about you. When you aren't in person, you don't see people as human. Can't bond or empathize with each other the same.
This has nothing to do with being "in person"... the kind of exec who thinks it's a good idea to put trackers on their employees is going to see everyone as non-human resources and "cost centres" regardless of if they're present in an office or not. When was the last time you were even in the same room as a c-level exec in a fortune 1000 company, they're already so isolated that most people won't ever meet one in their entire lives.
What we need are two things.
1, The right to collective bargaining, Man
The humiliation and degradation is the point (Score:2)
The only thing most companies want to own these days are their employees. They want you to know that. The investors like to watch you suffer.
Re:The humiliation and degradation is the point (Score:4, Insightful)
The only thing most companies want to own these days are their employees. They want you to know that. The investors like to watch you suffer.
Investors like to what their quarterly stock dividend payments roll in and the stock price go higher. Simple as that.
And for those stocks that don't pay dividends, investors like to see steady growth in the stock price so they can Buy Now then Sell In The Future and therefore Profit
Re:The humiliation and degradation is the point (Score:5, Insightful)
The "investors" don't even know you exist nor much care, that's Someone Else's Problem. The problem with American companies is that the C-Suite think of themselves as investors and not managers. They view their job as increasing the stock price of the company. If that means making workers miserable, they are fine with that. If it means making workers happy, they will do that....but only as a means to an end. What many companies are not in is their own business. That too has become merely a means to an end.
If a company is run by the founders because the founders loved what they do, then the company will probably have happier employees since the vision for the company filters down and workers can see the point of decisions. But these days, that only lasts as long as some hedge fund, other investors, or some other company dangles enough money in front of the C-Suite to blind them.
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Also not so surprising, these short sighted buffoons are too clueless to realize they're lowering the upper ceiling with their attempt to raise the floor.
Sure, you can try to squeeze every last drop from the slackers you still have on payroll. But, if you had any to begin with, the truly productive people who don't need nor want to be micro-managed to death have already moved on to work somewhere else, dignity intact.
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Where's the study about modern managers? (Score:2)
Now that would be an epic study!
Really? (Score:5, Funny)
Being under constant surveillance (CCTV/Trackers) is harmful to one's sense of well-being?
I'm shocked, SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked.
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Being under constant surveillance (CCTV/Trackers) is harmful to one's sense of well-being?
I'm shocked, SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked.
Back in the Good Ole Days all we had to worry about was badging in to the areas where we were allowed. My last job was at a security-conscious company that did that.
Re: Really? (Score:2)
Clearly you have failed to wear your company mandated Shokkollar: Presented by HP(tm). This infraction will be reported and then you will be shocked. Shocked, we say.
Worst Tech List (Score:2)
2. Teams
3. Slack
Basically anything that's a pain in the ass, and makes me work hard to even use it. Although honestly, get rid of Windows, and you'll fix 50% of all software based issues.
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Zscaler, crowdstrike. Those silent killers that from time to time seize up the whole system.
All autologout features. I hate it when I just want to check something and have to juggle 4 apps in the correct order for Teams to log me in.
I'm adding to this the entire MacOS, I seem to always be fighting with it, from idiotic window management to keeping xcode the way I want it.
And CLion (all jetbrains IDEs in fact), which always do just a bit more than I ask, and I have to fix it.
As an ex Slack user, it would be
Re: Worst Tech List (Score:2)
What's wrong with slack? Teams is shitty, and its awful ui makes it counter productive, but slack seems fine to me. At least the way my team uses it, it stays out of the way, the ui is fine and works well for instant messaging.
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This is very subjective...
It starts with being (or was 2 years ago) an electron based resource hog.
Same as most programs: its a giant single window application, that almost expects to be maximized to have a usable UI. The expecation today seems to be one screen per program (not exclusive to slack), and I'm just not up with that, especially with window management features going out the window.
I'd be very happy for Slack now that I must use Teams, but I'd be even happier with something that integrates into th
Re: Worst Tech List (Score:2)
I see. I'm lucky enough to have a powerful computer and 3 screens at work, one of them basically dedicated to slack, teams, email and other non coding applications, so I don't feel the problem.
Re: Worst Tech List (Score:2)
I understand your pain, my advice would be, turn all your notifications off, and maybe get some ANC headphones.
Pour all your messaging crapware on one screen, but in the background. Use that screen for code, browser.
You decide when to check your messages.
Open space is bullshit indeed, and dei training... just turn your brain off, and if you're remote working, play some tetris in the meantime.
Re: Worst Tech List (Score:2)
Dei training is pissing me off, because, those I suffered through, were full of sexism and racism and outright lies, and you can't say anything of you don't want to get branded as something-ist.
For your setup, you must not have enough points on the intersection of the discrimination and handicap scales.
Remote work is great, but indeed, in person is omho necessary too. A roughly 50-50 split remote/ in person is best.
That's what I do, I know the on person days aren't the ones where I'll write the most code, I
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16GB RAM here, and at least once a week I get an out of memory problem. Stuck with 16GB because Apple.
The IDE and browser is the bulk of it, minimized Zoom 300MB, minimized teams 700MB, add to that whatever the CISO office decides to run at the moment, and the OS. It adds up real fast.
I do have 2 (sometimes 3) screens, but reserving one for teams/slack is beyond my diligence capabilities, as quite often I need to crosscheck quite a lot of documentation, and it spills over.
And MacOS multiscreen window manage
Re: Worst Tech List (Score:2)
Well, both of you are on mac, that's the problem.
Seriously though, the first thing I do on a new work computer is turn all notifications off, except meeting alarms.
And I don't dedicate a screen to mail/teams/slack. It's more like I confine them to a specific screen, but most of the time, that screen shows a browser or code or my application.
I choose when I check my messages.
I've not had performance problems in a long while, at worst intelliJ hanging a bit, but I blame more intelliJ than the crapware in this
Playing devil's advocate (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm the first to say that a lot of modern tech tends to subjugate people and crush their souls - especially now that corporations run so much of the big show. And CCTV, trackers, and other surveillance shit? That needs to go.
That said, when it comes to "... robotics, consisting of automated machines, self-driving vehicles, and other equipment; and, unsurprisingly, technologies relating to AI and ML, which includes everything from decision management to biometrics", it's a little less clear to me.
All this stuff is pretty new, so there's still an adjustment period to be gotten through. Clearly, biometrics are shit. The "beneficial to employees ...been around for decades" stuff - "ICT tech such as laptops, tablets, phones, and real-time messaging tools" - also had a period of learning and accommodation. Particularly, the mobile phones and real-time messaging probably made workers less happy when they were introduced, because their figurative chains could be jerked a lot more often and it was easier for said jerking to be done off the clock.
But now, people have accommodated and are used to these older technologies, and have learned to use them to their advantage. To be clear, I'm not defending corporations' misuse - both current and projected - of the latest tech innovations. Generally, when I'm in a mellow mood I say "fuck corporations" - when I'm not so mellow my comments can get really ugly. But I think it's important to have a bit of perspective, if only to make sure that we're fighting the right battles.
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A sensibility on this is who controls the tech in question, especially when your employer is essentially using tech you own without clearly stated compensation/rules of governance. Much is social convention until enough employees complain about it.
It's also that these technologies often only travel one-way. There's a reason why management is 7 layers thick while you are on-call.
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We arn't entertaining enough. (Score:1)
I couldn't make this stuff up (Score:2)
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Just curious, are the people that do this sort of thing also the kind of people that put their phone on Do Not Disturb 24/7 because they get emotionally triggered over the thought of having to actually use that smartphone as a phone and talk to a person on it?
The kind that avoids basically all human contact throughout the day, because personal space?
Just wondering how widespread that particular problem really is.
The problem is MBA-ization (Score:2)