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Would you wear a body cam at work?

If body cams get cheaper and cheaper, companies might start asking more people to wear them while working.

E.g.: coloradosun.com/…/youth-corrections-audio-surveil…

I could see this for doctors, at restaurants, stores,, etc… eventually.

Are you ready to wear one?

EDIT TO ADD: A few people said this wouldn’t ever make sense for doctors (privacy laws) or for fixed locations (stores). I should have thought of that.

But what about Uber / bus drivers, or repair people who go into homes? I can imagine a large corporation thinking a cam is a good idea, for their own CYA (not for the customers’ or the employees’).

Also I don’t like this idea either, to be clear. I was mostly playing devil’s advocate here to see what you all think. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Pretty much what I expected, tbh

reagansrottencorpse ,

Hell no, cops however should have less control over the cameras they wear.

SuiXi3D ,
@SuiXi3D@fedia.io avatar

Absolutely. No better way to prove that you’ve been mistreated by customers or coworkers.

perishthethought OP ,

Oh, yes if you keep control over the video. Don’t trust your employer to use it for benefit though.

NoneYa ,

No, I’m still salty they decided we should be on camera for meetings all of a sudden at my job. It’s so pointless and stupid to force us into. Thankfully it hasn’t been strictly enforced but most of us try to comply some of the times. Some mornings I’m too damned tired and don’t want to be seen yawning a bunch or like how it really is, that I literally rolled out of bed a few minutes ago to start my shift.

When I first came to this job, I remember joining a meeting and turned on my camera for someone to tell me “we don’t do that here” and it felt great to not have that stupid corporate pressure for something so trivial at the time.

I can understand wanting to make sure your employees are who they say they are and ensuring they are doing the job they are being paid to do. On the second part, that should be evident by the fact their work is being done. A camera wouldn’t change it for the lazy employees. They would find ways to appear busy on camera and micro managers would find a new way to micro manage people again. On the former, this would be evident with individual meetings on an ongoing basis between employee and direct supervisor.

Neither are necessarily solved by the constant use of a camera, at least where I work.

I suppose there are some jobs where a camera would be beneficial. We all came here with the idea of police officers which makes sense as a precaution for both the cop and the public they work with. (It should) keep everyone accountable and ensure things are being done as they should. But we see even that isn’t necessarily happening. We still get the “oops my camera conveniently tuned itself off during the time they claimed I abused their rights :( ”

bss03 ,

Depends on the pay differential and other options. I think it’s less useful for positions in my career, but it’s not an absolute no.

then_three_more ,

A few of the supermarkets in my country have this as an option for staff. Since the pandemic there’s been an alarming rise in public attacking shop staff.

Dark_Arc ,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

That’s absolutely wild.

perishthethought OP ,

This. Yes. I would just find a new job, but what if all employers in an industry require body cams?

aviation_hydrated ,

Suggestions to buy bodycams that aren’t WiFi/Bluetooth?

Barx ,

The company you work for is not your friend. If it is their body can they will use it to their benefit. Any benefit you receive will be incidental or simply part if their propaganda to get you to wear it for them.

It will be used, primarily, to surveil employees. They will track your habits and ensure you are aware that every single thing you do for your shift is something your boss or their boss or their boss can come back to you with and reprimand you for. They will try to set performance targets that can be compared to your videos so they can tell you what an algorithm or a petty middle manager says you are doing wrong. Too much time helping a customer. You’re not folding clothes fast enough. Walk faster. No sitting. They will set keywords. Union. Break. Curse words. Your bosses’ names. They might not even review these things. The intimidation is enough. Maybe you’ll get new policies. See that black guy? Follow him. Get video. The algorithm said to do it so it can’t be racist. We’ll pass it along to the cops.

Companies wouldn’t pay for it if they didn’t see a business angle and the obvious ones are control over employees and being able to use more video for “liability” defense.

mayo_cider ,
@mayo_cider@hexbear.net avatar

I refuse to use camera in meetings

Mrs_deWinter ,

Why doctors? Filming patients would be a nightmare in terms of privacy and data policy.

In my line of work (psychotherapy) it would be equally impossible. People are having a hard enough time as it is opening up to medical professionals, I don’t think that the additional barrier of being actively filmed would help anyone.

perishthethought OP ,

Check out the linked article. I agree with you but that agency is only adding cameras for the agency’s benefit, not the worker’s.

Mrs_deWinter ,

Youth corrections staff is still a whole other story than doctors though. A physical examination is probably one of the most vulnerable positions one could be in. These cameras would record people getting naked, multiple orifices being examined, and patients talking about symptoms or things they are unsure and often ashamed about.

The cost would be enormous. I imagine many people would be even more reluctant to go to the doctor than they are now.

And the benefit, in my opinion, would be very slim. Medical malpractice is far more subtle than the examples from the article. As patients we’re rarely worried that our doctor will physically assault us, we’re worried about errors in judgement, delays in care, and prejudices based on gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality, and so on. And those aren’t directly observable most of the time. Even if you get the moment on camera where your doctor decides to trivialize your symptoms you mostly wouldn’t be able to prove it happened for discriminatory reasons.

wildbus8979 ,

You want this for DOCTORS? You want your private health information record like this? Are you freaking nuts?

communism ,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

It’d be on record by the same organisation that has access to your medical records anyway. Doctors are frequently known for abuse of power over disabled patients, trans patients, racialised patients, etc, so it makes it easier to take action against negligent/abusive doctors.

wildbus8979 ,

My doctor writes shit on papaerz in a filing cabinet. That’s a whole lot better than digitally where it can easily be mass exfiltrated.

communism ,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

I guess it depends on where you are. Here medical records are on a centralised computer system already.

At least on a centralised computer system one would hope that the state would hire someone competent to set it up and harden it. Whereas there’s only so much you can do to physically protect a piece of paper from being accessed—although I suppose also less likely that malicious actors would try to do a physical heist to steal paper medical records too.

perishthethought OP ,

No, I don’t. I’m putting on my tin foil hat here and trying to guess what the future might hold.

Melatonin ,

I might be wearing my own small, undetectable body cam, to protect myself against workplace harassment, racism, and unfair labor practices.

I’m a walking, talking landmine for those bastards. /S

bizarroland ,

Just make sure that you're not in a two-party consent state, otherwise even if you catch something egregious being done to you, it may not be admissible as any sort of evidence.

Note that this may not apply if you are in a public area or an area accessible to the public, however, even with that a competent lawyer may be able to get that evidence excluded based on the consent rules in your state or country.

juliebean ,

body cams only make any sense when you’re not in a fixed location and already always on camera, or when there’s commonly abuses of power off camera. both are true of cops. neither are true of the cashiers at Hot Topic or whatever.

perishthethought OP ,

True. Today. But should have said I’m imagining a black Mirror future where things are so bad and the tech so cheap, that corps decide they want all employees to wear one, for their use.

In the linked article, public health workers are going to wear a cam so the govt can tell when they break rules, out in the field. I could see that kind of thinking expanded to other fields over time, no?

It occurs to me now that the cashier at hot topic is already being recorded. So good point.

cm0002 ,

Body cams can already be had for cheap Electronics wise, they’re not complicated or special. Yet, they’re still not in widespread use beyond police.

The reason police body cams are pricey is because 1) “military/police grade” rip-off premium pricing and 2) The housing has to be designed to be waterproof, shockproof, dust proof etc because of what they do on a day to day.

A retail worker is not going to need this level of “proofing” because they’re not running through an alley or something in their day to day

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

I literally work for what amounts to a media business, giving me a body cam would be like giving ice to an eskimo.

communism ,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

In the jobs I work at, no, I wouldn’t. Body cams would only be used to snitch on people. It makes sense for surveillance to be used over people in positions of power like cops, doctors, prison guards, etc, who are known for abusing their power. Not against ordinary people or members of the public though. If retail workers wear bodycams, it’s to snitch on shoplifters. If teachers wear bodycams it’d compromise kids who approach them to tell them something in confidence. Etc.

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