Smart working: risks and opportunities

SMART WORKING RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES

A subtle metamorphosis risks overturning the smart working and transform it from an opportunity into a waste. We'll be hearing a lot, and for a long time, about this new way of working, which now affects one in three public and private companies in Italy. And, at least until the contagion situation is definitively under control, 70 percent of workers.

ALSO READ: Smart working in Italy: now it's getting serious. The challenge for public administration.

SMART WORKING RISKS FOR EMPLOYEES

With this identity card it is clear that the world of work It's being overturned by a form of activity that we translate into Italian as "agile work." Agile, because it's flexible. With benefits for everyone, both employers and workers.

We've already said it: on paper the advantages outweigh the possible disadvantages. Thanks to smart working Travel costs and hours are eliminated. Employees have more time to dedicate to their families and don't have to worry about arriving late to clock in. Technology allows them to maintain established goals and schedules, while maintaining contact, both internally and externally. Health risks, in times of coronavirus, are obviously eliminated.

Then there are the disadvantages, among which the virtual aspect of professional relationships is worth highlighting. This isn't good for anyone. Business growth also depends on the cross-fertilization of experiences, knowledge, ideas, and solutions. And it's one thing to share this professional experience in person, looking each other in the eye and even spending time together during casual lunch breaks; it's another thing entirely to limit contact to the artificial realm of the computer.

But, returning to the metamorphosis of the smart workingAmong the disadvantages, one is growing faster than all the others. The idea of ​​reducing it to a new form of slavery. Cloaked in the language of technology, by new formulas of innovation, by the miraculous things that machines can do: but slavery nonetheless. Where man succumbs.

TO KNOW MORE: Smart working, don't let it become a vacation. Or an opportunity to exploit workers.

SMART WORKING CRITICAL ISSUES

How else to describe, for example, the idea of ​​introducing video calls or software that detects the worker's presence at the computer? Here, the sacrosanct right to privacy goes to waste, but the trust pact between employer and employee collapses at its very core. And it all hinges on a form of violence, where the cudgel is technology, to preemptively counter the employee's alleged cunning.

This is a stupid and unacceptable solution. A contradiction in terms with the smart working synonymous with "agile work": this is how it is rigid, blocked. And the worker himself will feel like a prisoner of a chain and not free to work in the best conditions to improve his productivity and satisfaction..

Not to mention other forms of control. All already defined and available. Smart bracelets, as if workers were convicted criminals on probation. GPS glasses, where the aim is to keep those simply doing their job under control and under surveillance. Interactive clothing, which isn't a new fashion line or an Armani creation, but a shameless form of physical and psychological surveillance of those working remotely.

In the United States, where 42 percent of employees are in smart working Digital surveillance is now rampant. And the law is very loose, favoring companies, to allow it across the board. Thus, a series of apps are widely available on the market that allow company managers to monitor the emails, files, and web pages visited by remote workers. TSheet is an app that employees must download to their smartphones: this way, they will be under surveillance throughout the day. Time Doctor is a service that uses a webcam to take photos every ten minutes. And InterGuard is another service, this time secretly installed on the employee's PC, to monitor all visited pages, distinguishing productive from unproductive ones. This way, work becomes more than just a smart it really becomes a prison built by infernal software available to companies.

REMOTE MONITORING OF WORKERS

You might ask: but how can you be sure that a worker is doing their job even remotely? Let's not beat around the bush, as it raises a delicate issue related to "smart" working. This is the fact that, especially in the public sector, where the words "control," "verification," and "results" are taboo, it has turned into a godsend for slackers and a blow for citizens. Try to obtain a document, and you're stuck in a quagmire of jingle bells and whistles, a "not received," and a website inaccessibility bar. In reality, both private and public companies have all the tools—absolutely all—to conduct their checks without pressuring workers with authoritarian methods. All it takes is a work plan, with precise objectives and deadlines, and a step-by-step verification of the achievement of the various goals. It's not difficult. And it allows you to avoid any form of surreptitious surveillance.

Luckily for us we have one Statute of workers and (Article 4) It speaks clearly. And it states: "Audiovisual equipment and other tools that also allow remote monitoring of workers may be used exclusively for organizational and production purposes." The Statute is half a century old; it was approved when the world, and Italy, were still in black and white and technology gave no indication of its subsequent pervasiveness. That law, much criticized, was actually a far-sighted achievement. And we must keep it engraved in our minds, along with a modicum of common sense, if we don't want to make the smart working Indigestible for workers. And for businesses that will suffer the consequences.

STORIES FROM THE WORLD OF WORK:

• The circular economy, the treasure of Made in Italy. Over 7 companies employ in this sector.
• Coderblock, the Sicilian startup that organizes remote work. In a single 3D environment.
• Pirinoli paper mill: workers are saving it and transforming it into a jewel of the circular industry.