Spy Review

We have all heard news stories about how every year billions are lost in work-related productivity through people taking sickies. Its also apparent bosses have qualms about whether some are genuine. Well, to combat the rising problem of the uncertainty of who is telling the truth and who isn’t, organisations may introduce lie detectors to see whether the worker is genuinely at home nursing their ills or calling in a sickie at the prospect of a having a nice day out.

Whist many of us would rather take a stroll in the park than be sat indoors on a hot, stuffy day sat infront of a computer, unfortunately, employers are increasingly trying to come down hard on those that are taking days off work for leisure.

The Voice Risk Analyser (VRA) works by anlaysing the changes in a person’s voice to suggest the possibility that they are not being honest. The calls come on the back of success in trials and research indicating well over 1 in 10 sickies are not genuine. Even so, one has to define the boundaries as to what would constitute a sicky. A person can have a touch of cold and conclude it as good enough a reason not to be at work even though they would be perfectly OK to go about his work.

I think something like this may cut down on the number of false sicikes, not necessarily because they have been caught out, but knowing the system is there may act as a deterrence. However, there is also a down side to this; whilst some people may welcome such technologies being used, others would suggest placing employees under such scrutiny may be damaging to the worker-employer relationship.