Editorial: Keep Big Brother out of the workplace

The year 1984 and its namesake novel have had their times, but Big Brother still flourishes in today’s society — especially regarding employees whose bosses submit them to GPS-tracking apps in the workplace. 

On May 5, Myrna Arias, a former sales executive at Intermex, a wire-transfer company, filed a lawsuit against her employer for privacy violations. According to the court documents, Intermex hired Arias in February 2014 and two months later began requiring employees to install Xora StreetSmart — a GPS app — to track its employees’ whereabouts.

Employees agreed to the surveillance during work hours, but in practice, their bosses tracked their location off the clock. For employers, Xora seemed like the right answer for issues in productivity. Intermex could track slackers in real time — even down to the speed they’re driving. Arias’s boss, John Stubits, admitted the company could track employees off the clock. According to the lawsuit, Arias “likened the app to a prisoner’s ankle bracelet.”

In this conversation, we must consider where the harm lies in potential slacking. If it isn’t to prevent any inherent obstructive harm — like violence or withholding information from the public — GPS tracking is not only unnecessary, but it is an infringement on privacy rights. We must ask ourselves: “Where is the need?”

For police officers, there is an evident need. To keep their power in check, the government often surveys officers through video footage or location tracking. Without this scrutiny, there is an open door for possible violence. Similarly, public figures — like politicians — require a level of transparency because their duty is to serve the public.

However, what are the stakes for an office worker in a private company? They simply aren’t as high. While the Intermex scenario may seem like an outlier, it’s a conversation that becomes increasingly pertinent with the influx of products in our data-driven, technology age.

“How Some Men Fake an 80-Hour Workweek, and Why It Matters,” a May 4th column written by Neil Irwin in The Upshot, a New York Times blog, discusses how employees working 80 hours per week don’t necessarily serve clients better than those working 50 per week. Some workers can adequately finish the same work in less time than those working long hours. In much the same way, employers won’t necessarily increase productivity through GPS-tracking apps.

The real solution? Employees need to hold themselves accountable through providing great work. Employers should analyze their workers’ labor and have disciplinary conversations, when necessary, if productivity is inadequate.

Using a watchdog GPS-tracking app just seems passive aggressive, in comparison.

We shouldn’t pigeonhole ourselves into relying on technology to spy on every employee. What we really need is more face-to-face contact and more conversations between real people, rather than computer screens.

How else can we fix a problem in human error than with a human approach?