Being Monitored: At Work

What if I told you that the same kind of data analysis that Netflix uses to recommend new shows and movies to you, may also start monitoring you at work. Workday, a cloud based software company is creating projections of your performance while at work. Keeping track of your every move, and analyzing loads of information. This is the same kind of analyzing that Facebook does to suggest advertisements, and various other websites use to make suggestions based on your previous searches and browsing history. What Workday is going to attempt to create are models of productivity, view spending of company money, and using various other things that they have yet to fully disclose. These models and spreadsheets will enable companies to make well-educated predictions on their employees performances and their own success. This scares me a lot. Giving employers the power to monitor every single aspect of what you do while at work is a very futuristic idea that I'm not particularly caring for. I don't feel that any employer has the right, nor a good reason for doing this kind of practice. I understand that it may help weed out unsuccessful employees and eliminate unnecessary people, but this just seems very extreme to me. There are other methods that can do the same, like paying attention to whether or not that employee gets any work done in a timely manner.

Sources:
Bits: NY Times
ZD Net