City Monitors Employees With GPS

[villager]

(Not just Oakland doing it, but Jerry Brown's city is profiled here -- and Mayor Brown supports it! )


City Monitors Employees With GPS

- When the street sweepers of Oakland go on their appointed rounds, they know their own work habits had better be squeaky clean.

That's because every vehicle is equipped with a GPS tracking system to let supervisors know exactly where they are at all times — something that has some city workers complaining, and officials explaining.

"When you are a public servant, whether it is the mayor or a street cleaner, you belong to the people," Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said. "We are the servants of the people, and they have the right to know where we are, what we are doing."

The mayor, however, is not being tracked. The union representing Oakland employees thinks the program is stacked against the little guy.

"Why isn't the city council being tracked on their daily activities?" asked Larry Hendel of the Service Employees International union. "Why isn't management? Why aren't department heads?"

Big Brother?

Road crews also are monitored. The city knows just how long it takes them to fill a pothole. A supervisor often follows them, taking before-and-after pictures.

"I think if you are doing your job and you know you're doing your job, somebody taking a photograph of you isn't that important," said Jamie Ramey, a supervisor.

But not everyone feels that way. Some park employees bristle at the monitoring system.

"It looks like it's Big Brother, you know?" said Steve Lewis, a Parks and Recreation Department employee.

Oakland is just one of a number of cities across the country using GPS technology to improve worker accountability.

<snip>

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pub&dt=040221&cat=us&st=usgps_employees_040221&src=abc

[RossMcLochNess]

1. This has been common in many professions...

namely trucking or delivery for quite some time.

[papau]

2. Boston also uses - too many "pulled over sleeping" and 2nd job

photos in the local media.

[philosophie_en_rose]

3. It's barbaric.

If the city has a problem with the way that they do their jobs, then they should very well send supervisors or monitor how much work is done. However, using GPS and photos is so demoralizing and disrespectful. It's an accusation that employees are cheating the system and a threat that they will lose their jobs. No doubt this data will be used to see just how many people can be cut from teams.

It's very disturbing. In my city, you only have to look outside to see the street cleaners and garbage pickup truck drivers sweating under the sun. However, I know many people in white-collar jobs that waste a lot of time playing PC games, drinking coffee, or socializing. Those are the people that need a GPS system.

If the GPS system was meant to keep track of people for safety reasons, it might be understandable. However, using it to degrade employees is sickening.

Plus, how much to those things cost? If the city is concerned about saving money and it's perfectly capable of supervision without Big Brother, then why should they waste money on surveillance?

[villager]

4. plus it establishes the culture of surveillance

...as something that is okay, acceptable. All guilty, until proven otherwise, and then -- still guilty, still monitored, etc.

[mseang]

5. Barbaric?

philosophie_en_rose said,
"However, I know many people in white-collar jobs that waste a lot of time playing PC games, drinking coffee, or socializing. Those are the people that need a GPS system."

I am not sure which white collar jobs you are referring to, because almost all companies monitor what their employees do at the workstation each day. This was already happening in a small computer firm that I worked in during the mid-eighties. The bottom line is whether they do anything about it or not.

philosophie_en_rose said,
"If the GPS system was meant to keep track of people for safety reasons, it might be understandable. However, using it to degrade employees is sickening."

This process only degrades the employees that are not doing their jobs. If the employees are where they say they are doing what they say they are doing, no problem.

[villager]

6. no, it tells all the employees they are suspect...

...it's not just used, for example, on workers who are on probation (which might make sense).

And while you're right that middle-level white collar employees can be "monitored" so they don't dare have "unproductive" time writing e-mails to family members, etc. -- while the CEO is busy using corporate funds to remodel his house -- one doesn't justify the other.

As with mandatory drug testing, we are forfeiting everything --all dignity -- to the company store.

[DBoon]

8. Still not right

Emploers should monitor the quantity and quality of an employee's output. You are paid to produce value for the employer - period. As long as you produce that value, they should not otherwise be placing restrictions on you.

Making sure the potholes are filled (setting a quota, for example) and even photographing them to make sure a proper job was done is fine with me. Tracking their every movement isn't.

Yes white collar employees are closely monitored via computer. Still not right. If supervisors did their job and made sure the work was being done, that's all they ought to do. That someone may (hypothetically) slip off the visit DU should not otherwise be a concern. Apart from obvious abuses that affect network performance (downloading movies at work), employer restriction of Web access is simply censorship.

On Edit: See Harry Braverman, "Labor and Monopoly Capital", to see how workers have been degraded by management technology from being skilled, semi-automonous craftsmen into being tightly controlled human machines. Many violent battles in labor history were fought over the right of workers to control the methods of work.

[Skittles]

13. I get it

you are one of those "as long as you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about" folk. OK, so I guess it's OK for the government to search your residence anytime it pleases? I mean, if you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about, right? That type of thinking is naive and fatally simplistic.

[jburton]

7. DART has done this for years

DART is the Dallas, TX transit authority.

Supposedly if a bus goes wanders from its route they call out the cavalry.

[LiberalFighter]

9. GPS... maybe Photographs... NO

GPS:
What is the cost of implementing the system?
Is it cost effective? Probably not. Would Lo-Jack be more effective and monitoring best used to prevent theft?

What vehicles are being monitored? Just buses, street cleaners and road crews? City buses generally have a schedule to keep and are not likely to be off. If there is a problem then their supervisor should do spot checks. Street cleaners and road crews don't have a schedule but "time studies" should provide mgmt sufficient idea as to how long a project should take to complete. If there is a problem in completing the project then whoever is in charge should call in to report and/or the supervisor make a trip out to check it our first hand.

"When you are a public servant, whether it is the mayor or a street cleaner, you belong to the people." Then why isn't the mayor being monitored with the GPS too? Maybe he needs one of those devices implanted in his cavity. I don't believe it is necessary or logical for him to make that statement when he isn't included.

PHOTOGRAPHS:
Before and after photos on all jobs is inappropriate and a waste of resources. If it was to demonstrate the proper way and effectiveness of performing a job then maybe. What is the point of the supervisor following them and then taking before and after photos? Wouldn't it be enough that he is there supervising OR making spot checks when needed?

How about before and after photos of the mayor doing his job, the police chief. How about before and after photos of the mayor having sex. He is on duty 24 hours.

[truthisfreedom]

10. hey, if we can get some of these slackers fired they'll be forced to work

for the mafia-based businesses that empty city coffers in other ways, and with their inside knowledge of people in the system, they'll be quite useful.

[villager]

11. so you're saying you want it...

...in Chicago?

Can we use for the daily fraud perpetrated by Pentagon contractors, too?

[truthisfreedom]

12. it was a sarcastic remark.

sorry i didn't make that clear.

[villager]

14. 'salright!

It's rainy here, and my sarcastic-o-meter is probably running a bit funkily!

[alfredo]

15. Attitude flows down hill in an organization.

An employer who treats his workers like slaves is going to have trouble with shrinkage, sabatoge, and productivity.