

Worker fired for disabling GPS app that tracked her 24 hours a day - zorpner
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/worker-fired-for-disabling-gps-app-that-tracked-her-24-hours-a-day/

======
marssaxman
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
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
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
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
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
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.

