Phone GPS tracks employee leaving early - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Regorium · 08-31-2007, 08:36 AM

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08302007...rack_trick.htm

Quote:

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.

Getting fired for GPS tracking your every move. This could set a very interesting precedent.

ZDogg · 08-31-2007, 08:56 AM

Damn. I better leave my cell phone in the office before I duck out early today... Thanks for the heads up!

RougeUnderoos · 08-31-2007, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fotze

Just like music piracy, people will devise a way to get around it.

Yup. Leave the phone at work.

llama64 · 08-31-2007, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Yup. Leave the phone at work.

Or refuse a company issued phone and use your own.

Reaper · 08-31-2007, 09:12 AM

Overall, it sounds like he's not too evil for his indiscretions. The story mentions that on many of the days where he was tracked to have gone home early he had arrived to work about two hours early. This cancels off some time but I think they are going on the fact that he was a Supervisor.

If the first two hours of his shift are spent supervising no one and then he leaves work while two more additional hours of work are done unsupervised then the effective time he's working is about 5 hours per day.

His base pay was $300 per day so the only question that needs to be asked is: Was he really working at a $60/hour rate?

Even when he was driving from site to site?

Bring_Back_Shantz · 08-31-2007, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fotze

To beat Bring back shantz to the punch...

or stop leaving work early..

I'm not sure why you figured I'd say that.
My first reaction was "turn your phone off before you leave early".

Ayrahb · 08-31-2007, 09:30 AM

He deserves to be fired, but I hope those who were issued cell phones and were not breaking the rules sue the city. I know people who have company-issued cell phones when they are on call and I know they would be pissed if their employers tracked them without telling them first.

Suppose you take time off (legitimately) during your working hours to see your doctor for a series of treatments. Wouldn't you be worried for your job if they could get that information without you knowing?

Caged Great · 08-31-2007, 09:49 AM

Soon, they'll be able to track your every move. *Gets out tinfoil hat*

transplant99 · 08-31-2007, 09:55 AM

Dont leave early...dont get fired. Sounds simple...no?

transplant99 · 08-31-2007, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Suppose you take time off (legitimately) during your working hours to see your doctor for a series of treatments. Wouldn't you be worried for your job if they could get that information without you knowing?

How would they know what you are doing? All they would be able to tell is that you are not where you are supposed to be. Besides...like you said a legitimate abscence wouldnt be a concern anyhow...doctors notes still work!

BradMan23 · 08-31-2007, 10:38 AM

So if you leave your phone on at the office and just leave, can you use the evidence of you 'being at the office' to support the case that you need a raise?

"But boss, I've been working so hard. Look at how many hours Ive spent tied to my desk...."

If you can use the information one way...

-Brad

Knut · 08-31-2007, 11:04 AM

you can turn off the tracker on most cell phones and leave you open to being tracked by only emergency crews.

That is how i can duck out of work early to go to the brothel.

habernac · 08-31-2007, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ayrahb

Suppose you take time off (legitimately) during your working hours to see your doctor for a series of treatments. Wouldn't you be worried for your job if they could get that information without you knowing?

Wouldn't you discuss that with your superiors for doing so? Then you'd have nothing to worry about there.

RougeUnderoos · 08-31-2007, 11:26 AM

If I was the one doing the hiring and firing I'd be much more concerned about the guy actually doing his job than I would be if he cuts out early.

I've had a job or two with co-workers whose sole talent was arriving on time and leaving at the stroke of 5. Much of there day was then taken up with gabbing and solitaire, but hey, at least they showed up on time.

FlamesAddiction · 08-31-2007, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

If I was the one doing the hiring and firing I'd be much more concerned about the guy actually doing his job than I would be if he cuts out early.

.

Yup.

I think most reasonable employers are like that, which to me might signify that there was something else going on and they were looking for an excuse to get rid of him.

Ayrahb · 08-31-2007, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by transplant99

How would they know what you are doing? All they would be able to tell is that you are not where you are supposed to be. Besides...like you said a legitimate abscence wouldnt be a concern anyhow...doctors notes still work!

Wouldn't GPS tracking mean that they can know your location?

I brought up the doctor example because I only mention my medical problems to my employer if I have to miss work due to illness. Generally speaking, I do not want the information about any of my daily activities to be logged anywhere unless I am at work.

All this, of course, wouldn't be such a big deal if the intent to track had been fully disclosed to employees.

A short article regarding the issue:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/gps-privacy.html

transplant99 · 08-31-2007, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Wouldn't GPS tracking mean that they can know your location?

Yes...but they wouldnt know whats AT that location without driving up to it or a lookup address kind of thing.

Quote:

If I was the one doing the hiring and firing I'd be much more concerned about the guy actually doing his job than I would be if he cuts out early.

Agreed to an extent...but leaving early 83 times over a work period of 139 days (its a 160 according to the article but that doesnt lop off weekends) sounds ridiculously extensive to me.

The optics to me are the guy thought he had a sure fire scam going but technology wiped it out.Not to mention he was on the public payroll...and my god there is enough waste with tax dollars already at every level than allow guys to commit this kind of fraud.

RougeUnderoos · 08-31-2007, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by transplant99

The optics to me are the guy thought he had a sure fire scam going but technology wiped it out.Not to mention he was on the public payroll...and my god there is enough waste with tax dollars already at every level than allow guys to commit this kind of fraud.

It's a scam or a fraud if he's not actually doing his work. Is he doing what he's getting paid for? Fulfilling all his duties? I don't know, but if they had to resort to this to figure out he was leaving early then I'd say he probably was. If a carpenter isn't doing his job you don't need a satellite to figure it out. Working eyeballs and a level should be enough.

This adherence to the code reminds me of elementary school when the teacher ran out of things to do. "Put your heads down children for quiet time until the bell rings".

transplant99 · 08-31-2007, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

It's a scam or a fraud if he's not actually doing his work. Is he doing what he's getting paid for? Fulfilling all his duties? I don't know, but if they had to resort to this to figure out he was leaving early then I'd say he probably was. If a carpenter isn't doing his job you don't need a satellite to figure it out. Working eyeballs and a level should be enough.

This adherence to the code reminds me of elementary school when the teacher ran out of things to do. "Put your heads down children for quiet time until the bell rings".

Quote:

Originally Posted by from the article

a veteran supervisor of carpenters,

How could he be supervising others if he isnt there?

Thats what Im getting at.

But hey....no reason to adhere to actually making someone work for what they are getting paid for any longer...its elementay school stuff these days I guess.

iggypop · 08-31-2007, 12:51 PM

When he intially got the phone wouldn't they legally have to tell him and get him to sign something saying that he understands they can use this information in the future?