81–90 of 202 posts
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This is why people used to be paid time-and-a-half or even double-time for being on call. Ask your union to demand that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-and-a-half
For nurses on-call is a tiny amount - $3/hr and then you get 1.5x if you actually get called in
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why people used to be paid time-and-a-half or even double-time for being on call. Ask your union to demand that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-and-a-half
So for say a weekly on-call rotation you would be paid all 24 hours x 7 days at double rate? (- ~40) Also most tech companies don't have unions...
For me the worst thing about being on-call is not the actual work outside business hours (it’s usually not much), but the potential work: if something happens I need to jump into my laptop within X minutes (changes from company to company, but it’s usually within 10 minutes). This means: I cannot go for a run, I cannot go to the movies, I cannot go for a dinner with family, I cannot even go shopping (shopping mall is…
I know it varies by situation. When I've been on call I've been able to mostly go about my life. I just had to keep my laptop close, stay in cell signal, and accept I would sometimes have interruptions (typically brief). We fought to keep them infrequent enough that they didn't ruin our lives.
The industry myth of "devs need to be on-call just in case prod crashes at 3am" needs to die. First, a system failure addressed by someone awoken "at 3am" assumes said person can transition from sleep to peek analytic mode in moments. This is obviously not the case. Second, a system failure addressed by someone awoken "at 3am" assumes said person possesses omniscient awareness of all aspects of a non-trivial system.…
The industry myth of "devs need to be on-call just in case prod crashes at 3am" needs to die. First, a system failure addressed by someone awoken "at 3am" assumes said person can transition from sleep to peek analytic mode in moments. This is obviously not the case. Second, a system failure addressed by someone awoken "at 3am" assumes said person possesses omniscient awareness of all aspects of a non-trivial system.…
Well yeah, if you have on call, I guess you have to trust the on-call person to make that decision. If they get called at 3am, the problem is obviously so bad that almost anything they do can only make it better, right? If it's some overlooked edge case that crashes the whole application and can be fixed with a one line change, it's probably Ok to do it a 3am. If it's more complicated, maybe wait until 7am and discuss it with others too. And, in any case, a thorough post mortem (during office hours) and checking if the 3am fix is really a proper fix for the issue is in order...
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Engineers don't pick their work, management does. A manager no longer needs to choose between system reliability and churning out new features with on-call: The manager can get all the credit for pushing out new features during the day, and sleep well at night knowing that the engineers aren't.
At a lot of companies engineers are involved in picking the work. It's silly to hire competent problem solvers and treat them as unskilled workers needing micro-management. Besides, if you set the on-call system up so people get free time the following day to compensate for waking up at night, the manager can't pretend there's no cost. Bad management will fail on both of these of course, but there's no saving that be…
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My on call experience required that I had to be able to respond within 10 ten minutes of the call, with 24/7/365 coverage. But if I couldn't get the issue resolved remotely it meant that I'd have to be in the office lab to recreate and reproduce the problem. It effectively restricted my movements personal movements to stay within commute distance of my office, and that includes all my vacation time as well. That was…
Yeah, I worked in a couple companies that had the same requirements. It also meant having to wake up on command in case the phone beeped, being unable to drink in my free time, being limited in which activities I could go to. It was hell. I know people are gonna hit back with "you're doing it wrong", but in this case it's the company doing it wrong, but nobody on HN will go there and tell them.
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Sounds like normal support work not sure why that's affecting morale. It's normal in any kind of system to also cover issues. Yes, at some point you might want to have a customer support / customer success later to at least triage them, but that makes more sense as you get bigger not when you are small. I actually like having discussions on support days with customer. Yes, sometimes they're more annoying but it's dir…
My on call experience required that I had to be able to respond within 10 ten minutes of the call, with 24/7/365 coverage. But if I couldn't get the issue resolved remotely it meant that I'd have to be in the office lab to recreate and reproduce the problem. It effectively restricted my movements personal movements to stay within commute distance of my office, and that includes all my vacation time as well. That was…
So were you the only one ever on call? That's rough. I've been in two man (every other week) rotations and that was annoying, but went to being solo on call for about a month. That was a shitty month, despite not having many calls. It's just the constant thought and consideration like you mention.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My on call experience required that I had to be able to respond within 10 ten minutes of the call, with 24/7/365 coverage. But if I couldn't get the issue resolved remotely it meant that I'd have to be in the office lab to recreate and reproduce the problem. It effectively restricted my movements personal movements to stay within commute distance of my office, and that includes all my vacation time as well. That was…
Yeah, I worked in a couple companies that had the same requirements. It also meant having to wake up on command in case the phone beeped, being unable to drink in my free time, being limited in which activities I could go to. It was hell. I know people are gonna hit back with "you're doing it wrong", but in this case it's the company doing it wrong, but nobody on HN will go there and tell them.
What kind of slave driver expects literal 24/7/365 availability? Does that not breach labour laws where you work?
For me the worst thing about being on-call is not the actual work outside business hours (it’s usually not much), but the potential work: if something happens I need to jump into my laptop within X minutes (changes from company to company, but it’s usually within 10 minutes). This means: I cannot go for a run, I cannot go to the movies, I cannot go for a dinner with family, I cannot even go shopping (shopping mall is…
This is why people used to be paid time-and-a-half or even double-time for being on call. Ask your union to demand that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-and-a-half