The Quantified Worker

by Ifeoma Ajunwa

The information revolution has ushered in a data-driven reorganization of the workplace. Big data and AI are used to surveil workers and shift risk. Workplace wellness programs appraise our health. Personality job tests calibrate our mental state. The monitoring of social media and surveillance of the workplace measure our social behavior. With rich historical sources and contemporary examples, The Quantified Worker explores how the workforce science of today goes far beyond increasing efficiency and threatens to erase individual personhood. With exhaustive detail, Ifeoma Ajunwa shows how different forms of worker quantification are enabled, facilitated, and driven by technological advances. Timely and eye-opening, The Quantified Worker advocates for changes in the law that will mitigate the ill effects of the modern workplace.

Genres: Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Law

476 pages, Paperback

Published May 11, 2023

Reviews

[Iseabail Lane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m still reading it - it’s a book club selection, but I’m finding both the vocabulary and sentence structure to be unnecessarily complicated. This content is exceptionally well thought out and it -needs- to be out there but the book is a hard read. It requires intense concentration and I have to reserve those periods for other, more urgent, matters. It’s disappointing because I really want to read it and will, in spurts and starts, but that’s not how I wanted it to go down. Read the book, but know what you are getting into.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive legal analysis of how technology in modern workplaces has evolved to erode the privacy of workers. Ajunwa excels in providing a thorough legal and historical analysis, but, like many academic publications, chapters tend to be repetitive.