Google Meet lock participant computer

I saw an article recently that talked about how the CEO of one of the big banks was frustrated because employees were texting and doing other things during meetings. If I had grown up in a different era, I could see myself being frustrated by this. However, being born in the digital era and understanding that you can often gain necessary context while doing something else, I like to think I’m a bit more understanding than some people are.

This got me thinking about Google Meet, a surface area we regularly use for calls. What if there were a way for employers to lock the devices of meeting participants so you had to pay attention? This is a fairly aggressive solution, but I could see some companies taking more paternalistic efforts to control their teams’ devices. Not saying this is the right approach, but it feels on par with the level of corporate dystopia we live in.

I think there are better ways to handle this (for example, making sure the right people are in the right meetings), but companies are rarely this thoughtful. I don’t think companies will go to this level of extremes, but it’s going to get interesting to see how businesses deepen their surveillance and control over individual employees in the years ahead of us.

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