Don't hate me for saying this, but I've never had a "proper job." I waitressed for a while (aka: worst summer of my life), worked in my Dad's factory for a week, and stacked shelves in a drugstore. I've also been a student and now I work from home in my pajamas. So this story doesn't really apply to me, but I still thought it was interesting - maybe because I have sympathy for all you wage slaves who trudge to work and punch in at some ungodly hour of the morning.

The one advantage of old clocking in systems was that you could, in a pinch, get one of your friends to clock in for you (or at least, if you were a character on Laverne and Shirley you could).

But now an increasing number of places - from Dunkin' Donuts to The New York City Parks Department - are installing biometric time clocks such as the one above, where employees must have their fingerprints scanned when they start and leave work.

According to USA Today, some employees are annoyed at this new development and say they feel spied on. But employers feel it boosts productivity, and consulting firm The International Biometric Group estimates that this industry will be worth more than $1 billion by 2011.

In other words, it may be just a matter of time before my freelance clients all send me some kind of monitoring device to make sure I'm not just LOLCat-ing my day away . . . (But seriously, how clever is this one?)

Picture via Super Warehouse.