The company gives you a smartwatch, do you like it? Most people probably would, as it monitors sleep quality, tracks exercise duration, and can be used as a watch.
However, sanitation workers do not like it.
Recently, sanitation workers in the Hexi area of Nanjing, Jiangsu, were issued a smartwatch with some unique features.
As long as they stay in one place for more than 20 minutes, the watch will automatically emit a “cheer up” sound.
When work is hard and exercise is tiring, even a mechanical word of encouragement can be uplifting.
However, the watch’s “cheer up” is not encouragement; it is a warning and a punishment.
Wearing the watch puts them in a monitored mode: they cannot stay in one place for more than 20 minutes.
They cannot leave the designated area.
This rule reminds me of an old movie from 19 years ago, “Battle Royale”.
In the movie, students wear collars and are monitored on an island.
While the movie may be exaggerated, what is the purpose of wearing a monitoring smartwatch in reality?
The issuing unit of the smartwatch, an environmental services company in Nanjing, stated that this is to reduce management costs for sanitation workers.
Management can remotely monitor them from a computer.
Who will issue a watch to supervise them?
Who will issue a watch to supervise their leaders?
Wearing the smartwatch is part of the company’s “smart sanitation” project, but management is not just a concept; it cannot be one-size-fits-all.
In response to the criticism of “even if the area is clean, they cannot take a break,” the staff’s answer was that cleanliness is uncertain.
Under this standard, cleanliness is secondary; moving back and forth is primary.
Sanitation workers have many grievances: if the road is clean within half an hour, do I really need to run back and forth?
Many of these sanitation workers are from impoverished households, disabled, or registered low-income individuals, facing heavy workloads and harsh environments.
Strengthening supervision is understandable, but wearing monitoring smartwatches crosses the line; what if they need to use the restroom or take a break?
Moreover, the key is that after raising the assessment standards, there should be corresponding salary standards and benefits, allowing those who truly work to earn more money, rather than letting those who sell and buy watches profit more.
This type of positioning device should be used in dangerous jobs like mining or firefighting, for safety, not for monitoring workers.
In literary works, the character Zhou Baopi once made his workers wake up in the middle of the night to learn to crow like a rooster to make them work harder.
Now it’s 2023; let’s not let the words “cheer up” turn into rooster crows.
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