A Wristband That Tells Your Boss If You're Unhappy: Brave New 'Moonbeam'

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- The user of the wristband presses the yellow button if they are happy, and the blue if they are not. At first glance the silicone wristband could be mistaken for one that tracks.
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- 'A wristband that tells your boss if you are unhappy.' BBC News, Jan 18, 2021.

At first glance the silicone wristband could be mistaken for one that tracks your heart rate when you are doing exercise. However, the wearable technology, called a Moodbeam, isn't here to monitor your physical health. Instead it allows your employer to track your emotional state. The gadget, which links to a mobile phone app and web interface, has two buttons, one yellow and one blue. The idea is that you press the yellow one if you are feeling happy, and the blue one if you are sad.

Aimed at companies who wish to monitor the wellbeing of staff who are working from home, the idea is that employees are encouraged to wear the wristband (they can say no), and press the relevant button as they see fit throughout the working week. Managers can then view an online dashboard to see how workers are feeling and coping. With bosses no longer able to check in physically with their team, Moodbeam hopes to bridge the gap. "Businesses are trying to get on top of staying connected with staff working from home. Here they can ask 500 members: 'You ok?' without picking up the phone," says Moodbeam co-founder Christina Colmer McHugh.

She originally came up with the idea for the product after she discovered that her daughter was struggling at school, and she wanted a way for her child to let her know how she was feeling. The wristband was launched commercially in 2016.

With many children, especially teenagers, likely to balk at the idea of having to press a button on a wristband to let their parents know how they are doing, how probable is it that employees would be willing to do the same for their boss? Ms Colmer McHugh, whose firm is based in Hull, says that many are indeed happy to do so. "We moved away from anonymous to identifiable data after trials found that people do want to be identified," she says. One organisation now using Moodbeam is UK charity Brave Mind. "One member of the team was in an uncomfortable place, struggling with a huge workload, and disillusioned with what was going on," says trustee Paddy Burtt. "It's not something he would have flagged up, and we wouldn't have known about it unless we had seen the data."

With depression and anxiety estimated to have cost the global economy $1 trillion (£730bn) per year in lost productivity before the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization, mental health in the workplace has long been a concern. However, Covid-19 lockdowns and home working appear to have worsened the issue. UK mental health charity Mind said last year that 60% of adults thought their mental health had got worse during the first lockdown. And a survey by human resources software firm Employment Hero suggested that a quarter of people employed by small and medium-sized UK firms wanted more mental health support during the pandemic...

More, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55637328



- The solitude of working from home is tough for some of us.