A person spends most of their time at their workplace or office after their home. Therefore, the atmosphere of the workplace should be pleasant for better productivity. However, we often hear about the dire condition of the workplace in various companies around the globe. In some places, workers are penalised for not meeting targets. Some employees are even forced to resign for the smallest reasons.
Numerous reports about the treatment of employees at the workplace and work pressure often go viral on social media. One such recent development from Japan has emerged which has left everyone dumbstruck. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, Japanese supermarket chain AEON has started a system in which the smiles of the employees are set to be measured to ensure they are mentally fit to do their job.
The report suggested that the Japanese supermarket brand has developed an artificial intelligence system that is responsible for analysing the smiles of the employees. The authorities decided to take such a step to provide better services to the customers. This system came into force on July 1 and is named as Mr Smile. With the advent of artificial intelligence several works have become easier. As per the report, the system has been already installed in more than 250 AEON stores in Japan.
The system was developed by a Japanese tech company named InstaVR. It is developed to assess the service attitude of the workers. It includes a total of 450 elements related to facial expressions, voice and greeting style. It also features scores to encourage employees to compete with each other like a game.
This helps to increase the productivity of the employees. Before introducing it to all the stores, the system was first tested on 3,500 employees across 8 stores for 3 months. However, after this news was shared widely several people raised questions about employee rights.