A new drone is being developed that will fly through an office and monitor employees who are working an unhealthy amount of overtime hours. The drone will play ‘Auld Lang Syne’ followed by a buzz, and is intended to get overworked employees to go home. This new technology is being developed by NTT East and a Japanese office security and cleaning company called Taisei.

Japanese workers are known to be workaholics and this culture has created some unhealthy issues like mental conditions, stress, exhaustion and even death. This is not only a problem in Japan, but this Japanese company is not taking it anymore.

The plan is to use an unmanned aerial drone to put an end to staff working a lot. But is this a good idea? Many people expect that the best way to deal with this situation would be to tackle it from the root cause. In this case, it is the Japanese corporate salary-man culture. Using a drone to monitor and force people to go home might be a band-aid, not a cure.

It is amazing the things that drones are being used for these days. The list is growing longer every day and it just feels like drones can do practically anything we want them to do. Even when the application borders on the ridiculous, some drone enthusiasts can’t wait to see how this will work.

However, some human resource experts feel that this strategy will be inefficient and will not solve the problem. But a director of the company, Norihiro Kato believes that it will work perfectly well. He explained the company’s idea further, by stating that when the drone flies by an overtime worker, they will be put on edge wondering whether or not they’ve worked over the recommended hours.

Honestly, many online commentators think that this is a really childish solution. The drones might even be a distraction for people working within the allowed hours. Employees are adults who know the difference between right and wrong. So having a meeting with them and explaining that excessive overtime is unhealthy may have a better result than what Taisei plans to do. Some of its employees might even take work home just to avoid the bothersome drones.

An easier solution to handle the problem is not to pay for those hours that go over the stipulated overtime period. If the employees are only paid for work done according to the company’s policies, they may not spend any extra time working for free.  Using flying robots to play music is a silly way of saying ‘go home’. The company is either just trying to appear compliant or they are testing out a new marketing strategy. But whatever their intentions, people are paying attention.

Drones are used to improve lives, reduce costs and maximize efficiency. They may also be used for reasons that some may find “questionable”. If Taisei truly believes that this is the best way to tackle overtime-related issues, then the company has a deeper and more serious corporate and human resource problem.

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