Throw Away Your Nextel

Not only is having a work cellphone intrusive but it could actually cost you your job:

A 21-year employee of the school system could lose his job after officials accused him of repeatedly leaving early – and stunned the worker with data it got by tracking his movements with a city-issued cellphone, The Post has learned.

In a precedent-setting case, administrative trial judge Tynia Richard recommended the firing of John Halpin, a veteran supervisor of carpenters, for cutting out before the end of his shift on as many as 83 occasions between March 2 and Aug. 9, 2006.

The evidence against Halpin, whose base pay is $300 a day, included time cards that suspiciously appeared stamped on the same machine, even though his duties placed him in different locations each day.

But there was a clincher: data gathered through the GPS system on Halpin’s cellphone, which he accepted in 2005 without being told it might be used to trace his every move.

On March 8, for example, supervisors determined that Halpin was last in Manhattan at 1:31 p.m. and was home in Levittown, L.I., at 2:40 p.m. On March 29, Halpin was found at home at 2:38 p.m.

The earliest he was caught in Levittown was 1:40 p.m. on June 22.

But his shift wasn’t supposed to end until 3:30 p.m.

Some workers refused the free-phone offer, saying they preferred to use their own cells.

Richard said the unsuspecting Halpin “admitted he took the phone because he liked the walkie-talkie and other functions it has.”

And a good reminder why it’s always better to start late than end early:

Halpin questioned the reliability of the data and argued that his privacy was invaded, since officials tracked him when he wasn’t at work.

In fact, the data found Halpin on numerous occasions turned up early for his job, sometimes at 6 a.m. His shift started at 8 a.m.

Despite the extra hours Halpin put in without pay, Richard ruled that it didn’t mitigate his early departures and recommended he be fired.