I’ve been writing and thinking a lot lately about very serious topics: gender bias in the workplace; the way assistive technology can increase the “the digital divide;” the barriers to welcoming people who are not “neurotypical” into the workplace.
Sometimes, when it all gets to be too much, we need room to step back and acknowledging the absurd aspects of our human condition.
To that end, this week’s Futurist Friday assignment: watch this short video [3 min] on “AgencyGlass”–a device designed to assist with the “emotional labor” of interacting with your colleagues.
This article uses the device to prompt some semi-serious questions, noting that “emotional labor’s overall importance is becoming a more and more pressing question. It’s frequently, for example, implicated when talking about the supposed American “crisis of masculinity” and the growth of the service sector: are some men, rarely asked to perform as much emotional labor as women, having difficulty adjusting to the new economy? And how much should companies be able to dictate employees’ facial expressions and demeanor anyways?”
You can mull those points, or you can just sit back and enjoy.
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