Whether employees are griping about the background music before a virtual all-hands meeting, or spending their day gleefully sharing the dankest memes over Slack, these casual communications may contain within them the early warning signs of burnout, according to purveyors of new technology intended to monitor worker discontent.

Just as technology exists to monitor workers and identify when they might be slacking off, other software is now being used to flag what an algorithm detects as indicators of burnout, after reading written text on a variety of platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and email.

Recognized by the World Health Organization as a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” burnout has soared during the pandemic and become entrenched in the cultural zeitgeist as a malady induced by overwork. Burnout has been reported by professionals across a multitude of sectors, and it’s now common for employers to devote resources to address the pervasive issue.

As part of this effort, some employers are turning to software that can be deployed to identify warning signs of burnout before they manifest beyond the silo of a messaging platform. “The technology is still in the early days…so we’ll see more and more of this sort of application of AI in the coming years,” said Quinn Underwood, the CEO of Autumn, which makes burnout detection software, using an algorithm that integrates with Slack and employee calendars.

Autumn allows clients to “begin measuring trends in how you and your team are doing, so you can identify issues before they become fires,” as the company’s website reads. Users—from managers to the employees working beneath them—opt in to the service voluntarily across the 16 organizations currently using the product, Underwood said.

Erudit AI, another maker of burnout detection software with “over two dozen” clients in the US, sees demand from companies grappling with retention issues, according to CEO Alejandro Martinez Agenjo. Companies “don’t have the technology to really understand the drivers which are moving people to quit,” he told HR Brew. In marketing materials reviewed by HR Brew, the company says its technology “helps management better understand employees without having to survey by providing daily metrics such as burnout risk, engagement, and turnover risk. It also alerts executives to issues and the true sentiments of the company and each department.”

Very sensitive. But Pamela Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, has concerns about the technology’s potential for misuse by employers. She told HR Brew that burnout is “a subjective judgment,” and using this technology in the workplace “is an area of great sensitivity.” Keep reading here.—SB

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @SammBlum on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Sam for his number on Signal.

Most employees are dragging their feet back to the office, and those who have jobs that can be done remotely largely want to keep working remotely at least part of the time, according to a Pew survey conducted in January. Meanwhile, a survey of managers conducted by GoodHire in March found that 60% of managers in the US believe their company will force workers to return to the office full-time in “the near future.”

According to Business Insider, companies like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have started monitoring employee ID-card swipes to track who’s going into the office and providing that attendance data to managers. The New York Times notes that tracking employees entering an office was common practice at some companies before the pandemic, but using that information to enforce attendance is new, and some workplace experts say this monitoring strategy has the potential to damage company culture.

Tracking. Goldman Sachs started tracking who’s going into the company’s New York office in March, according to the New York Post. HR Brew viewed one anonymous comment on the social media app Blind, by someone claiming to be a Goldman Sachs employee, that read: “Thanks to RTO, managers are tracking daily attendance, leadership setting up calls with remote folks asking them for an ultimate date so that they can come to the office for forced collaboration.”

Spokespersons for JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs declined to comment for this story.

Backlash. Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, believes these monitoring practices won’t last. “You’re telling employees to do something they think is asinine,” he told HR Brew. “So you’re telling them to do something that they don’t think is helping their job or helping their performance. So they don’t want to do it. As a result, they’re not doing it and so you have to force them. Generally, if you have to force somebody to do something, it’s not in their interest.”

Big picture. Bloom said he believes that if employees face consequences such as reduced bonuses based on attendance, workers will quit. He predicts around half of employees will be okay with returning five days a week, but the other half will “find it irritating, pointless, painful, and a large number of them will just quit.”

Bloom acknowledged that HR departments are in a tough position when it comes to monitoring and enforcing RTO policies. “Either [HR is] going to weaken their authority or face a mass exodus of employees, particularly diversity employees, who are the people that in our data we see on average work from home more than others,” Bloom said. “Neither is a very pleasant outcome.”—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

Neil Barnett is director of inclusive hiring and accessibility at Microsoft, where he’s head of the company’s disability hiring strategy. Barnett, who started out at Microsoft 20 years ago in customer service, was integral to the recent rollout of the Neurodiversity Career Connector (NDCC). The site was unveiled in February, connecting neurodivergent talent with employers looking to recruit workers from this underrepresented community.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

A lot of people may not be familiar with what an accessibility and inclusive hiring role entails. Can you tell me what your job is like? We look at accessibility and disability inclusion together, so I wear a couple hats; I spend a lot of time working on inclusive hiring for people with disabilities broadly, partnering with our talent teams and the business to look at how we find and create talent. And then also, what is that employee experience once hired? I also spend a lot of time working with other employers to help them think about [various disability topics, such as] starting a neurodiversity program, disability inclusion, or self-ID, topics that are important to them.

What’s your career been like since you first joined Microsoft? I’ve been with Microsoft for 20 years and working in the neurodiversity space for the last six years. It’s been a wonderful journey and eye-opening to see not just Microsoft but other employers starting to think about disability inclusion and trying to look at their landscape and understand what they can do, how to resource [disabled employees], how to partner with folks.

This is a space where it’s a journey and it’s good to learn and to reach out to others, and not have to try to do it all yourself. We quickly realized that there’s other employers looking for help, wanting to do some work here. And we brought them together to start the [neurodiversity] roundtable, which now has gone from the original six members to, now I think, we’re close to over 50 members.

How can companies make it clear that they’re a welcoming workplace that attracts disabled applicants and where those with invisible disabilities feel comfortable disclosing? Keep reading here.—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Approximately 1.5 million retirees have re-joined the workforce, due in part to increasing fears over the cost of living, decreasing Covid hesitancies, and flexible work schedules. (Washington Post)

Quote: “We have a generation of professionals who grew up on dating apps, where ghosting has been accepted as an annoying, but common, phenomenon. I believe that is leaking into the professional world.”—Keith Wolf, managing director at recruiting firm Murray Resources, on the growing number of people ghosting after accepting a job offer (Wall Street Journal)

Read: Google is changing how it conducts employee performance reviews, following criticism. Google employees will now have one review per year instead of two and be rated based on their impact on the company, in an effort to boost morale. (CNET)

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