Laughing Matters: Six Degrees of Supervision

In a natural progression of employee oversight, an Ohio company has embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) chips into two workers' arms to electronically tag them. The company, a provider of private video surveillance, is testing the technology as a way to control access to a storage room that holds security video footage.

I can already hear some of you fuming about "big brother," but not me. I'm grateful that the people who videotape me -- security personnel in hotels, banks and gas stations and, of course, the police -- are watched by superiors who send those tapes to third parties whose managers always know where their employees are because the workers have a version of the OnStar system implanted in their arms. Whatever the police and security people were watching in the first place seems secure to me and in no danger of carelessly falling into the hands of someone unfit to watch me.

While I don't fret about the implications of RFID implants for our privacy, I do worry about the negative effects on the health of those two workers in Ohio. Who knows what psychological damage they may suffer from being monitored the same way dogs are tracked? And what happens if the company has to fire one of the chip-enabled employees? "Jones, give me your ID and stick out your arm. This may sting."

I know my employer is monitoring my e-mail. Big deal. Everyone who works understands that their e-mail is being read. I wonder whether e-mail monitors ever have any fun? Do they get to read any good stuff? I'll bet for every high-Fahrenheit message between two worker/lovers that says something like, "I want to collate your thongs," an e-mail watcher has to wade through 1,000 notes that say something like, "pls have deliverables teed up for team review (no silos!) prior to earnings call with granularity across all client segments and matrix satisfiers per performance commitment," at which point he or she passes out from a toxic jargon overdose.