Big Brother is Watching

5:22am
Listening to: "Blind" by Placebo

I can’t sleep. Trying to keep myself busy w/other things other than staring at the TV like a zombie until sleep comes. Found some bud I had stashed like a year ago & forgot about. That’s making me feel more relaxed & less frustrated w/sleep. Over the past decade or so, insomnia has been like breathing: a part of life. I still get annoyed w/it, but don’t get as emotional over it as I once did.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about how monitored people are in the age of advancing technology such as now. Funny enough, this ties back to me writing in here: a paranoia-inducing watchful eye. Funny how, like the themes in some sitcoms, everything ties together.

A little over a week ago we got new cameras installed at work. They’re pretty much nanny cams w/mics. There are 7 of them spread throughout the store. They link up to a monitor & VCR in the office, as well as a private feed that can watch it on the internet, at any time, w/an authorized user name & password.

I understand that they have the right to do this: they’re doing it in the best interest of the store. Great, wonderful. It’s a little weird working 9 -10 hours knowing that everything you do in that period of time is being monitored. Everything you say is being recorded. What’s better? Your 3 bosses above you are the one’s watching.

People are far too accepting of being monitored these days. Chances are, that if you’re not inside your own home or someone else’s home, you’re being videotaped. It’s weird how most people don’t even seem to notice it now days. There are even cameras on street corners in some cities. So say you’re doing nothing but standing at a cross walk waiting for the light to change, someone is watching you. And no, lol, I’m not going all conspiracy theory, garden-variety, paranoid wack job on you guys. LOL

Anyway, I take a few issues w/this new addition to my place of employment. The first the microphones on the cameras. The fact that I have to watch what I say to people (including my crew & other managers) b/c my bosses may not approve of it is bullshit. They’re basically forcing me to censor myself in order to not have to worry about my job is bullshit. Not that I yell at my crew or treat customers like crap or anything. 

Second, I feel like this advanced form of survaliance makes me feel like they don’t trust me to run the store when they’re not there. And by me, I mean their managers. We already got in trouble if you have them clean things even 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. There’s also this rule about going out the back door after dark, even if you’re taking trash out. Well, this time of year, it gets dark at like 5 pm. So we’re supposed to wheel our garbage out through the dining room to take it out to the dumpster for the last 7 hours that we’re open? Really? Some of these rules are made up by someone who hasn’t worked in the store for 15 to 20 years. They’re just ludicrous.

So, for the past week, I’ve sort of been feeling like Winston in 1984. Just knowing I’m constantly being watched & doing things exactly as they have to be done for 45 hours/week. Plus, the lack of attention people seem to have about our diminishing rights to privacy. It’s similar to them slowly shrinking the English language in 1984. Sadly, I guess that comes w/technology.

Damn, now I feel like reading that book (I have two copies). Perhaps that’s what I should do until I find sleep.

Peace.