ARCOS Callout

[shorty91]

Sorry if this has been posted, but I am new to here. We are going to an automated callout system in AEP-OHIO and wondered if anyones had any issues with this or the system in general. What are some thoughts, etc:confused:

[MI-Lineman]

Sorry if this has been posted, but I am new to here. We are going to an automated callout system in AEP-OHIO and wondered if anyones had any issues with this or the system in general. What are some thoughts, etc:confused:

The percentage of accepts or responses is never accurate? Don't know if Arcos is at fault but remember if you're talkin while you're on the phone with Arcos it records everything! SO NO FUNNY BUSINESS!;)

It's not that bad but it still has to be initiated by a human so the grievances are still there!:confused:

BTW! Make sure ya right off your phone bill for company use if ya can!

[wudwoker51]

Look for some past post by Chicago Hand. Com Ed and L.U. 15 had a knockdown dragout when Com Ed went to the automated system years ago. I do believe that the local lost an arbitration over this issue but can't remember all the details.

[Highplains Drifter]

BTW! Make sure ya right off your phone bill for company use if ya can!


That's why you have two phone lines, one for them and one for us....:D, then you never have to worry about turning them down...

[justhoofit]

we use it and it works fine. some of the older guys at work still havent figured it out and they want to work overtime yet refuse to learn how it works. More for me I quess, as far a grievances go it has eliminated about every possibilty of having a grievance related to overtime. the most common complaint with it among the guys I work with is they only want to work if its overhead and they think it wont tell you unless you accept the assignment first but all you have to do is not respond at first then it goes through the details of the job, (I.E.) cause of outage and which territory its in, yet the dispatch has caught on to this and started just stating that its an outage , because guys werent accepting underground fault assignments. I personally didnt like it at first cause our old method the dispatch would tell you who was working already and they would let you decide if you wanted to or not, which me personally could care less being overtime is overtime and there is always a bad egg in every shop. one recomendation would be to make your id the same as your pin to eliminate confusion when it asks you to enter it. thats how ours works and I would assume yours would be similar. good luck.

[MI-Lineman]

It always runs the list properly but it's up to management to put the right people available or not in regards to rest, vacation, or sick time. That's where a lot of our grievances come from not the system itself.

As for pins, after you figure out a number you can program your cell to input them automatically! Should be a pause feature in your menu so when you call it to check call out percentages, return a call, or what not you can auto dial with pauses tween the actual phone number and the pins.

I live in the sticks so sometimes my cell don't work so I put my home phone as the second number!

[Boomer gone soft]

Works fine for us at Alliant Energy. If you want to be unavailable, just call it in. No muss / No fuss.

We have no grievances based on callout.

[MI-Lineman]

Works fine for us at Alliant Energy. If you want to be unavailable, just call it in. No muss / No fuss.

We have no grievances based on callout.

You can make yourself "unavailable?" The call won't go against you as a decline? We don't get that option.

[Boomer gone soft]

You can make yourself "unavailable?" The call won't go against you as a decline? We don't get that option.

We are always on (no stand-by) unless we go unavailable. We only get "dinged" if we are available and refuse a call (or miss it).

It's all computerized and we get several reason codes for unavailability, but I always choose "other" because it's none of their damn business what I'm doing on my own time......besides, they don't have a code for sitting on the internet, scratching my ass, and annoying the piss out of Swamprat.:D

[MI-Lineman]

We are always on (no stand-by) unless we go unavailable. We only get "dinged" if we are available and refuse a call (or miss it).

It's all computerized and we get several reason codes for unavailability, but I always choose "other" because it's none of their damn business what I'm doing on my own time......besides, they don't have a code for sitting on the internet, scratching my ass, and annoying the piss out of Swamprat.:D

LOL! We have on-call but then we have a percentage of "normal call outs" we have to respond to in a quarter and any reason for decline has to be assessed by management whether it's "legit" or not and you whether you don't get a denial against ya!:rolleyes: It sucks!

[CHICAGO HAND.]

We have and are still in Hell on this issue. There is no pay for being on call 24/7 for us and that is the issue. Arcos is just the way in which they call us out. It is my belief that the federal judge was bought out on our federal law suit about us being on call with no pay. Man I HATE THIS ISSUE.

[Boomer gone soft]

We have and are still in Hell on this issue. There is no pay for being on call 24/7 for us and that is the issue. Arcos is just the way in which they call us out. It is my belief that the federal judge was bought out on our federal law suit about us being on call with no pay. Man I HATE THIS ISSUE.

That's exactly why we have the option to take ourselves unavailable. I take it you also don't have that option?

[Liledgy]

X2 what Chicago hand says. If you have crappy calling language in your contract ( local 15). Then arcos will be a nightmare. Com ed can increase the % of call outs you must respond to. And remember, the lineman already average well over 1000 hours a year. But the worst part of the percentage is that in all collar counties around Chicago the population (customers and callings) has Increased at least 100%, and in some counties ( will,Kane) 3-400% in the last 25 years. The line dept. Has probably a third of the hands they had 25 years ago. So the call outs can be extreme. You may have got a call every couple of weeks ( or month) back then because 1/2 the calls and 3 times the amount of people to take them.