GPS Tracking Devices Catch University Employees Playing Hooky
4 Feb 2013“Playing hooky” it seems isn’t just for young school age kids. Employees of the University of Minnesota were caught neglecting their work duties by GPS tracking devices.
Global positioning systems (GPS) are able to track and monitor the movement of which they are attached to, and in this case, GPS trackers were installed in University vehicles. The trackers followed three University of Minnesota mechanics as they sat idle in their vehicles and skipped work altogether.
According to the collected data, three university employees ended up spending over 4,000 total minutes (66 hours) idle in just eight weeks. Much of the time was spent in their vehicle while it was idle, parked at gas stations or convenience stores. During the time they weren’t working, data collected from the GPS trackers was compared to complaints about the mechanics not showing up to work on time and not located easily.
These three employees were tracked with GPS devices due to past warnings of not working full shifts. They are part of a group of employees who received the warnings, each of which had at least 10 years of experience at the university. Employees were fully aware they were being tracked, as the university was also using GPS trackers as a fleet management tool to conserve fuel, increase production, and reduce idle time.
Two of the employees, who often shared a vehicle, spent more than 16 hours in an idle vehicle at locations without work orders during the 8-weeks. Yet another employee, the worst offender of the three, was idled for almost 40 hours total while being tracked by the GPS device in his work vehicle.
After the data was reviewed, each mechanic received a one-week suspension, unpaid. They were cited for falsification of a University record or report, being out of your work area, and numerous unauthorized breaks. Since their punishment, one employee has quit his job at the university.
Brad Hoff, the chief administrative officer at the university said “These employees were investigated, were given due process, and were adequately punished,” said Brad Hoff, the chief administrative officer of the University’s Facilities Management division. “We want to make sure that folks are doing what they’re paid to do. They were not in the areas they were supposed to be in,” Hoff told reporters.
The good news in this case was that most of the employees’ data was on the up-and-up and revealed no problems.
The University of Minnesota is one of the many organizations that has caught employees being dishonest in the hours they work versus the hours they report. Employee GPS tracking continues to be a useful tool throughout the country as different businesses and organizations utilize the devices to increase productivity, reduce business costs, and improve a businesses’ competitive advantage
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