Speaking of Psychology
Speaking of Psychology

‘Bossware’ and burnout: The psychology of workplace surveillance, with Tara Behrend, PhD

May 13, 2026

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5 min read

‘Bossware’ and burnout: The psychology of workplace surveillance

In 2024, a device originally designed to help buildings save energy by adjusting climate control when employees left for the day was repurposed by some employers to track who was sneaking out early and who was staying late. This is the story of workplace surveillance in a nutshell, according to Tara Behrend, an industrial-organizational psychologist at Michigan State University: any device that collects data can be turned into a monitoring tool, whether or not that was its intended purpose. And as AI and automation advance, the scope and invisibility of that monitoring are only growing.

Why companies monitor—and why they often don’t know what they’re doing

Behrend’s research reveals a surprising dynamic driving the spread of workplace surveillance: many organizations collect data without a clear question in mind. “They collect anything they can collect without really having a question in mind that they’re trying to answer,” she says. The vague belief that data is powerful leads companies to hoard it, assuming they’ll figure out what it means later.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:32) **Introduction: What is "Bossware"?** - Kim Mills frames the episode around the rise of electronic workplace surveillance, from keystroke trackers to webcams to fatigue-detection tools.
  • 2 (02:35) **How Common Is Workplace Surveillance?** - Dr. Tara Behrend explains that surveillance is becoming common across more occupations, driven by the push to automate jobs.
  • 3 (03:40) **Why Companies Collect Data (Even When They Don't Know Why)** - Many organizations collect data because they believe data is powerful, even without a specific question in mind.
  • 4 (04:39) **How Surveillance Creates Unsafe Conditions** - Monitoring shapes workers' attention and motivation, often at the expense of safety.
  • 5 (05:40) **Distraction and Cognitive Load: How Being Watched Changes Performance** - Surveillance is a source of distraction, and its harm depends on the job's cognitive demands.
  • 6 (07:22) **Power Imbalance: Who Gets Hurt Most by Surveillance?** - The people with the least power in organizations are the most negatively affected by surveillance.
  • 7 (09:21) **The Legal Landscape: Few Protections for U.S. Workers** - There is currently no federal guidance on workplace surveillance in the U.S., unlike the EU, Canada, and Australia.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

From keystroke trackers and webcam monitoring to GPS devices, an increasing number of us -- across a wide range of jobs -- are being monitored while we work. Tara Behrend, PhD, discusses why employers use these tools; how constant monitoring changes workers’ behavior and attention and how it can increase stress and burnout; the growing role of AI in collecting and analyzing employee data; and whether any laws regulate the kinds of data employers can collect.

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