PROXITOL’s new ScareBoss – designed to prevent slacking in the workplace from employees returning to the workplace who aren’t used to having a boss around – is set to hit the market in June.
A lifelike mannequin made of synthetic bylenol and customized to look just like the boss, it can be positioned leaning against a file cabinet, peeking around a corner, or standing outside the restroom so workers think the real boss is watching them.
Even though the ScareBoss doesn’t speak or move, a late 2020 test at six US companies showed that productivity improved by an average of 93.3 percent when one was present.
“We discovered that if people think there’s even a chance that it’s actually the boss they’ll work a lot harder,” says Geannie Willisin, PROXITOL’s Director of Projectivity.
The ScareBoss can also be used for people who are still working from home. “You just put it in a car parked in the driveway,” says Willison, “or have it looking in the living room window.”
Says an accountant at one of the test companies: “You see her standing outside her office, dead still, and her eyes aren’t even blinking. Logically you know it’s not really her, that it’s probably just a dummy. But then again, what if it really is her?”
The mere possibility, he says, was enough to keep him working 12-hour days for the entire test period.
PROXITOL – which in 2019 also created the Stand-In Parent for households where parents are at work more than 80 percent of the time – will manufacture 250,000 ScareBosses to start. Each will sell for $15.999, with a $10 discount for companies purchasing more than one.
SEE: Lifelike Stand-Ins Allow Parents to Spend More Time At Work
