Workplace monitoring
Employees were not informed about sensors under the desk
'There's a great deal of questions, concerns and unfortunately also a good deal of distrust towards the collection of employee data.'
This is how Grit Munk, head of digitalisation policy at IDA, describes her meeting with IDA's union reps and employee organisations in public and private companies.
Part of her job description is giving presentations about built-in AI features in HR systems and the Microsoft Office package - and she meets quite a few concerned employees when she visits workplaces.
IDA members generally believe that artificial intelligence has huge potential to solve tasks that we have not been able to solve with existing digital systems. However, they are demanding data ethics and employee rights in the workplace because they experience challenges with monitoring their behaviour, task performance and personal information.
Sensor under the desk caused concern
Grit Munk has a scary but also telling example from one of the companies she has visited:
'In a company where I gave a presentation, sensors had been installed under the desks to register whether you were actually sitting in your seat. This naturally caused an uproar, and the sensors were soon removed again.'
Interestingly, the purpose of the sensors was to make cleaning more efficient. If people are traveling or working from home and haven't been to the office, cleaning the desk can be skipped that day.
It makes perfect sense, but the management had forgotten to inform employees about it. They therefore had the experience of being monitored and wondered why it was suddenly relevant to check whether they were sitting at their desk or, for example, standing at the coffee machine or in a meeting.
The key word is dialogue
The employees at the company in question could have been spared the worry and experience of being monitored if management had informed them in advance about the purpose of the sensors.
Grit Munk emphasizes: 'The key word here is of course dialogue. It is absolutely crucial that you as an employee understand the purpose of collecting employee data and feel heard in relation to how the collection should take place.'
The fuss about the cleaning sensors could probably have been avoided if management had started by explaining the purpose; to avoid expensive, unnecessary cleaning.
Perhaps a solution could have been worked out where the sensors were placed in places where each individual employee was not measured, or all data could have been deleted the next morning when the cleaning company had been there.
Grit Munk would like to make a call to management at companies that plan to use AI tools:
'Make it clear what the purpose is, and then enter into a dialogue with your employees, possibly the elected representatives or the working environment representatives, where you can test what questions and concerns it may raise. You can then announce the purpose to the entire department or organisation before powering on the new AI tool.'
The systems practice micro-management
Few people like micro-management; being managed down to the smallest details. Fortunately, few managers have that management style, but have you thought about the fact that the systems, HR systems or for that matter Microsoft's Office systems, can micro-manage using artificial intelligence?
Grit Munk describes how the systems offer a range of tools for micro-management: 'When do you write emails, what do you write about, who do you hold meetings with and for how long? How fast do you type, and how long do you actually sit at the keyboard. Are you attentive during online meetings or do you sit and check emails at the same time?'
She adds that some systems even offer to screen for what employees say on their private social media and what they search for when they take their PC home in the evening. Are they politically active, do they have debt or do they read job advertisements?
'Micro-management can provide an unprecedentedly precise picture of employees' work performance, but employees are also strategists. If you measure whether the employee is sitting in their seat, you get employees sitting in their chair - instead of going over and helping a colleague, exchanging ideas and solutions to problems over the coffee machine or taking a necessary and justified break,' says Grit Munk about the downside of the systems management style.
Trust is more important than data collection
Back in 2022, IDA investigated what data collection means for employees: two out of three experienced that data was collected about them, but only one in four believed that the purpose had been explained. One in five perceived it as surveillance.
According to Grit Munk, the price of using artificial intelligence to measure employee effort and behaviour may be too high. It may cost us something that is the finest we have in Danish workplaces: trust.
'We are generally efficient in Danish workplaces because we have a relatively flat structure and a high level of trust. But that trust disappears with the feeling of being monitored or controlled down to the smallest detail.'
She elaborates by pointing out that it is not about you as an employee not being evaluated or your results being measured:
'But there is an incredibly big difference between being assessed based on the result of a work effort or based on a constant measurement of movements, work routines, keystrokes, social relationships or activity level. Try to imagine that there is always a person standing right behind your chair and watching everything you do.'
The Danish Data Ethics Council published the report “Data Ethics in the Workplace” in 2024. It highlights the risk of negative consequences, such as the feeling that sharing private information can feel 'humiliating' and 'destructive.' It also shows that it can cause damage to personal relationships in the workplace, and that surveillance can cause employees to experience observational stress.
Finally, Grit Munk would also like to mention GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which also applies when you are at work. It is therefore important that you know your rights when it comes to surveillance at work.