Are workplace sensors a good idea?

Everyone has those lull moments at work where we escape the workload for a breather – however, imagine if sensors in your workplace could detect when your productivity slumps and alerted your boss?

The Boston Consulting Group has equipped around 100 volunteer employees in its new Manhattan office with badges that consist of a microphone and a location sensor.

These badges track physical and verbal interactions, for which the company says it intends to use the data to examine the effect of office design on employee communication – Bloomberg reports.

Although the company promises not to use the data for performance evaluation, outside critics have called the plan Orwellian.