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VR advances and the future of WFH
Is WFH (working from home) just a very temporary freedom or is it here to stay? I believe it’s a bit of both.
When the viral hysteria of ’20 hit and people hid in their homes with double FP2’s over their facial air holes, allegedly working from home, most people viewed this as an incredible opportunity for more freedom. There was an incredible amount of people who, all of a sudden had double, triple, or quadruple lunch breaks to go grocery shopping, tend to the garden, or even hit the beach. The data, however, is in and it’s not looking too good for the semi-vacationeers “working from home”.
Employee Monitoring Tools
Unsurprisingly, people higher up started to notice the trend and became disgruntled of the loss of control of their employee’s daily work habits. The first to Take meassures to counter this trend was the guys at big finance, who constructed elaborate “employee monitoring tools”.
Some of the great new features on your brand new WFH laptop include:
- Full OS access to make sure you’re not viewing personal tabs in the browser
- Webcam access – should be self-explanatory but it’ll make sure you’re eyes are focused on the screen for the whole 8-hour work day
- New and improved webcam that is able to track your eyes, using AI tools to find out what part of the screen you’re focused on. Every. Single. Second.
The companies that used these tools noticed that they’re improving efficiency of their employees, regardless of their location.
Instead of forcing you into the office to make sure you’re working, they’re forcing the office upon your every location and system you’re using.
“Let them try…”
While the only companies using this type of extreme surveillance of their employees are the ones already known for pushing the limit of their subordinates, others will follow suit seeing the effectiveness of the systems.
A lot of people will, of course, not go along with this, but with the increased reach and reduced need of actually forcing people into the offices, most companies will probably succeed anyway. Almost all employees nowadays are easily exchangeable, whether we want to admit it or not. Especially when the hiring pool consist of the entirety of the world.
Of course, there’ll be hold-outs and companies that doesn’t jump on the big brother-train, but a lot of them will, making the few remaining jobs without extreme surveillance few and far apart.
Enter VR-headsets
A lot of people laughed at the seeming fiasco of Apple’s new VR headset. It’s true that it is over-the-top for most people’s daily use and the price tag demanded true Apple fanboy-ism from the buyer.
What this signalled, however, is the VR headset’s entry into the serious market and our lives. When Apple comes out with a new product category, odds are it’ll be commonplace in a few years.
So far, headsets are mostly used as gaming devices, gamification of house chores for stay-at-home-dads, and media consumption, but my bet is that companies soon will find great applications for the headsets in the workplace as well. Why, you ask?
- Unlimited monitors an eye motion away, allowing anyone to work from anywhere. Need 4 large monitors to do your work? Not anymore.
- 100% eyetracking uptime is a dream come true for the employer. Now, they can follow you everywhere when you “WFH”, and doesn’t have to rely on the static webcam on your laptop.
- Simulated office in your pod-, I mean living room allows you to chat up that pretty receptionist hologram on your break.
Conclusion
As more and more people are demanding WFH part- or full time, pressure on the employers increases to accommodate without losing control. This is also an incredible tool to be used for personally evaluating employees fairly, if used with caution.
Furthermore, there must be discussions on how to handle all the data these new systems collect. Are employees actually aware of the amount of data their employer have on them? And what are the employer legally allowed to do with the data?
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