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In May 2020, Prodoscore, a California-based productivity software startup, reported that, based on internal data collected from its 30,000 users, remote working during the coronavirus pandemic was making workers more productive. Prodoscore is part of a new wave of productivity tools, informally known as “tattleware”, which enable managers to monitor and time-track their employees’ activities while working remotely.
Research consultancy firm Gartner estimates that by the end of 2020, 80 per cent of companies will be using monitoring tools to keep tabs on their employees, including their emails, social media messages and biometric data. These apps use these digital traces to create a profile of individual productivity. For instance, project management tool Asana offers the option to calculate an “influence” score for workers based on how many projects they share and invitations they send. The app also includes a feature called Workload, which lets managers see employees’ ongoing projects and reassign tasks if they feel a particular employee is overloaded.
Of course, white-collar workers are not the only quantified employees in the workforce. Long-haul truck drivers are monitored with electronic logging devices that keep track of their location and speeds to help them schedule sleeping and driving periods. Professional athletes are constantly monitored with activity sensors that track workload and fatigue.
These new tools are, of course, ripe for misuse when it comes to privacy and security concerns. But when used transparently and legally, they can provide a rich stream of information that allows companies and workers to understand and improve their productivity and engagement.
In 2016, mathematician Duncan Watts initiated a project with Microsoft dubbed the Organizational Spectroscope, with the goal of applying machine learning modelling to data including email metadata, office locations and job titles. Early results showed that it was able to predict employee satisfaction based on email response time and measure work-life balance from the volume of email sent outside of office hours. In research conducted at Facebook in 2018, psychologist Adam Grant found that employees who didn’t respond to the company’s two annual surveys were 2.6 times more likely to quit in the following six months.
Perhaps the most fascinating series of experiments were conducted at the MIT Human Dynamics Laboratory by researcher Alex Pentland. Using an electronic badge capable of capturing a vast spectrum of behavioural data, like tone of voice and body language, Pentland studied more than 20 teams in settings including hospitals and call centres. The most telltale sign of a productive team was the level of social engagement between employees. More productive teams had more energetic conversations—not just with their leaders, and outside scheduled meetings.
1. We can infer from the first two paragraphs that Prodoscore ______.
A) enables the employees to share their working data
B) can remotely monitor the work of the employees
C) is used to enhance productivity during the pandemic
D) is going to be used by about 80 percent of companies
2. Drivers and athletes are mentioned in Paragraph 3 to ______.
A) explain how to quantify people’s workload
B) display the wide use of monitoring tools
C) exemplify the usage of tracing softwares
D) testify the necessity of keeping tracks
3. Concerning about the new tools’ risk to privacy and security, the author thinks that it ______.
A) can hardly gain full attention
B) may lead to some legal disputes
C) is caused by immature operation
D) can be avoided by proper use
4. The word “telltale” (Line 4, Paragraph 6) is closest in meaning to ______.
A) illustrative
B) legendary
C) traditional
D) warning
5. The author seems to think that tools like Prodoscore ______.
A) are worth of further study
B) have many limitations
C) have a promising future
D) may violate privacy