Mobile workers are discovering there’s nothing more tethering than wireless devices.
As advancing technologies enable 24/7 communications and monitoring capabilities, the once-clear lines between “company time” and “private time” are blurring. Employees are wrestling with how to be accessible without sacrificing their personal lives, and businesses are trying to walk fine lines between managing personnel and constantly looking over staffers’ shoulders.
“Technologies can mean the difference between truly accelerating the heartbeat of your business,” said Bob Egan, chief executive officer of Mobile Competency Inc. “But it can also wreak havoc” with employer/employee relations.
“The CIOs (chief information officers) are absolutely not on top of this problem-or most issues related to implementing good, productive mobile solutions,” he added.
The dark side to constant accessibility first surfaced more than 20 years ago, when simple numeric pagers gave supervisors the ability-if not the authority-to reach employees at a moment’s notice. With mobile phones now ubiquitous, all types of employees at all levels are finding themselves at the beck and call of management, both during work hours and outside the regular business day.
More advanced handsets are posing new problems. By the end of the year, the Federal Communications Commission will require all U.S. wireless carriers to provide the locations within a matter of meters of nearly anyone who dials 911 from a cell phone.
Because of the mandate, U.S. handsets are being equipped with global positioning system technology, and carriers are fine tuning the locating abilities of their networks. And in selling their wares to upper management, carriers are beginning to tout the ability to track and contact employees “anytime, anywhere.”
“The problem is that for most companies, cell phones have become commodities,” Egan said. “The unfortunate part is that very few CIOs and IT managers realize we’ve gone from a basic cell phone that allows people to talk wirelessly to a mid-1990s-class Pentium laptop walking around in someone’s hand. And all the privacy, security and device-management issues people continue to struggle with on their desktops are becoming front-and-center issues with those (handheld) devices.”
Nextel Communications Inc. offers enterprise users three settings to control their location information. In addition to enabling or disabling the transmission of their whereabouts, people can choose to disclose the information based on who’s checking.
“We put privacy as an extremely high priority because our customers do,” said Mary Foltz, Nextel’s director of location solutions. “If somebody’s querying a user’s location, the user can decide then and there if they’re going to respond or not.”
For businesses with employees in the field, instantly knowing staffers’ locations can be hugely beneficial. A manager doesn’t have to call around to find the nearest plumber to make a house call, for instance, and can track the most efficient delivery routes.
Other mobile infrastructure vendors and technology developers are building systems that could allow employees to set parameters on monitoring levels as well. Last year, Bell Labs introduced software that gives users limited controls over how their location information is shared. The product, dubbed the Privacy-Conscious Personalization framework, relies on user preferences to determine context-such as whether the user is working or shopping-to determine who can access the location information.
Other PCP controls give users the option of showing their locations to everyone, to selected friends or co-workers, or only to authorized officials in emergency situations. Such technologies can effectively turn location-sensitive information off after hours or on weekends.
Unlike traditional workplace issues like equal opportunity or harassment, there appears to be little legislation addressing privacy issues in wireless. The FCC declined industry requests in 2002 to create detailed rules for privacy, Egan said, leaving managers to fend for themselves when it comes to outlining privacy policies.
But that’s not to say businesses are free to ignore privacy issues. Citing privacy concerns, state legislatures are beginning to consider regulating radio-frequency identification technologies. “Enterprises that ignore this and future legislation that could impact wireless privacy run the risk of having a law nicknamed after their company,” Egan said.
Some states have already enacted legislation requiring businesses to inform employees of features such as Nextel’s privacy settings. Regardless of technological advances or legal ramifications, though, businesses must tread lightly when it comes to protecting employees’ privacy rights, Egan said. Technology can boost efficiency and productivity in the workplace, but can be a dangerous thing if strict policies aren’t established and enforced.
Said Egan: “Perhaps, going forward, there is some reason to justify the tracking of individuals who are using company equipment. But it’s pretty difficult to make a case that those kinds of tracking and privacy methods are valid outside of business hours.”
