Physical Health
Morale
Mental Well-Being
Working under pressure produces stress in workers.
Electronic monitoring exerts pressure to perform, which makes
working under such conditions wearing on employee mental health.
How Does Monitoring Cause Worker Stress?
According to Congress's Office of Technology Assessment,
"Service observation, when done without notice or warning,
can contribute to a feeling of being spied upon" (13:5).
When workers begin to feel that their employer does not trust
them, their mental well-being is harmfully impacted.
Monitoring often occurs in already stressful work
circumstances, and the combination of surveillance with other
stressors can push workers beyond reasonable tolerance levels. According to the Worklife Report,
"Not only does electronic monitoring have the
"potential" to adversely influence working conditions
which have been shown to cause stress, it may actually create
these adverse working conditions, such as paced work, lack of
involvement, reduced task variety and clarity, reduced peer social
support, reduced supervisory support, fear of job loss, routinized
work activities and lack of control over tasks." (12:4-5)
Monitoring presents an "assault on personal
dignity" (12:8), and decreases worker autonomy by requiring
regimented compliance to monitored standards. These factors make
working under surveillance a subtle source of worry for workers.
Research Shows Monitoring Increases Stress
The OTA found that "There is reason to believe
that electronically monitoring the quantity or speed of work contributes
to stress and stress-related illness" (13) The exact impacts
of monitoring on stress levels are uncertain because little research
has been done on "separating the effects of monitoring from
job design, equipment design, lighting, machine pacing, and other
potentially stressful aspects of computer-based office work."
(13)
A study by the National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health compared a group of heavily monitored clerical
workers with a control group which was not monitored and found
that the former group experienced a greater degree of stress than
the later.(7)
Circumstantial Evidence Shows Monitoring Increases Stress
At AT&T, where computer monitoring is used
extensively, "at least 25% of the workforce is involved in
job counseling for work-related emotional disorders."(11)
According to Shoshana Zuboff, a Harvard University
professor, writing in the Harvard Business Review, turnover climbed
to almost 100 percent after "a large retail chain" implemented
automated monitoring of its collections staff." (7)
9to5 reported on the experience of a telephone
service worker who suffered a nervous breakdown which she blamed
on "bathroom break harassment". In this cases, a worker's
stress became unbearable when the worker was not able to take
needed bathroom breaks because she feared termination due to noncompliance
with strict regulations on the allotment of worker time:
"At United Airlines, flight reservationists
are permitted 12 minutes for bathroom breaks during a 7.5 hour
period. Any amount over that is grounds for a disciplinary warning.
One worker spent 13 minutes over her allotted time and was threatened
with firing. 'She [the supervisor], told me that while I was
in the bathroom my co-workers were taking extra calls to make
up for my 'abusive' work habits.' "(11:7)
When Gary Cwitco of Communications Workers of
Canada surveyed 700 Bell Canada operators he found that two-thirds
regarded their monitored jobs as very stressful or moderately
stressful. He was told by 70% of the workers that the "perceived
preference for speed over quality of service created psychological
distress."(4)
Evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, points
to monitoring as a serious source of on-the-job stress. In the
words of Steven Miller, monitored workers "feel like the
captives in Benthan's panopticon prison. The pressure
can be unending and nerve-racking." (10:286) Monitoring
places a mental weight on monitored workers and damages their
psychological well-being.
Physical Well-Being
As on the job stress increases, the physical as
well as mental health of workers suffers. Physical
health may be impacted as a consequence of stress, or due to other
factors related to mononitoring. According to both the OTA and
9to5, monitoring can lead to work speedups.
Stress itself may cause physical ailments. A data
entry clerk told her story of deteriorating health to 9to5, "We
were told last week that we failed to meet management productivity
goals... I feel so depressed my stomach is in
knots, I take tons of aspirin, my jaws are sore from clenching
my teeth, I'm so tired I can't get up in the morning, and my arm
hurts from entering, entering, entering." (11)
Monitoring gives employers increased control of
employee work rates. Just as in factories where workers can be
held accountable for the number of widgets they produce, monitoring
can allow office managers to enforce production rates among their
employees. Instead of widgets, these rates may be set in terms
of lines of words typed in a secretarial situation or in records
entered for at a data entry job. Just as in a factory, when work
rates are set extremely high, workers' bodies suffer in trying
to achieve these rates. Repetitive motions are damaging to joints
and tendons, and may cause workers to develop carpal tunnel syndrome
or other injuries. Back pain and muscle pains can result if speed
is increased beyond tolerance.
The following chart compares health complaints among
monitored workers with unmonitored employees. Both groups work
as service representatives. (8)