First of all, I must say it’s terrifying all that spying actually happens. The authors mention George Orwell, and when I read it feels like the article was picked right out of 1984. To make things even worse, the article was written 2006. Imagine what bosses and other spies can do with another four years of developing technology.
That was my feelings after reading the text for the first time. A day later I read it again. And then a third time. For each time I read it I realized more and more that I didn’t feel sorry for any of the ”victims” in the article. If that first guy had a real, important reason for skipping work I’m sure his would’ve let him. But when he lies to his boss, the guy who pays his checks, for something that probably wasn’t reason enough, I can’t really pity him.
Instead, this makes the more reason for the boss to monitor his empoyees. As he obviosly can’t trust his workers, he has to watch them. This makes me think of when my parents were renovating their bahtroom. Everytime I came home I found the plumbers having coffee. It wasn’t once or twice. No, it was like 5 out of 10 times I walked in on them they were on break. Maybe it was coincidence, maybe they actually only worked half the time, I don’t know. But if I had some kind of camera, I would know if they were pausing away my parents money. As one of the managers of the article said: ”I don’t give a rat’s rear what they do at home, but what they do at work is all my business.”.
Unfortunately, that’s not all true. People fired because of blogging in their spare time are mentioned. Penelope Trunk was warned for writing about sex online. This might seem harsh, but is it really? Imagine yourself as an employer. Would you let one of your staff members, say a salesman, enter one of those scandalous tv-shows like paradise hotel? I wouldn’t, and suddenly I mess with their leisure time.
To summarize, there isn’t really anyone to blame for this big brother society, since it’s obviosly needed. And of course, noone can stop techonology. I guess all you can do is behave…
