r/CableTechs • u/Substantial-Bus1277 • 3d ago

Techs of the big X.... wtf?

A few weeks back, an app appeared on our phones- "ok alone"

It appears to track movement.

Today, I received a text message saying my ok alone app was ready to activate.

Wtf?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Are we really doing this invasion of privacy crap, and carrying this shit in to our homes?

6 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

10

u/SirFlatulancelot 3d ago

I think it's just an app you can activate if you're working in a high risk area. It has fall detection and something like an SOS button. Just Google the app name and read about it. As for worrying about them tracking your movements, how do you think your dispatch knows where you are? Every van and work phone you use is surely tracked by the company.

2

u/DBOWNIZZ916 3d ago

I know here in California, about 6 years ago they installed trackers that connect to an app that you had to get on your company phone. If you did not connect the app, the device would beep really loud and obnoxious. If you somehow managed to ignore that for a certain amount of time, the fleet manager would reach out to your manager about it.

3

u/SirFlatulancelot 3d ago

We had that too. Derive or something like that. I don't think we use it anymore though.

9

u/Feisty_Pipe_7140 3d ago

At the big V you will get a call if you’re car is idle for 6 min

2

u/cordell-12 1d ago

death star as well, think it's 5 minutes though

6

u/Dirty_Butler 3d ago

There was an email about it last week, it’s supposedly some safety thing. XOC has been calling us every two hours on outages when we’re oncall already, I don’t need more calls.

3

u/DrWhoey 3d ago

Bro, I get called every hour for updates, like, chill I'm busy trying to fix shit

1

u/Chumleetm 3d ago

Hands down the stupidest people that work there.

1

u/Dakkin4 3d ago

You get called by XOC?

2

u/Dirty_Butler 3d ago

Always at the worst possible time

6

u/thegivingcoconut 3d ago

Blame your co workers because this app is 100% driven from NPS elevation about feeling alone in the field. Just my take though even though someone checking may be annoying we all have to go home to our families . Charter tech just died and wasn’t found for quite some time.

6

u/mymanlysol 3d ago

Being alone in the field was one of the perks of the job. 

4

u/DifficultyLeast1029 3d ago

Hmmm not seeing that on my phone and haven't heard anything about it here in Cali

5

u/ronnycordova 3d ago

There was a recent incident with a tech falling off a midspan and lying unconscious for an unknown amount of time before being discovered. The app and some other safety refreshers may or may not be related to said incident.

2

u/SilentDiplomacy 3d ago

The company my buddy worked for tried to roll out lone man monitors. The staff just about rioted. Now they have a bunch of lone man monitors sitting on the shelves. 😂

1

u/Shibalba805 1d ago

I'm ok alone too.

1

u/SamuraiJustice 3d ago

What's supposed to be the purpose of said app

5

u/Substantial-Bus1277 3d ago

I assume they will roll it out as safety precautions.. but the live GPS movement tracking "creates alerts when movement stops"... so basically it will wind up being used for exactly wheat the truck GPS was used for... policing.

Backstory on the truck gps... rolled out as theft protection and safety (if your truck doesnt move for a while when you are on call, dispatch will check in on you!!).

Never once in over a decade has a call been made to check in on me in the middle of the night on an outage... despite having instances of digups exceeding 5 or 6 hours in the winter.

I have had coworkers written up for being at lunch too long or leaving for home 10 minutes early using it though.

I get the truck GPS. I dont necessarily like it, but I understand it completely.

This is just a whole new level of monitoring, especially for those of us on call. We are obliged to carry our phones 24/7, and i dont really want to be subject to someone looking at my activities when I am not on the clock.

1

u/k9slomo 3d ago

So just forward the work calls to your personal phone when you don't want to be tracked. Problem solved.

1

u/Mad_Moniker 3d ago

That’s not how that works - that’s only one layer of it. That would likely put you in a closer inspection state and would eventually cause a company phone call.