41–50 of 62 posts
66% of time credit for time spent on call outside business hours regardless if paged or not. Maximum levels of pages etc. Oncall should never be considered built in, it just leads to managerial abuse, and poor practice because its "free".
A symptom of this is when fixing bugs is not prioritized because the on-call engineer is a meat robot that “fixes the bug.”
I had different arrangements for this in previous jobs, but I think the availability pay + callout pay is a pretty fair way to deal with it.
In general though: I was always paid for on-call on top of the normal pay and likely wouldn't take it otherwise. (Unless it was explicitly added on top of normal comp of course) It's work and your time - that's mostly what the employer wants you for.
That vacation is not eligible for pay out if I resigned.
My last workplace didn’t give special compensation.
It's normal to be compensated for this. At Google my team got $1600/wk because of the required SLA. At a startup I worked at, we didn't get paid extra, but we got an extra day of PTO for every week on call. (This is technically pointless, as we had unlimited PTO, but we did the rotation Thursday-Thursday and specifically didn't have meetings etc. on Friday so that the 2 people that were oncall last week could take a…
It would be informative if someone made a list like the extended exercise window list [1] for on call practices and comp if it exists
However one piece of conventional wisdom - on call rotations should be no less than eight people, and not much more. Going on call any more than one week in two months leads to burn out. Any less frequently than that you risk losing familiarity with on call procedures, the observability systems, etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Don't let this happen to you. What can you really do if they lie in the interview?
They say they don't have an on call rotation. You say you want some amount increase during on-call rotations included in your offer, even though they don't currently do an on call rotation. If they push back, you say "Well you don't have an on-call, so if it never comes up it never comes up". If they flatout refuse, they intend to have you work for free.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They say they don't have an on call rotation. You say you want some amount increase during on-call rotations included in your offer, even though they don't currently do an on call rotation. If they push back, you say "Well you don't have an on-call, so if it never comes up it never comes up". If they flatout refuse, they intend to have you work for free.
If you want to get paid by the hour, choose a gig that pays you hourly. If you choose a gig that pays you a salary and is exempt (like many SWEs)…well, you are not technically working for free no matter if you are working inside or outside your regular working hours.
For all the extra effort of having an on-call system it's used less than half a dozen times a year, but the boss likes being able to charge for it.
For me it's built in as a senior software dev, no extra compensation. But, it's 3 or 4 one-week shifts a year because everyone is in the rotation. Usually nothing happens. We are a small company ( If either I was in a more junior position, or the on call issues were very frequent, then I might feel differently. I don't know your situation, but I would ask: what has changed? Is the product turning out to be less relia…
Because you believe in the mission and we are working together to xyz? Employees are employees, replaceable, out source, lay-off Being in it together does sometimes payoff good luck
It's normal to be compensated for this. At Google my team got $1600/wk because of the required SLA. At a startup I worked at, we didn't get paid extra, but we got an extra day of PTO for every week on call. (This is technically pointless, as we had unlimited PTO, but we did the rotation Thursday-Thursday and specifically didn't have meetings etc. on Friday so that the 2 people that were oncall last week could take a…
Google pays for on call but it is absolutely the exception in the US. Most Silicon Valley tech companies do not - it’s considered part of the job. Paying for a call is an elegant solution when you have a massively profitable business. Comp days like you are describing are more common, but often informal arrangements. It would be informative if someone made a list like the extended exercise window list [1] for on call…
I guess Google is at $2000/wk for second tier now!