When warehouse time became a score
In a warehouse, a worker’s shift can be divided into small, measurable tasks: moving goods, completing a load, and returning to the next job. Tesco’s tracking system extended that measurement beyond the work itself. An armband recorded task times and bathroom breaks, turning even time away from a load into data the system could assess.
The incentive—and the pressure
A timing system can help managers compare work with a target and identify delays. But when an algorithm sets a limit and pay depends on meeting it, the measure changes workers’ choices. A bathroom break is no longer simply time needed by a person; it becomes time that may count against a performance threshold.
That creates a sharp tradeoff: the company can pursue faster, more predictable warehouse work, while workers bear the risk of being penalized for taking longer than the system allows. The armband’s significance was not just that it measured productivity. It made an ordinary bodily need part of the productivity calculation.
