In 2007 the school district in Columbus, Ohio invested in a new system to track employees' work time (down to the minute), requiring that employees 'punch in and out' everyday. But most employees of the school district have since refused to use the system, saying that the requirement was a change in their work rules that would need to be collectively bargained. Three years and $1.7 million later, only 15 percent of Columbus school employees use the system.

While the district's intentions may have been good--to get a better grasp on employee attendance--the approach harkens back to factory model work rules, just what most sensible districts are abandoning.

The name of the attendance system doesn't help matters much: Kronos. Father of Zeus, a 1957 sci-fi movie, a secret work station from 1970s Soviet Union, French death metal band--and now a system for tracking employee attendance.