Some software is able to home in on "inappropriate language", which could range from insults aimed at the boss, to pornography.Outside the workplace, firms are installing panels under the dashboard of vehicles to monitor the movements of salesmen, checking in the jargon that they are not "doing a foreigner", or leaving the vehicle without good reason. As one engineer for a JCB dealership said last week: "It's all graft, graft, graft nowadays and you're made to feel guilty for having a break."To compound the problem, both central and local government can now subject the workforce to increasingly intense scrutiny. The DVLA in Swansea recently admitted that it gives information about licence holders to private companies. It revealed, for example, that for a fee of £2.50 per name, it gave Safeway the home addresses of owners of cars parked illegally on Safeway land. The supermarket group was thus able to send fines through the post.A B&Q employee was sacked recently because he failed to "pass" a series of questions put to him by a computer, despite the fact that he had already been through an interview board and been taken on by the company."Who is in charge?" asks Mr Larner "We are creating machinery that controls people's lives. And, of course, that machinery can always go wrong."There is also growing evidence that new technology is threatening our health.
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Dr Doreen Miller, a workplace consultant and former adviser to Marks & Spencer, believes our over-reliance on electronics is endangering both our physical and psychological well-being. This dependence, she argues, can upset the natural rhythms of the body and brain."Little of this has been realised yet," says Dr Miller, "but there are signs. The different muscles in our bodies are there to be used, yet electronic working requires us to sit for hours at a terminal, feverishly using only two or three muscles in our hands and arms." Rising levels of obesity, particularly in children are, she argues, also directly related to the computer screen culture.The psychological effects are perhaps even more disturbing. "The mind cannot be doing with continual, speeded-up mental activity without physical balance," says Dr Miller "It needs to slow down. This is the first time in human history that we've been faced with this kind of problem, and we don't know the outcome."Of course, the technological developments of recent years have had undoubted benefits, not least in health provision. The streamlining of mundane administrative processes has released many thousands of people for more interesting and creative tasks. And greater accuracy in accounting procedures (despite the lapses that can still occur) works to the advantage of both businesses and individuals.But the disadvantages of out-of-control inventions, of threats to personal freedom and to health are only just being felt And no one knows where we are heading..
Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group is close to striking a deal to buy Forward, the contract publishing business run by William Sieghart and Neil Mendoza, for around £50m. Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group is close to striking a deal to buy Forward, the contract publishing business run by William Sieghart and Neil Mendoza, for around £50m. The duo founded the business with the help of Charles and Maurice Saatchi, who sold out last year. They also run a film production business, Megalomedia, with the Saatchi brothers. Megalomedia recently bought the Hammer Horror film company, famous for its gothic movies.Forward was quietly put on sale earlier this by its founders, and a deal is expected to be announced in the next few days.
