>oh foucault would be lovin this -=- boss everywhere how can you beat that
>for a name???
>the panopticon--discipline and punish--everywhere!>
>thanks elena!
As employee snooping software goes, this actually looks pretty tame to me. It only monitors what you do on the computer. A really good piece of call centre software with the right extensions (like Lucent CenterVu -- another panopticon reference?) can do all of this, plus monitor the telephone calls, with facilities to monitor number dialled, length of call and listen-in. All in real time.
The thing that interests me is that these things are creeping out of the modern sweat-shops of the call-centre archipelago and into more "mainstream" jobs. I was interviewing for a job yesterday at a "top three" firm (name concealed 'cos I might want to accept it), and had explained to me the system whereby my prospective bonus would be determined.
It's scary. I knew these Yank houses were slave ships, but didn't realise how far the mechanisation had got. As it currently stands, I do my broking by sitting at my desk, monitoring the news, and chatting to my mates about the sector when I've got something to talk about. If we get an order, people come over and pat my head; if an account mgr. finds that his client isn't being served, I get shouted at. That's it.
In "Top Three" land, your telephone and computer are integrated, you must leave 2 minute voicemails for a list of up to 90 clients and make longer calls to ten. Every day, rain or shine, news or no. Your progress is monitored in real time by a piece of call centre software that prints out daily, weekly and monthly reports. Corrective action will be taken against "underperformers" (where underperformance is measured by far more rigourous and quantitative means than mere revenue generation).
Don't laugh -- one day all you academics will know the joys of being managed by inputs rather than outputs.
dd
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