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I certainly don't feel exploited for doing on-call rotations. It's always mentioned up front at interviews so I don't feel ambushed and most the time all it am

by imauld 9y ago

I certainly don't feel exploited for doing on-call rotations. It's always mentioned up front at interviews so I don't feel ambushed and most the time all it amounts to is I carry my laptop with me. Maybe I'm lucky but of the over 2k hours on call I had logged at my last job I got paged for something that took more than 5 minutes to resolve. It's just part of the job IMO. We work on systems that don't close down at the end of the day. I've had jobs in the past that were also open 24/7. We weren't on call but should someone have called in sick for a shift we were expected to answer our phone and come in to work to cover a shift. That was a union job and it's pay and benefits were no where near what I have now (they weren't bad either). They were never going to reimburse me to go to a conference or have my lunch catered everyday like I can get now. So no, I don't feel exploited. We are white collar workers with pretty cushy jobs (at least most engineers I know, YMMV). It just so happens that occasionally we may have to save the day when the code WE wrote does something it's not supposed to. For all the upsides working in this industry has, this downside is pretty insignificant IMO. But hey, don't wanna get paged? Write better code :-p

hardwaresofton 9y ago
Devils advocate: Are you sure you're not just used to being exploited? You are, in absolute terms, expending more effort to support these systems "that don't close down", and the question is whether that increase in revenue (indirectly attributable to value you're providing) is being reflected in your pay. While I agree people in tech have it very good compared to the general populace, having a job that is nicer than most isn't a good excuse for not thinking critically about whether you're being asked for more value than you're being properly compensated for. I have no idea how to quantify the 8 hour work day in terms of output, but it should be fairly unassailable that more hours = more work (should) = more pay. How about thinking about it this way -- has pay risen (in real terms) significantly since the start of on-call rotations? What happened to the spot for operations people in other disciplines, who normally night shifts and make sure things are running well when the other half of the company is asleep? I think the obvious answer to this question is that you are that ops person now, and you're certainly not getting paid double.

by imauld 9y ago

hardwaresofton 9y ago

Devils advocate: Are you sure you're not just used to being exploited? You are, in absolute terms, expending more effort to support these systems "that don't close down", and the question is whether that increase in revenue (indirectly attributable to value you're providing) is being reflected in your pay. While I agree people in tech have it very good compared to the general populace, having a job that is nicer than most isn't a good excuse for not thinking critically about whether you're being asked for more value than you're being properly compensated for. I have no idea how to quantify the 8 hour work day in terms of output, but it should be fairly unassailable that more hours = more work (should) = more pay. How about thinking about it this way -- has pay risen (in real terms) significantly since the start of on-call rotations? What happened to the spot for operations people in other disciplines, who normally night shifts and make sure things are running well when the other half of the company is asleep? I think the obvious answer to this question is that you are that ops person now, and you're certainly not getting paid double.