Working alone: start a session and check in

When you are working on your own, a lone worker session keeps someone watching out for you. You check in on a timer, and you can call for help at any moment. If you stop checking in, or press Get help, the people your workspace has chosen are alerted, one after another, until somebody takes it on.

The Lone worker card sits on Today, just under the clock card. You only see it if your workspace has switched Lone worker on. Some parts, such as calls from the alarm number, check-in codes, Share my route and three words, come with some plans only, so your workspace may not have them.

Starting a session

Tap Start on the card — "We'll check on you while you work alone." The sheet asks two things, and both are optional:

• What are you doing? — for example Meter reads on the A46. It is what the person alerted will read first, so say where you are and what you are doing.
• Check in every — the choices go up to your workspace's own interval (30 minutes unless your workspace has set another), which is selected to start with. Pick a shorter one to be checked on more often; you can't choose a longer one.

Tap Start. You'll see "Lone worker session started".

Your workspace may choose to start a session whenever someone clocks in. If it has, Clock in also starts one at the workspace's interval — the card switches straight to its countdown — and it runs until you tap End session; clocking out doesn't end it. Otherwise clocking in and lone working are separate: clocking in doesn't start a session, and a session doesn't clock you in.

Checking in

The card counts down — "Check in within 24:10" — with what you are doing underneath. Its buttons:

• I'm OK — the big one. Tap it before the countdown runs out. You'll see "Checked in" and the countdown starts again from your interval.
• Need longer — "How much longer?" 15, 30, 60 or 120 min. Your next check-in moves that far from now. Use it when you know you'll be tied up.
• End session — when you have finished working alone. "Session ended. Thanks for checking in."
• Get help — underneath the rest, in red. See If you need help now below.
• Call and a name — rings your manager, or the first person on your workspace's list, from your own phone, for when you can still talk. A voice call often gets through where data doesn't. The office sees that you tapped it, never the number.

Each tap sends your location if the phone can find one within a few seconds. No location is fine — in a basement or with location off, the check-in still counts.

The countdown keeps running with no signal, but a check-in needs a connection. If a check-in doesn't send, you'll see an error and the countdown is not reset — so you are never left thinking you checked in when you didn't. Try again as soon as you have signal, or phone your office.

If you're late

When the countdown runs out, the card turns red: "You're late checking in" — "Check in now, or your workspace will be alerted." You also get a "Check in now" notification; tapping it opens Today at the card. Tap I'm OK.

If your workspace calls workers who miss a check-in, your phone rings as well. Enter your check-in code on the call to check in — see Your check-in code below.

After a short grace period from that notification (5 minutes unless your workspace has set another), the alarm goes up. The card reads "Your workspace has been alerted" — "Someone is being contacted now. Stay where you are if you safely can." Once someone takes it, the card says who: "Sam Reid has this".

I'm OK stays in the same place, with the same words, in every state. Checking in, asking for longer or ending the session closes the alarm straight away, and everyone who was alerted is told you are safe.

If the office closes the alarm, your session ends with it. If your card still shows the countdown, a check-in will say "That session has already ended." — close and reopen Maliru, and start a new session if you are still working alone.

If you need help now

Tap Get help on the card, then Send alarm to confirm "Send an alarm now?". You don't wait for a missed check-in: the people on your workspace's escalation list are alerted straight away, one after another, with your location when you pressed it — or the last one your phone sent, if it can't get a fix. The card then reads "Your workspace has been alerted".

Get help is on the card whenever a session is running — on time, late, or after an alarm has already gone out. Pressing it then turns that alarm into a call for help and starts again with the first person on the list. It isn't on the card before you start a session.

With no signal

If the alarm can't get through, the phone keeps it: "No signal. Your alarm is saved on this phone and will send as soon as there is signal." A red strip stays at the top of the card — "Your alarm has not been sent yet" — "There is no signal. It will send by itself the moment there is. If you can, phone for help." — with Send now to try again yourself.

Maliru keeps trying on its own while the card is on screen and whenever the connection comes back. However many tries it takes, it arrives as one alarm. It carries the location from the moment you pressed, and the people alerted are told it was pressed with no signal and how many minutes late it reached Maliru. Once it lands you'll see "Your alarm has been sent."

The waiting alarm also shows as Alarm in your list of captures saved on the phone. Don't discard it.

If Maliru refuses a held alarm, the strip reads "Your alarm was not accepted" with the reason, and Send now tries again.

If nobody could be alerted

If your workspace has nobody set up to receive alarms, the card says "Nobody was alerted" — "Your workspace has no one set up to receive alarms, so this one reached nobody. Phone for help directly." The alarm is still recorded, but no one has been told. Phone for help.

Pressed it by mistake?

Tap I'm OK. The alarm closes and everyone who was alerted is told you are safe.

Your check-in code

If your workspace calls workers who miss a check-in, the card asks you to Set your check-in code — "Maliru will call you if you miss a check-in, and you check in on the call with it." Tap Set code. Once it is set, Check-in code on the card opens it again.

• Choose four digits and enter them twice. Codes that are easy to guess, like 1111, 1234 or 9876, are refused.
• When you miss a check-in, Maliru rings the phone number on your record (ask your office if you're not sure it's right): "You have missed your lone worker check-in. Enter your 4-digit check-in code, then press hash." Enter it and you are checked in, just as if you had tapped I'm OK. You get three tries.
• With no code set, the call can only remind you to open Maliru and tap I'm OK.
• Nobody else can see your codes, the office included. If you forget yours, set new ones.

Save the number Maliru calls from as Maliru alarm, so the call isn't silenced or sent to voicemail. Your office can tell you the number.

A duress code

Under Add a duress code (optional) you can set a second code, for when somebody is making you check in. Enter it on the call instead of your check-in code. The call sounds exactly the same and your phone shows you checked in, but your workspace is silently alerted and told not to ring you.

Your phone won't show the alarm, and checking in or ending your session doesn't cancel it: only the office can. Your duress code must be different from your check-in code.

Practise

Try my code rings this phone straight away. Enter a code and the call tells you which one it was and what it would do. Nothing else happens. You can try three times an hour.

When a session won't start

• "Nobody in your workspace is set up to be alerted, so a session would not protect you. Ask them to add an escalation contact." — your workspace hasn't chosen anyone to alert yet. Tell your manager; until they do, nobody can start a session.
• "You already have a lone worker session running." — you started one earlier, perhaps on another phone. Close and reopen Maliru to see it on the card.

Share my route

If your workspace has Journey monitoring switched on, the start sheet also offers Share my route — "Records where you go until you end the session, including while your phone is locked." It is off unless you switch it on.

It needs Maliru to be allowed to use your location. While using the app is enough, and Maliru never asks for more: your route carries on being recorded when your phone locks. While it is being recorded your phone shows it — a location indicator on iPhone, and on Android a notification that reads "Your route is being recorded until you end the session." The card says "Sharing your route until you end the session." If location is turned off, or Maliru isn't allowed to use it, the card says your route isn't being shared and offers Turn on or Allow; your session carries on without a route until you do. Recording stops the moment you end the session. If the office ends it instead, your phone stops the next time it tries to send your route — within a few minutes.

Your three words

If your workspace uses what3words, a running session shows Show my three words. Tap it to see where you are as three words, such as ///filled.count.soap, with the place they are near. Read them out if you call the emergency services, or tap the copy button to paste them into a message.

It needs signal. Without it, the card shows your phone's own coordinates instead, which you can read out just the same. Looking up your words doesn't check you in and doesn't change your session.

If an alarm goes off while your workspace uses what3words, the people answering it get your position as three words too.

If your workspace calls your emergency contact

Your workspace can choose to call workers' emergency contacts as a last resort. If yours does, the card tells you before you start a session: "If nobody at Acme Civils answers an alarm, Maliru will call Alex Hale, your emergency contact." They are only called once nobody at work has taken the alarm. They are asked whether they know you're safe, and can't stop or close the alarm. They are never called for a duress alarm.

Who can see where you are

Only people with the Manage lone worker permission can open the lone worker board, and every time someone opens your session it is written to the audit trail. Starting, checking in, asking for longer, ending and pressing Get help are recorded in the audit trail too — whether a location was sent, but never where. Other workers never see your location. Without Share my route, Maliru only knows where you were at the moments you started, checked in, asked for longer, pressed Get help or ended — nothing in between.

For the office side, see Lone worker for the office: escalation contacts, the board and answering an alarm.