There’s a natural state of heightened attention to the self when we know we’re being watched, Bernstein notes. “Our practiced response become better,” he told me, “our unpracticed responses become worse.” So actions that have been drilled by the boss may well turn out better when everyone believes the boss is watching. On the other hand, for behavior that isn’t already learned—where the best response needs unselfconscious focus on the problem, and the chance to try something new without fear—being watched makes things harder. Attention that could have gone to one’s actions goes, instead, to managing the appearance of one’s actions.
The “gospel of transparency” declares that this is not a problem, because workers should stick to management’s script. But in one vast Chinese factory that Bernstein studied, workers who craftily deviated from standard procedure often improved the plant’s productivity.
People act differently when they know they are being watched. Period. Whether you are talking about the workplace, out in public, at events, etc. and the way we behave when being watched is not always in the best interests of the company or society.
There are serious ramifications to this study, in and out of the workplace.
See, the question that should be asked is how AT&T can afford to give users all the video streaming they want over their network for HBO Max, but forces caps on all of its users for their internet usage.
Clearly, their network can handle the traffic of unlimited video streaming, so why do we let them use these excuses to limit access to the internet?
Jared Coseglia, who knows a thing or two about Legal IT careers as a recruiter, has written an great article for the latest issue of ILTA’s Peer to Peer magazine, entitled Starting and Sustaining a Career As A Legal IT Professional In it Jared doles out some advice on many things, and I highly recommend…
I wonder if they separated the numbers for different workplace environments. Like, in an open office concept, is it even worse, or do people email and IM less, offsetting what would clearly be in person interruptions and distractions? Either way, we are terrible at multitasking and the new push to communicate more, is not helping…
t’s also about being respected enough to allow our work to actually fit into the rest of our lives, as opposed to having it interfere with the rest of our lives. Human beings have boundaries between their work and the rest of their lives. Numbers on a financial sheet are generally not provided that level of respect and concern. Which one would best describe the people who work for you in the culture you have created?
You might be very surprised to learn that it’s not what you thought it was from your view in the C-Suite.
The social network this week expanded its suicide-prevention tools to all languages supported by Facebook. Initially launched in the US in late 2011 in partnership with Forefront, Lifeline, and Save.org, the initiative offers support to users experiencing self-injury or suicidal thoughts—as well as their family and friends. “Now, with the help of these new tools,…
Once upon a time, we might have been able to say that our responsibility for developing the people who worked for us stopped at the professional level. But as the workplace has become defined not by what we do between 9-5 in an office, but what we do everywhere, at anytime, I think this is…
