Can't Even by Anne Helen Petersen

Author:Anne Helen Petersen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780358316596
Publisher: HMH Books
Published: 2020-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

Surveillance Culture

I hope it’s clear at this point just how misguided that assertion is: No amount of hustle or sleeplessness can permanently bend a broken system to your benefit. Your value as a worker is always unstable. What’s deeply messed up, then, is that whatever value we do have is subject to continued optimization. And that optimization is achieved through ever-more noxious forms of employee surveillance.

Take the “open office,” which doubles as both a cost-cutting method and a way for everyone in the office to know what everyone else in the office is doing at a particular moment. Unlike the private offices that were once de rigeur, for most, open offices make actually completing work incredibly difficult, subject to constant interruptions or, if you put on headphones, suggestions that you’re a cold bitch—not much of a team player.

Stevie, who works as a copyeditor in an open office, told me she’d been told to make sure to look like she’s “doing serious work ALL THE TIME in case the big boss walks by.” Similarly, in the open office at BuzzFeed, the editor-in-chief periodically walks around, starting small talk, seeing what everyone’s up to. There’s very little you could be doing or watching on your computer at BuzzFeed to get you into trouble (save porn, which could still theoretically be rationalized). But even when my editor was nowhere to be seen, the visibility of my computer made me feel like I should always be typing or looking at something important. In a more traditional workplace, where, say, spending three hours on Reddit threads about furries would be frowned upon, the open office makes it stressful to do anything, even respond to an email from your kid’s school, that could be construed as “off-task.”

The goal of surveillance might be productivity, or quality control—but the psychological effects on workers is substantial. I spoke to a woman named Bri who worked for two years as a photo editor at an international photography agency, editing sets of images for various clients from movie premieres, award shows, breaking news events, etc. The company used a proprietary software to edit images that allowed managers to track every click and action. The actions weren’t reviewed until a month later, but then they were scrutinized closely. “It was very difficult and degrading to have a conversation with a manager over a set of images I barely had any memory of,” she explained.

“There was always this cloud of distrust that hung around our office. No one at my level felt like they were doing good work, or could do anything right,” Bri continued. “Morale plummeted, and I began having imposter syndrome, even though I’ve worked in my field for over seven years—my every move was being monitored, and the only feedback I ever received from management was negative.”

At Microsoft, managers can access data on employees’ chats, emails, and calendar appointments to measure “employee productivity, management efficacy, and work-life balance.” A growing number of companies are enlisting “tonal analysis” services that monitor meetings, calls, and Slack.

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