Hybrid working keeps coming bundled with more AI monitoring, and new research from the Institute for the Future of Work explains why: the technology behind flexible work and the technology behind workplace surveillance are built as one system. This week's ThinkWorkPlay summary unpacks what separates genuine autonomy from creeping oversight, and why trade union access is the one factor that reliably tips the balance.

Time-based pay, whether it's a lawyer's six-minute billing unit or a salaried employee's fixed 9-to-5, was never designed to measure the value of what someone produces. It was designed to make cost and effort visible to an employer or client, at a moment when there was no better proxy available. That proxy has always disadvantaged anyone without unlimited discretionary time, most consistently women carrying a disproportionate share of unpaid care. Is it time to rethink - or p