Ride the Lightning

HAVE A COMPANY CELL PHONE? IS YOUR BOSS WATCHING?

September 12, 2007

Most people are delighted to receive a company cell phone. It’s a perk, right? But is your boss watching you? In particular, is your boss watching where you are? John Halpin, a construction supervisor for the New York City Department of Education, had no clue that there was a GPS (Global Positioning System) in his cell phone tracking his movements. Apparently, Mr. Halpin was not where he claimed to be much of the time and his phone ratted him out, effectively proving that he left early on 83 days in a six month period. Not bad work if you can get it. Except he doesn’t have that job anymore. He was fired last week, and the Administrative Law Judge in the case was unmoved by Mr. Halpin’s protestations that no one had told him about the GPS. She pointed out that the department was under no obligation whatever to tell him what means they were using to uncover his misdeeds.

Monitoring employees is big business and getting bigger. Truckers have long been monitored by their employers who install GPS devices on the trucks, but using cell phones to track employees is a relatively recent development. Only two states, Connecticut and Deleware, currently require that employers notify employees if they are using GPS devices to monitor them.

So . . . do YOU have a company cell phone? Do you know whether or not your boss is tracking you? In the electronic era, privacy is rapidly becoming a memory of another time.

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