>> I worked retail in the late '70s and early '80s. I guess it's just not enough to be knowledgeable about your products and nice to people anymore. Especially since for the most part you don't have sales people anymore and everything's online. So now everyone has to take happy pills and smile and put on a happy face? <<
There has always been pressure on retail and customer service personnel to do a lot of emotional labor to make others happy. What's new is the increasing amount of tools available to bosses to spy on employees and pressure them to meet those demands -- which is dangerous to health, which runs up medical expenses and thus eats into the bottom line.
>> There's a reason why I don't want devices listening to me and responding to my voice in my house. <<
Same here. The problem is, that's not enough. The spytech is spreading throughout society. If you want to visit someone else's home, or any other location, you need to make sure they don't have voice-activated tech in it. And if you need any kind of service that requires calling someone on the phone, it's all but impossible to get privacy -- they simply won't provide the service unless you "agree" to be spied on.
So that also undermines the concept of what consent even is. The technical definition is "agreement without consequences attached to any choice" but the way people use the word is "obtain what you want by any means necessary."
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dancing_serpent
Thoughts
Date: 2021-06-27 07:48 pm (UTC)There has always been pressure on retail and customer service personnel to do a lot of emotional labor to make others happy. What's new is the increasing amount of tools available to bosses to spy on employees and pressure them to meet those demands -- which is dangerous to health, which runs up medical expenses and thus eats into the bottom line.
>> There's a reason why I don't want devices listening to me and responding to my voice in my house. <<
Same here. The problem is, that's not enough. The spytech is spreading throughout society. If you want to visit someone else's home, or any other location, you need to make sure they don't have voice-activated tech in it. And if you need any kind of service that requires calling someone on the phone, it's all but impossible to get privacy -- they simply won't provide the service unless you "agree" to be spied on.
So that also undermines the concept of what consent even is. The technical definition is "agreement without consequences attached to any choice" but the way people use the word is "obtain what you want by any means necessary."