Be quiet, now the leader is listening. special surveillance in the office – the Journal

Taci, the leader is listening. Or at least it could. It might do well worse. Spy, control, intrude. Keep under control. Have direct access to your mail box, your smartphone but also monitor your productivity and even have an accurate picture of your lifestyle and your habits. It could, in theory at least, and, who knows, maybe in the near future you can actually do it. Because technology combined with the desire of companies to increase productivity in the period of economic crisis could lead to this, and more.

a bit ‘of everything, fortunately for us the last few years in terms of corporate spies happened especially abroad. Emblematic the case of a secretary in the United States, dismissed it in an email addressed to a friend wrote, “My boss is an idiot.” And he, the chief, who controlled the match, did not take it well. But if in America the laws may allow incidents of this kind, even in Europe, where legislation is more stringent in terms of corporate espionage, similar incidents are not entirely absent. In London, a few months ago, journalists of the Daily Telegraph found under their desks a little box that says “OccupEye”. All it needed was a web search to find out what those mysterious boxes contained motion and temperature sensors able to reveal to employers if a desk was occupied or not. Nothing but a spy can monitor how much and how employees were at their desks. general uprising inevitable, harsh protests, company apology and measure withdrawn. But the conviction that yes, one day, the exception could also become the norm. It could well be worse. It happens today in fact that many Australian miners and truck drivers to wear the hat “SmartCap” which, through sensors similar to those required to perform an EEG, verify that workers are awake and responsive. Returning to the UK, the warehouse supermarket chain “Tesco” wear a bracelet that tracks their movements and the percentage of work done: benefit if you end up ahead of their task, no penalty if you go on break without warning. But the top was reached in Mexico where the “Intermex” forced employees to download an application that communicates via GPS in real time to the head of the company all the movements and the movements of employees. A sort of electronic bracelet as those installed to prisoners on probation, so that an employee has sued the company. He has also won. Too, no doubt. But this will be the future that awaits us at work?

Perhaps, but not now. Because in Italy the law is clear and does not allow anything like this. Although the Jobs Act has slightly enlarged the mesh controls on workers by their bosses. “It has changed the standard of 1970, when there were only cameras and recorders, but there were no computers, email and smartphones,” says the lawyer Aldo Bottini, President of the National Association labor law lawyers and a leading expert in the field. Some things you can do but with clear limits and boundaries. “With the new rules it maintains the principle that you can not install technological monitoring instruments with the sole purpose of monitoring of their work – explains the lawyer -. To install tools such cameras still need a union agreement or official authorization. The novelty is that the standard does not apply to equipment like PCs and smartphones that are not subject to authorization. In fact through these instruments you can legitimately control the activity of the worker as long as the same is informed of the possibility in a clear and complete. It is the same principle that applies throughout Europe. The only novelty is that companies will need to adopt appropriate policies to control the use, operation and the possible consequences in the abuse of all these instruments.

<'p> The problem, therefore, at the end It is likely to fall on companies, forced to wade through rules and bureaucratic loopholes that greatly complicate life. “The Italian legislation is a nightmare, the number of rules is very high and often in open contradiction”, attacks Massimo Blazon, entrepreneur and president of “Impresalavoro study center.” “Alongside the sacrosanct rules for the protection of privacy they would also serve to protect other productivity and those who do business.” Another problem for companies is too smart of the medical certificate, that is, those that tend to calling in sick too lightly if not on a regular basis. “There are very bad habit by some doctors a bit ‘too benevolent in providing certificates – explains Blazon -. The checks are absolutely unstable and ask for an intervention is almost useless. This ends up being an additional burden for those who must extricate daily between taxes, red tape and quibbling. Often they came to disputes with employees indefensible that through the intervention of trade unions and disconcerting rulings were able to be replenished. “

Yes, the unions. Organ for the protection of abused or exploited workers or last resort for those who make clever but he knows that in one way or another, in the end, will have his back covered? “Do not joke, those who commit a fraud is not only indefensible but to attack – says William Loi, the national secretary of the UIL -. The important thing is to always act within the rules, since the last clerk to chief executive. It must be clear what the limits are and what the duties. An employee must be informed exactly when comes into possession of an equipment company. ” Because the control of the employee, in the end, may prove to be a double edged sword. “It often happens that the business phone remains switched on and operating for well over working hours of service reasons. In case of excessive control an employee might decide absconding finished his time and, at that point, no one could complain.

<'p> In the end, as often it happens, to make the difference is common sense. But when in doubt it is always best to behave according to the rules. Because Big Brother is between us and, perhaps, look just us. Even at work.