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Worker fired for disabling GPS app that tracked her 24 hours a day

15 points by zorpner 11y ago

marssaxman 11y ago
This is obviously a bullshit policy on the company's part, but I'm curious why she didn't simply leave her work phone at work. They can't track you if you're not carrying their tracker, and why would you want to have your work phone outside work hours in the first place?
- relaytheurgency 11y ago
  I, for instance, am on call and required to have my work phone on my person 24 hours a day unless I'm on vacation with a pre-arranged backup.
  - marssaxman 11y ago
    Oh god, that's terrible. I had no idea that was a thing. How is that legal? I can imagine why a 24/7 tracker app would be a significant problem in such a case.
    - relaytheurgency 11y ago
      Are you not from the US? Being "on call" is pretty common in certain professions. Doctors, for instance. A lot of vital IT workers are on call all the time. If a server goes down in prod, who are they going to call?
      - greenyoda 11y ago
        Not only that, but if you're an "exempt" employee in the U.S. (as most IT workers are), you don't have to be paid any extra money for being on call 24 hours a day. However, the woman in the article was a sales executive, not an IT worker. If the company had to be able to reach her in rare emergencies, they could call her on her personal phone if her company phone was turned off. "If a server goes down in prod, who are they going to call?" In the good old days, before companies got cheap, they used to hire three shifts of operations staff who worked 8 hours each.
        relaytheurgency 11y ago
        While I don't disagree with you on the perceived unfairness of a lack of overtime, it could be argued that my base salary is higher than it would be if I were only available 8 hours a day before OT kicked in. Not saying I agree with the statement, but it's an argument to have for sure. I certainly make much more at this job than I did at any job where I got overtime, mainly because the kind of jobs where you aren't exempt are usually low skill/low pay.

15 points by zorpner 11y ago

This is obviously a bullshit policy on the company's part, but I'm curious why she didn't simply leave her work phone at work. They can't track you if you're not carrying their tracker, and why would you want to have your work phone outside work hours in the first place?

relaytheurgency 11y ago
I, for instance, am on call and required to have my work phone on my person 24 hours a day unless I'm on vacation with a pre-arranged backup.
- marssaxman 11y ago
  Oh god, that's terrible. I had no idea that was a thing. How is that legal? I can imagine why a 24/7 tracker app would be a significant problem in such a case.
  - relaytheurgency 11y ago
    Are you not from the US? Being "on call" is pretty common in certain professions. Doctors, for instance. A lot of vital IT workers are on call all the time. If a server goes down in prod, who are they going to call?
    - greenyoda 11y ago
      Not only that, but if you're an "exempt" employee in the U.S. (as most IT workers are), you don't have to be paid any extra money for being on call 24 hours a day. However, the woman in the article was a sales executive, not an IT worker. If the company had to be able to reach her in rare emergencies, they could call her on her personal phone if her company phone was turned off. "If a server goes down in prod, who are they going to call?" In the good old days, before companies got cheap, they used to hire three shifts of operations staff who worked 8 hours each.
      - relaytheurgency 11y ago
        While I don't disagree with you on the perceived unfairness of a lack of overtime, it could be argued that my base salary is higher than it would be if I were only available 8 hours a day before OT kicked in. Not saying I agree with the statement, but it's an argument to have for sure. I certainly make much more at this job than I did at any job where I got overtime, mainly because the kind of jobs where you aren't exempt are usually low skill/low pay.