Micro-management with GPS/cellphone
That crafty mid-level manager has been watching you over your work-cellphone for awhile now, so it's probably best to resist the urge to head over to O-Malleys for a quick tipple. The GPS-cellphone as employee-monitor has been the cause of endless privacy vs. security squabbles, and confused workers might be best off tossing their spying handsets in a ditch. While the leader of the mobile-monitoring pack has been Nextel with their Mobile Locator, recently the mobile tracking firm Xora has released services like "geofences" which sets off an alarm when the employee goes to a previously no-no designated area (we bet 80% of these are bars). The technology should remind you of that pet GPS collar which sends email alerts to the pet owner when Rover dashes outside of the confines of his monitored fenced-in yard. Though since the E911 mandate (which says that cellular carriers must enable 95% of their cellphones to be tracked when the user dials 911, by the end of 2005) has been creating the boon for GPS/cellphone systems, then we guess that most employers using GPS/cellphone tracking are just trying to look out for their employee's safety - right? Though that excuse doesn't really hold up with the geofences alert system, unless the employer's going to claim it's aiding with employee alcohol abuse.
