It's 2 a.m. Do you know where your workers are?
You can start with the assumption that a certain amount of surveillance is necessary ... but the question really becomes, when does it go too far?....[I]n the hands of some managers - who are very concerned about efficiencies and profits and so forth - it becomes more punitive than helpful.
- Frederick Lane
It's time that these guys...got out of the coffee shops. That is a slap in anybody's face.
- Fred Nava
Any manager or business owner wants to have control over, or at the very least an understanding of, their business assets. This information can be used to achieve greater efficiencies, improve response time, and even enhance customer service and satisfaction.
But there is a downside to having this information, and one that businesses are going to have to figure out how to effectively address. How can a manager use this information without their employees feeling as if their every move is being tracked? The example of snow plow drivers in Massachusetts demonstrates what can happen when the humans being tracked decide to passively resist.
Whether they're dispatching a fleet of garbage trucks or a team of bail-bond collectors, managers love the idea of knowing where their "assets" are. They can coordinate routes that arebased upon traffic data, offer customers a narrower time frame for delivery, and, yes, make sure mobile employees are actually on the job when they're supposed to be. The popularity of GPS in the workplace parallels its growth in the consumer realm: By 2006, according to some estimates, 4 out of 5 new vehicles will come equipped with the technology.
For workers, GPS can add convenience and security. But as the plowers' protest shows, close tracking can put a dent in morale. Privacy experts warn that employees may not realize how much they can be tracked, especially if they use a company cellphone or a vehicle with GPS during personal time.
This hits home for me, because I have a job that involves a fair amount of driving using marked company vehicles. I cover an area that runs 70 miles north to south and 50 miles east to west. Do I want my employer tracking my movements? Hell, no, I don't. I'm already micromanaged to the Nth degree; why would I want GPS giving my employer yet more information with which to peer over my shoulder? The potential for misuse and harrassment is astoudingly high with GPS, and I think that this reality has been severely understated.
Employers will plead that they need to be able to make certain that employees are doing what they are paid to do. From my experience, that is total crap. In my line of work, they are a myriad of ways to ensure that an employee is taking care of business without placing an electronic tracking device on him or her. GPS is useful for managers who are lazy and who are looking for the easy way to do their jobs, but it does little for the employee being monitored.
I have no doubt that this is the wave of the future. Big Brother really IS coming to the workplace, and in the end, government will do nothing to stop it. In the final analysis, your civil rights will be determined to be void once you step in the front door of your workplace. We will ALL be the poorer for it.
