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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday December 10 2015, @06:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the put-in-a-ticket dept.

Hey Soylentils,

One of my least favorite parts of my job is on call work. I'm wondering if there are any standard practices when it comes to afterhour on call work. At the moment, I am on call 50% of the time. (I share it with one other person). When I am on call, I am expected to answer the ticket within 15 minutes, which means:

- I can't leave the city
- Going to a restaurant/movie/etc is a gamble.
- Sometimes I have to drop whatever I'm doing and answer a call.

Thankfully, I don't get many calls -- Maybe one per week that I can resolve in 30 minutes. In exchange for carrying the pager, I am paid a flat rate of $250CAD/week. After taxes, it works out to more like $150. I am sick to death of carrying the pager. I hate being restricted in my movements on my time off. I like to get out to the mountains, and because of pager, I can't.

Now, there are rumors that the company might remove that $250/week because of "the economic times". That basically would mean that I am giving up my freedom 50% of the time for nothing, and that I should be happy to have a job. Needless to say, I'm a little upset at that prospect...

So, Soylentils, what are your pager practices? Do you get paid for on call work? What happens if you miss a call? Do you have a backup on-call person? Do you get time off in lieu?


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday December 10 2015, @12:15PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday December 10 2015, @12:15PM (#274387) Homepage Journal

    Not necessarily. It's quite possible to argue a good deal on your own if you have leverage to do so and it sounds like OP does.

    Personally, my pager time went like this or I flat would not carry one:

    • Pay me a flat rate for carrying the pager at all. Negotiable on how often and how long I have to carry it.
    • Pay me hourly call-out fees if I actually have to answer a call. Minimum of two hours or whatever fits your situation.
    • Don't expect me to be able to be on site in less than an hour and you will be paying me windshield time until I get back home.
    • I don't come in to work until I've had eight uninterrupted hours of sleep.

    Your mileage may vary but those were my terms if I were going to be tied to the life and health of my servers 24/7 back in the day.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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