On Call and what is fair.

I took a job here is August of 2010. I was desperate, so moved from California to Arizona. Big cut in wage, but I had a mortgage to make. I had not been hourly in years, probably the eighties. One of the duties is being on call. The on call week has you carry around a cell phone and you can be called in at any time. We have a shared laptop as well. I live in a bad neighborhood, and really don't like to take the laptop with me. You can't use wireless with it. So like this week, I am on call. I had sometime I really wanted to do out of town, but stayed put. In addition there was a major upgrade that took place yesterday, and I figured I better stay close. Prior to the upgrade I received two separate calls where I had to go in and address them. It can be argued that if I had the laptop, I wouldn't have to go in. I was out on a long walk, about a mile out on the first call. Went in. I was there around an hour. Left out shopping, another call. Go back in. 5:00 PM the upgrade which was supposed to last five hours. I am to be around for the start and finish of it. It last until a little after midnight. I miss my normal the Saturday church. Sunday I go to church and decide to stop by. Everything is ok I'm told. I go run some errands, 3:00 PM another call, same issue as yesterday. I go in and the Helpdesk says, "Oh you didn't have to come in". Then why did you call. I asked had the two people from yesterday been checked with to see if there problem had been resolved. No. We are only supposed to charge for the time we spend on a problem. My entire weekend has basically been shot. If I go by the book, I would charge 15 minutes for the time it took me to log in and check around today, yet I really could do much as day, waiting for the phone to ring. How is on call treated elsewhere?

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Comments

ThePawofRizzo

I've been on call for most of my career, mostly in IT, but also in healthcare.

In healthcare I was paid hourly. I did get about $50 each week just to carry the pager, then paid for each hour I worked. So a 2AM call I was able to deal with over the phone in 15 minutes was 15 minutes of pay. If I left the house at 2AM I started the clock for the drive time, time at the residence or office, and time to get home. I got a lot of calls in that role all the time.

Since that time I've mostly been salaried in IT jobs. I get no additional pay for "carrying the pager" and no additional pay for any additional time I would put in on a weekend performing additional duties. It's part of the salary one would say. Thankfully, I don't get a lot of after hours calls, and when I do they are generally quickly resolved issues. There are certainly times though when I get to work hours and the whole weekend gets shot, but they are unusual. The hourly techs where I work, however, while they are not paid to carry the pager, they do get paid when they get a call they have to deal with, whether 15 minutes or hours.

As for having to stay in town when you're on-call, that's normal. Unless every issue you deal with can be dealth with remotely (in my case that is not possible as sometimes physical hardware must be touched at the site), then being required to be in town is not unusual. Of course, the calls never occur when it's convenient, so I plan accordingly when I'm on-call, but I don't stay tied up at home waiting for calls.

The part where you worked hours for an upgrade however, sounds more like you have to be on-site or online ("I am to be around for the start and finish of it"). I'm assuming you got paid for that time? In our on-call rotation if some type of implementation is occurring often the on-call is expected to be available because they are in the rotation at that time.

On-call can really stink. Some weeks it's just extremely busy, and it disrupts life. However, in my career on-call has been a part of it. I don't know of many upper-level IT jobs where you can't expect to be on-call at least occasionally.

brownwrap

I am not even worried about every little nickle and dime. I like to see a job finished. As for the upgrade I need to be there at the start to turn a few thing off, and monitor the progress to let the appropriate people know when the job is complete. But its not like I can go to a movie during that time. I am supposed to charge for the start and finish, yet yesterday there were seven hours in between. And then management expects us to check our email periodically for problems. I might as well be at work. It is a secured network, so I can just log in from anywhere. I need to use the provided laptop and a hardwired connection. I guess I am just annoyed because I don't feel like I had any time off this weekend and need to be there bright and early tomorrow morning. I'd rather show up, discuss the weekend and go home. But that is for salaried folks as I am so often told.

vinbuck

I guess I have a little different view of this since i've been on call for over 10 years now. If you want the primo jobs then be prepared to be on call...

Sometimes it sucks and sometimes it doesn't but if your bosses don't make any attempt to give you a little extra time off to compensate then it's time to find a new gig.

glenn_33

We rotate our on call schedule so I get it like once a month I think. The thing is, I live less than 6 miles from my work so even if I am not on call I still get called anyway because some of the other guys either take the subway or public transit -__-

Mrock4

glenn_33 - I presume you're a gov't worker based on location..if so, that is why gov't on-call is way different than private sector on-call! A lot of organizations will allow you to just remote in..the gov't being the obvious exclusion. If not, you need to start VPN'ing in

I hated on-call. I was the lead engineer at my previous employer (gov't work), and as a result, I got ALL calls. A lot of the time I decided to come in instead of calling someone else (it was a 1 hour drive for me)..mostly to give the other guys more family time. We did do a rotation, but I definitely did more than my fair share.

If you really want to get away from being on-call, you need to find a consulting gig- it's pretty rare for a consultant to be called in..generally you're there as the subject matter expert, and they rely on their operations staff to answer the late calls.

glenn_33

@Mrock4 I work for Legg Mason

I use to work for the county government but that wasn't very fun lol

Mrock4

Ahhh that makes sense!

pitviper

At least you get a heads up of when you may need to work - I'm In a salaried position and I'm expected to respond whenever something breaks, which is basically all of the time!!

Mrock4

FWIW, I was in a salaried job the last time I was on call...so I feel your pain pitviper. MANY 3am phone calls. My wife still makes fun of me because back in those days everytime my phone rang in the middle of the night the first words out of my mouth were usually expletives..

rsutton

Being on-call is part of what comes with being in IT. There will be differences from company to company, if you are part of a rotation consider yourself fortunate. I've been on call 24/7 for years.

f0rgiv3n

I've had a wide range of experiences with oncall. From being the only person who knows about a specific area, a very busy MSP oncall getting calls from Linux to Windows to Networking, and lastly my current job where it's a large corporation but the oncall is actually only for network problems and not high volume.

I was hourly at the MSP oncall and EVERY time I got called I would put it as 15 minutes. Even if it was a smaller amount of time, say 5-10. Why? 15 was the minimum amount I could put down in order to be compensated for the interruption. If you get called and are expected to answer it, you need to be compensated for that time somehow. Anything that interrupts your evening or weekend for work-related business should be clocked.

That's my two cents.

BTW: That MSP oncall was a NIGHTMARE. I had one week where I was called at 3AM every. single. day. about stuff I had no clue on at times.

antielvis

On Call, ah the ban of all IT people. I work at the enterprise level and I find it tolerable as it's only once every few months. It was worse when I was a consultant and took care of multiple companies. Depending on the Managed Service Provider, you may find yourself with a lifestyle, not a job. Even if you get paid for it after a while it won't matter. Your sleep will be affected and you will burn out. The major issue with many MSP's is they refuse to set out the parameters of after hours work with their clients. The tech then suffers.

When negotiating a job, DO ask about that. I find many smaller MSP's abuse their employees & are reticent to draw lines with their clients for fear of losing them. It WILL mess up your health and there are already enough IT guys who live unhealthy lives as it is.

darkerz

Worked at an MSP/ISP for 1 year.

On top of my 40 mile one way, 1 + hour drive, I worked 2 IT jobs.

40-50 On-Call "Calls" every single 2 weeks. 80-100 a month. For a year.

Each call was on average ( per my calculations ) 18.9 Minutes long. This didn't include staying over for turn ups, projects, DR, etc.

The experience was golden, tho. I find enterprise environments hilariously light loaded, I work through ticket-like issues faster than any single IT person in the company (their helpdesk hates that I'm on top of tickets within 5 minutes of them coming in or having been modified, 8-5).

I just found out today there are supposed to be 2 network engineers but because of my work, there is no need to hire another one.

I still hated on-call at an MSP tho. So much.

f0rgiv3n

antielvis wrote: »

Depending on the Managed Service Provider, you may find yourself with a lifestyle, not a job.

Wow, I haven't heard it described so perfectly. I agree 100% and well put

marco71

antielvis wrote: »

On Call, ah the ban of all IT people... Depending on the Managed Service Provider, you may find yourself with a lifestyle, not a job. Even if you get paid for it after a while it won't matter. Your sleep will be affected and you will burn out. The major issue with many MSP's is they refuse to set out the parameters of after hours work with their clients. The tech then suffers.

When negotiating a job, DO ask about that. I find many smaller MSP's abuse their employees & are reticent to draw lines with their clients for fear of losing them. It WILL mess up your health and there are already enough IT guys who live unhealthy lives as it is.

TRUE, agree 100% ... I coundnt say it better ... I'm in the same situation for almost 5 years, working in enterprise area for an european MSP and doing on-call tasks for a full week (7 days) based on a rotation schedule; my sleep is much affected, I feel less healthy than before and I would change my job tomorrow, if I get any IT offer in my area with no on-call and same level of payment (or slightly less)