Listen to the Episode

 

Wayne: Today, we’re going to be talking about modern day accountability.

Cem: Sounds exciting.

Wayne: In the 21st century when working from home. That’s how I’m going to pitch it.

Cem: Sounds shite.

Wayne: It’s a little bit more interesting than that. That’s, I think an interesting debate. But the concept is, this new program, both in terms of software and idea, are Focusmate.

Cem: Focus, mate. Is that the advert?

Wayne: I feel like that should be the catch phrase of anybody that’s on it. So the idea of this is that you are watched while you are working from home. That’s probably a more exciting pitch, isn’t it?

Cem: Yeah, that’s way better. So basically they’re going to stick a camera in say your living room, if that’s where you work from home, it’s going to be up in a corner, and then somebody else is going to be spying over you while you’re working away, so every now and then when you’re getting up and you disappear from the room for a while, someone could just be like, “Oy …”

Wayne: Having a wank.

Cem: Where are you? You’ve been gone a while, or actually your laptops to the side and they’ll be like, “Oy, get back on the laptop, get to work.” Obviously at the moment, this is just for people who are self employed and work from home or wherever. Writers, freelancers, whatever they do. But me and Wayne were saying an interesting conversation would be around how millennials, a lot of people are saying millennials want to work from home. They want to be flexible. And we were saying, do you think that managers would be like, “You know what, I’ll let you work from home as much as you want, but I’m going to install a Focusmate just to make sure you get shit done.”

Wayne: Yeah, so the idea of Focusmate is that you … it’s for the self employed people or the people working from home who just don’t have the self discipline to kind of just get the work done. So you have somebody watching you on a webcam. The whole idea is that it’s being pitched, and this is the scary thing, right, and this is kind of where my reservations are. The whole idea is that it’s opt in. So it’s something that you’re doing because you want to do it. Because you want to hold yourself accountable to someone else. But as Cem just said, you know when somebody resigns from a position, when really what it means is they got fired. But it was kind of like, “You either resign or we’ll fire you, which one do you want it to be?” Well on paper it looks better if I resign. I’m kind of worried that the opt in thing kind of becomes a, “Yeah, we’re going to spy on you, but you’re going to know about it.” From the workplace.

Cem: Yeah well what it says here is well is, number one, you start off by saying to whoever your focusmate is over the internet waves, you tell them what you’re trying to achieve that day, and then they’ll just keep checking in on you. Like, “How are you getting on? Did you write the 500 words? Did you finish that design you needed to do?” So I do think at the moment it’s not saying anything about working, companies are not saying, “Look, we’re going to buy a load of these and give them out to our staff.” Because that would just be weird. Imagine knowing that your boss literally has a camera in your house after certain hours and could just be like, “Hey, what are you up to?” It’s just weird. And also …

Wayne: Well I don’t think it’s to that degree, where … it’s like a Skype call, isn’t it?

Cem: Yeah, but still.

Wayne: You still have to answer it.

Cem: Hacking and all that shit.

Wayne: Well yeah, that’s true.

Cem: Exactly.

Wayne: You’re so untrusting.

Cem: Don’t trust anyone. That’s why I do audios, so no one can see me.

Wayne: Nobody will recognize you when you’re walking down the street.

Cem: Yeah, exactly. My question is, if it takes this much effort, like you’re so shit and hate what you’re doing so much, that literally you’re going to pay a service to stick a camera in a corner in your house, in your personal space, and then you’re going to get some random person to tell you what to do, and to hold you accountable, that shit’s straight up weird.

Wayne: I’ll tell you my reaction as soon as I was reading this article. The words are for god’s sake, came into my head.

Cem: You might as well have someone with a cane behind your back and then just slap you with the cane every so often.

Wayne: My thinking is, on this, if you have to resort to hiring someone or a service to keep you held accountable, you’ve got bigger fucking problems.

Cem: I think this is voyeurs fetishes for watching people work.

Wayne: Yeah. If I really was like, “I need someone to make sure I get shit done.” I’d just send a text to say you, or send a text to someone and say, “Look, can you check in on me.”

Cem: There’s no way I’d just watch you lay on the bed just …

Wayne: No, no, no, no, I know you wouldn’t.

Cem: I’m not doing it, Wayne.

Wayne: That’s not what I’m asking.

Cem: I’m not going to be your Focusmate.

Wayne: Cem, that’s not what I’m asking.

Cem: No. Okay.

Wayne: What I’m asking is, is just for you to just check in on me at the end of the day and go, “Did you manage to get that thing done.” Like surely somebody has a friend that they can say, “Look, I need to get this done, I need to be held accountable, I need a Focusmate, mate.”

Cem: Maybe it’s lonely freelancers and this is … that’s really what it is. You’re a lonely freelancer, and it’s just nice to feel somebody else in the room with you.

Wayne: Which I actually think is more of the thing here.

Cem: So what should it be called instead of Focusmate.

Wayne: All right, mate.

Cem: Just so you’ve got someone to talk to while you’re freelancing.

Wayne: Just call it vent.

Cem: Vent. Oh, to vent …

Wayne: Oh no, they do make a point of this, though, that you’re not supposed to vent at your Focusmate/coworker.

Cem: Kind of like proper interact.

Wayne: You’re not supposed to interact.

Cem: I would just randomly, I know, would just pull my ass out.

Wayne: Just casually like you’re working hard, three hours solid, then out of nowhere you just …

Cem: Just sneak in there …

Wayne: … get up and just take your trousers down. That’s how you get arrested. It’s not a good idea.

Cem: That’s usually what happens though. I just take a …

Wayne: #MeToo.

Cem: That’s what happens when I lose focus. Just feel like getting my clothes off. Okay.

Wayne: But yes, I had the same kind of reaction. I was like, “Look. There are much easier ways of doing … of solving this problem.” But that’s not to say that I don’t think that what they are offering is valuable to people. I actually think what they’re offering is a good idea. But, my issue is, is it shouldn’t be that bad of an issue. You’ve got other shit you need to sort out if you can’t get shit done …

Cem: Yeah, you physically don’t want to …

Wayne: … to the extent you need to use this.

Cem: You don’t want to open your email, you don’t want to write, that means you probably don’t enjoy the job, or what you’re actually doing. Do you actually want to write that book? Probably not.

Wayne: Yeah, yeah.

Cem: Cool. So, Wayne, you won’t be purchasing a Focusmate?

Wayne: No, I’ll just sit on webcam to you.

Cem: Nice. Again.

Wayne: Just don’t get bored, yeah?

Cem: Keep it entertaining.

Wayne: Stay focused.

Cem: Or throwing digital coins at you.

Wayne: Stay focused dude.

Cem: Yeah, I’ll try, I’ll try.

Wayne: No Cem. No.

Cem: This is the worst porn I’ve ever watched. Anyways.

Wayne: So will you be Focusing mate, mate?

Cem: Nah, it’s not for me. I mean, all right mate, I’d probably get it, but Focusmate, not so much.

Wayne: Okay. So, that’s it, I think.

Cem: I think that’ll be …

Wayne: I don’t think there’s much more to say on that. I think … Just a general overall view. Good idea, bad idea?

Cem: I think, like you said, it’s a good idea if people feel a bit lonely when they’re working. It feels nice to just have someone who’s holding you accountable and you’re kind of there, supporting each other in a day. Great, because they say a lot of freelancers are lonely. That’s a good thing. For the procrastination, not so much, because I’m just like, well, if you’re procrastinating, like we’ve said, do you really actually want to do this task?

Wayne: I mean if … here’s the thing. If you really do procrastinate that badly that you need to use this, you could just sit in front of your computer and look like you’re working.

Cem: Imagine that. Literally …

Wayne: And really you’re playing World of Warcraft.

Cem: Just blagging it.

Wayne: Yeah. It’s not more accountable than anything else, really.

Cem: Exactly. How do you know that he’s reading a book in that picture. He could have a little mobile phone in the pages.

Wayne: That’s it. Although when you start swiping on a paper book, you know you have problems.

Cem: No one’s going to be physically watching you like constantly. That’s just weird, imagine that.

Wayne: No, because the whole concept is they’re working as well.

Cem: Yeah, exactly.

Wayne: So.

Cem: So you could pull your ass out.

Wayne: Theoretically, yes.

If you want any questions answered, or if you have any ideas for anythings you’d like us to address, send us an email, Wayne@powerfulnonsense.com or Cem@powerfulnonsense.com, or you can look us up on the Twitterz @PN_Podcast, and we will take it into consideration. And also, please do leave us a nice little review on the old iTunes. It really does help get the word out there for the show. Five stars or more, greatly appreciated.