Government should control the use of its resources. But there has been an implicit social contract over the past 15 years–as work has intruded more and more into the lives of workers, management has conceded that some non-work activities done on the clock are permissible. It’s beginning to look as if that social contract should be made explicit…

ISLIP, N.Y. - “GPS tracking devices installed on government-issue vehicles are helping communities around the country reduce waste and abuse, in part by catching employees shopping, working out at the gym or otherwise loafing while on the clock.

The use of GPS has led to firings, stoking complaints from employees and unions that the devices are intrusive, Big Brother technology. But city officials say that monitoring employees’ movements has deterred abuses, saving the taxpayers money in gasoline and lost productivity.

“We can’t have public resources being used on private activities. That’s Management 101,” Phil Nolan, supervisor of the Long Island town of Islip.

Islip saved nearly 14,000 gallons of gas over a three-month period from the previous year after GPS devices were installed. Nolan said that shows that employees know they are being watched and are no longer using Islip’s 614 official vehicles for personal business.”

If a worker is multi-tasking and some of those tasks are work-related and some are not, should the worker be compensated? At one extreme, people are not fussed if a security guard catches up on his reading on the night shift. At the other end of the spectrum, do you really want your shrink to respond to your latest tale of woe by asking for a seven-letter synonym for dance starting with ‘F’? If work is only work, people will work to rule. If you want more from workers, flexibility will be key.

There is a variety of information assurance issues here. Resource allocation for monitoring employees, identity management (you’d better have the right employee identified before approaching him/her about their practices), records management, turning off monitoring when the employee is off duty, etc.

I just hope people stop and think about the implications for just a moment before using the latest technology marvels.