The evil part is when a company uses this to know exactly how much productivity to extract from an employee. We're close to becoming productivity batteries that are now easily swapped out.
Wouldn't it be good if managers had a hint to be more empathetic towards an employee that's going through a temporary bad mental state, instead of labeling "under-delivery" and throwing him onto a "PIP" process?
*gestures at the couple hundred year old history of organized labor relations*
"Can an individual manager possibly feel empathy?" is, IMO, a red herring. "Do large corporations typically foster a culture where such empathy is rewarded and encouraged?" can be answered with a pretty strong "no".
