Psychological safety. We’ve all heard of it – but why the big fuss this month? Well, recent figures suggest that one third of UK employers are now using ‘bossware’ technology to monitor their workforces (Guardian).

One example of bossware is the traffic light system PwC implemented to track employees’ attendance to ensure compliance with their back to the office mandate. However, there are also more immediate tools coming in – think email tracking, web browser tracking and screen recordings.

There are good things to be said about this technology, for example, one company that employs bossware reportedly saved “$2 million by detecting that no one was using an expensive piece of software their company was paying for” (The Register), others use it to see where to allocate key resources, or where efficiencies could be saved.

But be honest, is it sounding slightly 1984 to you? I’m afraid your employees definitely think so. 42% of managers oppose bossware measures, and one in six would even considering resigning if such systems were introduced (IoIC).

Really what the implementation of such technology does is say: “We don’t trust you.”

Performance, motivation and getting the best work, care and engagement out of your people cannot be done by micromanaging. This creates a culture of surveillance and could severely impact on psychological safety – which in a paper published in the International Journal of Public Health has been shown to be “as essential as more material resources in the welfare and retention of staff” (HBR).

The study suggests we view psychological safety as a “social resource” which can also get depleted, and we should pay attention to protect and nourish it.  When people don’t feel safe in their workplace, they feel less secure, more stressed and ultimately more likely to walk away.