I don’t think it’s going to happen that way. Body cams are needed if you want to record people working in the field, such as police officers, but for people working at a fixed location, an office or factory or what have you, CCTV cameras are cheaper, less intrusive, and harder for a bad actor to screw with by “accidentally” covering their lens or forgetting to turn their unit on.

I would absolutely, categorically, stop doing business wherever I see employees wearing bodycams.

Everyone in the building wears one regardless.

My management or owners are not allowed to see the content and it can only be reviewed by a third party arbitration.

If the camera is off I might as well be dead to my employers and coworkers.

My pay increases proportionally to the success of the business.

Hell no. That would turn anything other than unflinching obsequiousness towards obnoxious clients and potential fraudsters into a firing offense. Specially in the already dystopian US job market.

Absolutely not, as that would mean my company violates my country’s privacy laws. In my field of work there is no valid reason for wearing a body cam.

Sure. Why not? It will probably work like it does with US police officers, magically turning off right before the murder takes place self defence happens.

Seriously, I wouldn’t care at all. But it’s still a stupid idea and I would strongly oppose it. Even if only in solidarity with people it would fuck over.

Hell no, cops however should have less control over the cameras they wear.

No, I’m still salty they decided we should be on camera for meetings all of a sudden at my job. It’s so pointless and stupid to force us into. Thankfully it hasn’t been strictly enforced but most of us try to comply some of the times. Some mornings I’m too damned tired and don’t want to be seen yawning a bunch or like how it really is, that I literally rolled out of bed a few minutes ago to start my shift.

When I first came to this job, I remember joining a meeting and turned on my camera for someone to tell me “we don’t do that here” and it felt great to not have that stupid corporate pressure for something so trivial at the time.

I can understand wanting to make sure your employees are who they say they are and ensuring they are doing the job they are being paid to do. On the second part, that should be evident by the fact their work is being done. A camera wouldn’t change it for the lazy employees. They would find ways to appear busy on camera and micro managers would find a new way to micro manage people again. On the former, this would be evident with individual meetings on an ongoing basis between employee and direct supervisor.

Neither are necessarily solved by the constant use of a camera, at least where I work.

I suppose there are some jobs where a camera would be beneficial. We all came here with the idea of police officers which makes sense as a precaution for both the cop and the public they work with. (It should) keep everyone accountable and ensure things are being done as they should. But we see even that isn’t necessarily happening. We still get the “oops my camera conveniently tuned itself off during the time they claimed I abused their rights :( ”

The company you work for is not your friend. If it is their body can they will use it to their benefit. Any benefit you receive will be incidental or simply part if their propaganda to get you to wear it for them.

It will be used, primarily, to surveil employees. They will track your habits and ensure you are aware that every single thing you do for your shift is something your boss or their boss or their boss can come back to you with and reprimand you for. They will try to set performance targets that can be compared to your videos so they can tell you what an algorithm or a petty middle manager says you are doing wrong. Too much time helping a customer. You’re not folding clothes fast enough. Walk faster. No sitting. They will set keywords. Union. Break. Curse words. Your bosses’ names. They might not even review these things. The intimidation is enough. Maybe you’ll get new policies. See that black guy? Follow him. Get video. The algorithm said to do it so it can’t be racist. We’ll pass it along to the cops.

Companies wouldn’t pay for it if they didn’t see a business angle and the obvious ones are control over employees and being able to use more video for “liability” defense.

A few of the supermarkets in my country have this as an option for staff. Since the pandemic there’s been an alarming rise in public attacking shop staff.

You want this for DOCTORS? You want your private health information record like this? Are you freaking nuts?

body cams only make any sense when you’re not in a fixed location and already always on camera, or when there’s commonly abuses of power off camera. both are true of cops. neither are true of the cashiers at Hot Topic or whatever.

Why doctors? Filming patients would be a nightmare in terms of privacy and data policy.

In my line of work (psychotherapy) it would be equally impossible. People are having a hard enough time as it is opening up to medical professionals, I don’t think that the additional barrier of being actively filmed would help anyone.

I might be wearing my own small, undetectable body cam, to protect myself against workplace harassment, racism, and unfair labor practices.

I’m a walking, talking landmine for those bastards. /S

In the jobs I work at, no, I wouldn’t. Body cams would only be used to snitch on people. It makes sense for surveillance to be used over people in positions of power like cops, doctors, prison guards, etc, who are known for abusing their power. Not against ordinary people or members of the public though. If retail workers wear bodycams, it’s to snitch on shoplifters. If teachers wear bodycams it’d compromise kids who approach them to tell them something in confidence. Etc.