Watching Employees With GPS

The use of Global Positioning Systems to track employees is having some positive effects–and raising some significant privacy issues, according to The Christian Science Monitor. In Massachusetts, the highway department wants to monitor whether snow plowers are driving at the ideal speed for laying down salt, which could save an estimated $1.7 million a year. The GPS also helps keep track of plowers’ time. This may not be help the morale of drivers, who, according to the Monitor, resent “the implication that they waste tax dollars.” In other industries–such as the bail-bond collection business–a GPS helps employees feel more secure that someone knows their whereabouts.