ON TECH
Making Workplaces ‘Safe,’ and Weird

Businesses are using safety technologies to try to protect employees. But they may not work.
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Businesses are making a zillion changes to try to protect returning employees from the coronavirus. Life at work may be unrecognizable.
My colleague Natasha Singer, who writes about health technology, raises two problems with workplace safety technologies like symptom-checking apps and thermal temperature readings of employees. They may not accurately spot sick people, and they threaten to create an underclass of workers who can’t avoid their bosses’ invasive and possibly ineffective health measures.
“The back-to-work issue is going to be huge,” Natasha said in our conversation. “This is going to be the focus of my coverage for the rest of this year.”
Shira: We want workplaces to screen us for illness, right?

Natasha: Yes, but some technologies — thermal temperature scanners are a big one — are unreliable as heck. Temperatures are elevated for many reasons, and up to 25 percent or more of people infected with the coronavirus don’t have a fever or other symptoms.

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