Man Fired Thanks to GPS Tracking

[Nomad559]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08312007/news/regionalnews/track_man_is_sacked.htm

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday fired a veteran worker whose movements were tracked for five months through the GPS device in his cellphone, leading to charges that he was repeatedly cutting out early.

"This individual was getting paid for not working," said schools spokeswoman Margie Feinberg, explaining Klein's decision to accept an administrative law judge's recommendation to ax John Halpin, a longtime supervisor of carpenters.

Halpin had worked in the school system for 21 years and was conscientious enough to show up as much as two hours early for his 8 a.m.-to-3:30 p.m. shift.

He said he was never told that the cellphone he was given in 2005 could be used to monitor his every move and questioned the accuracy of the data it produced.

But neither argument swayed administrative law Judge Tynia Richard, who found Halpin guilty of submitting false time records when he left early on numerous occasions between March and August 2006.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. NYC Cabbies threaten to strike on September 4 b/c management

is demanding each cab have a GPS device installed (to be paid for by the cab drivers) which then can be used as reason to fire them.

[tanyev]

2. OK, any boss who wants to track employees with GPS

should be willing to also have his or her movements tracked.

[dmallind]

3. Or

he could just have been honest about his time instead of trying to defraud.

[tanyev]

4. Absolutely.

And I've known plenty of supervisors who took very long lunches, spent long chunks of their workday monitoring their stock portfolio, and in general contributed very little to the work that needed to be done.

[dmallind]

5. Also true

Like many and perhaps most white collar types I am fortunate enough to be paid for what I can get done rather than when I do it. I've punched a clock plenty of course earlier in my career as have all but the silverest of spoon suckers, but I've always been honest about it too.

The issue may boil down to the question of is pay by the hour really the right paradigm any more - for blue collar as well as white?