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From wearables and automation to the metaverse, Harvard University’s Aleksandra Przegalinska picks out what’s standing the test of time in workplaces.
The technology we use at work is changing rapidly and will continue to do so in the future, from automation and AI to wearables and metaphysical innovations.
But which of these will lead to improvement for workers and a better world of work for all, and what role have the last two and a half years played in bringing these trends forward?
Aleksandra Przegalinska is a senior research associate in the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard University.
She was a speaker at the latest edition of the Women’s Leadership School in the Digital Age, run by the European Leadership Academy of Huawei. Following her talk, I caught up with Przegalinska to hear more about her work around automation.
“The program [at Harvard] It’s focused on workers and work and always has been, but for the last couple of years they’ve really been looking at the future of work and what that landscape looks like from the perspective of the worker,” she said.
One area she and her team are exploring is “how to create AI-based tools that help employees and don’t eliminate them.”
“It was very easy to tempt businesses to think that automation was the way forward,” she said, because it would reduce costs and the number of employees needed, and it could be easy to implement.
“Those thinking of introducing wearables into the workplace should think again.”
– Aleksandra PRZEGALIŃSKA
“But for most of the tasks we do at work, that’s not enough because our jobs are so complex and I think collaborative AI is a more humble approach,” she said.
“It says human work has value. Most jobs simply can’t be automated, and that’s actually great, but [workers] It can use artificial intelligence in at least some tasks.
At the moment, Przegalinska said, this research is mainly focused on managers and marketers – typically white-collar workers – who use automation to streamline their work by keeping them in the loop.
“But the ambition of the future is also to think about the blue-collar workers because they are working very hard. [and] They can be negatively impacted by automation and are vulnerable in many ways,” she said.
“It might be more difficult for them to redevelop, and switch to another profession, so we’re thinking of developing a specific framework for implementing AI in workplaces that allows people to do their jobs and learn some of the burden.”
Clothes worn at work
Speaking at a leadership school in Prague, Przegalinska spoke about the use of wearables, highlighting the Pavlok wristband, which is known to deliver electrical shocks to users to help them break bad habits.
She told me that she first became interested in wearable technology around 2016, when there seemed to be a huge demand for this technology in workplaces.
“There have been a lot of new wearable technologies that are very easy to use that have been introduced, not just in the fitness or healthcare sector, but in other sectors as well,” she said. “[But] I think the general public reaction was not that positive, so people were scared.
Przegalinska acknowledges that there are many positives for wearables, especially when it comes to health and wellness. And with proper ethical standards, some workplaces have brought wearables into the workplace with the aim of aiding the safety of their employees.
In the year In 2019, PwC employees volunteered to wear smartwatches on their wrists that collected biometric data on sleep patterns and heart rate variability, with the goal of increasing personal well-being and productivity.
However, Przegalinska cautions that “when it comes to getting into someone’s mind,” you can’t get any more emotional than that.
“People who are thinking about introducing wearables in the workplace need to think again and think about how to do it in a way that makes people feel that they are benefiting from it and at the same time it’s safe, and I don’t feel that. That we’re still in that moment.”
Wearables aren’t the only thing employees are using to check on their employees. Demand for surveillance technology surged in the early days of the pandemic.
While Przegalinska said at first it was difficult for employers to assign trust, the mass shift to remote work has become a sign that workers generally don’t need close supervision or supervision to get their work done. “It worked well for the most part, except for tracking technologies.
However, she noted that the pandemic has created a need to “create more immersive experiences when working remotely” and has opened up opportunities for better use of wearable technologies at work.
The future of Metaverse work
One of the biggest trends that is being discussed in conjunction with the future of work and many other sectors is meta-conversion.
Before her current work, Przegalinska was part of a research project on Second Life, an online virtual world not a million miles away from the more immersive concept of the metaverse we know today. The aim of the project was to explore the social networks of Second Life and how people build bonds there.
She said it was so much fun, she was tired. “It takes a lot of time and effort to build those current relationships that might translate into something but don’t.”
At that time, Facebook started to grow in popularity and required much less time and effort from people.
‘I don’t know what incentive there would be to spend time in a virtual office.’
– Aleksandra PRZEGALIŃSKA
“In Second Life, it was a world you had to live in somehow. You have to live in it, you have to build things in it, you really have to spend time. It was very consuming for me,” she said.
“Also, spending a lot of time in front of a screen and sitting for hours was very tiring and I think the current flexibility doesn’t eliminate that either, not very much.”
With all this in mind, she expects more from Metavas to be useful. For example, while augmented reality can add interesting layers to the world we’ve already experienced, MetaVass just makes her nauseous.
In fact, in a recently published study, 18 volunteers spent a week working in the Metaverse using virtual reality. Many have complained of increased stress, nausea and decreased productivity.
“I don’t know what the incentive would be to spend time in a virtual office,” says Przegalinska.
She hoped that someone would come up with a vision of the Metaverse that would not just replicate her office in real life, but add something to the added fountain. “I just don’t get it.”
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