AI and wearables are scaring the wellbeing out of workers A survey of UK workers suggests that quality of life declines as exposure to newer technology including wearables, robotics, and AI rises in the workplace. The study, published by the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW), quizzed thousands of workers to come up with its conclusion, which it said has significant implications …
"Employers who don't want an office filled with miserable drudges should involve everyone affected by new technologies in the implementation process, and ensure they have access to information needed to help them understand the role such technology will play in their work"
Employer: Here is a watch for you to wear
Employee: I stopped wearing a watch during Covid, why would I want a watch ?
Employer: some babble about health or using it instead of simply getting the phone out of your pocket: (It is to track you)
Employee: So what you really mean is that you don't trust me. Right I'm off.
Employer: Can you install Office on your phone so we can contact you 24x7
Employee: Nope
Employer: Here is a phone so we can contact you 24x7
Employee: Here is my desk drawer where this phone will live until you want it back
Employer: what if we need to contact you outside of the office or office hours
Employee: you can't and you won't
"quality of life declines when people are threatened to lose their livelihood".
What a surprise!... It is also pointless, because the bosses having drunken the "AI" Kool-Aid will push it through no matter what, there are juicy bonuses to be had. It doesn't matter if AI works or is fit for purpose, what matters is the momentary reduction of the wage bill, the resulting stock price hike, and the resulting bonus.
It is suspicious that with all the automation life is seemingly getting harder for working people. Alternative explanations are: workers are getting lazier, or it is hard to compete against extremely motivated billion-headcount Asian workforce.
Maybe what is really happening is that majority of jobs do not add any value. Or they are mostly sales of goods produced in China. How many jobs are gov-funded sector moving paper? Is real estate properly taxed? Are nurses getting paid what they deserve? Are too complex laws and regulations mostly benefiting an army of lawyers, who produce nothing to actually consume? Or bankers "managing risks". What about managing actual production of goods? Should actual makers pay ZERO tax? How come all factories have moved to Asia?
It is time to collect economy statistics of where actual value is added and start major reforms.
Alternative explanations are: workers are getting lazier, or it is hard to compete against extremely motivated billion-headcount Asian workforce.
I think it is neither.
C suites are getting paranoid, they are scared of losing and they need something to back up their decisions with. They think the more data they have, the more accurate decisions they can make.
This actually reveals insecurity and lack of trust to ones ability to steer the ship.
They think if they know how many keystrokes employee makes daily and how long they poo and see if there is correlation between Pizza Fridays and premium coffee beans and the number of tickets moved to Done, then they can figure out what can nudge workers into getting that 5% more and then sacrifice some profits for more future gains.
But everyone knows this is all bollocks and simply plays into their vanity.
If they want people to be more productive they should pay people more, so they can actually live decently and not spend their brain time on worrying and then stop hiring idiots. Have a strong policy against toxic behaviour and ruthlessly enforce it.
Employee worrying about another unpaid bill or contemplating whether to repair the leaky roof or finally go on holiday somewhere nice is not going to pay attention and be creative. They will see their opulent office, overhear the accounts talking about another £1bn won contract and then they see their reality at home. Upset wife, mold, teenage child not having own room.
Now imagine you put an AI tracker on such employee. WTF.
How come all factories have moved to Asia?
Because China is very accommodating to economic growth and new infrastructure that supports it
Because labour rates are lower reflecting lower standards of living
Because energy is cheap as they happily build hundreds of new coal fired power stations
Because there's no costly burdens like Western rules on environmental reporting, costly archaeological surveys, environmental impact assessments for new construction and the like
Because pollution rules are weak and very poorly enforced
Because labour rights are minimal
Because whilst paid leave, maternity leave etc do exist, they are nothing like as generous as in the West
Because there's not the expensive social safety net seen in most of the EU and the UK
Because local tax rates are (in net terms) lower because China's government spends far less of GDP than the EU, UK or US governments.
In terms of whether jobs are value adding, how do you propose to judge? You imply lawyers are not value adding for example. But having a reliable, competent, fair legal system is essential to underpin all contracts, property rights, civil and employment rights. If government spends say 35% of GDP, then how does that actually happen if there's none of the paper-pushers whom you deride? If sales add no value, why are salesmen usually well paid? And assuming the pay is an aberration, how would the economy function without anyone to facilitate sales? What value do you think lawyers, nurses or salesmen put on the IT guys?
Your concern that the West has hollowed out its economies is well founded, and the call to "do something" is reasonable, but if the problem is increasing dependence on imports, and an out of control balance of payments, then there's two options: The economy either needs to compete on a level playing field with China (ie goodbye all those nice labour, social and environmental niceties, hello low pay and long working hours), or it needs to restrict some imports and accept the economic cost of paying more for certain products and materials. I can't see either of those being popular, added to which most Western governments of all political colours earnestly believe that free trade and handing things to the private sector is a win-win for everybody.
"In organizations with HR philosophies that emphasize employee wellbeing over productivity, there was a positive correlation with quality of life..."
As a software developer who has been in the IT industry for more than 3 decades, I want to know where those organizations are. I am not saying they are not exist, but, really, my experience has been productivity over anything else (especially nowadays, in the era of agile methodologies)
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