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Long ago, I worked in a shop that I feel did it the right way: allow techs to sign up for pager duty a week at a time, and each week would pay a bonus of a few
by invalidator 5y ago
Long ago, I worked in a shop that I feel did it the right way: allow techs to sign up for pager duty a week at a time, and each week would pay a bonus of a few hundred bucks. It was always voluntary, and people were eager to take as many shifts as they could sign up for. We'd round-robin it between all the people who wanted it. If your plans changed, there was always someone happy to pick up an extra bonus on short notice.
Let's go over that again: People liked being on pager duty, and all it took was a few hundred bucks a week.
Of course, this was in a pretty competent company. The pager would only go off a couple times a week, it was usually easy to fix, and there was a well-documented escalation path if you couldn't handle it on your own. So we weren't losing sleep.
If the pager started being painful, fewer people would sign up, giving a signal to management that there was a problem. They could then either increase the bonus, or fix the root problems.
I have no idea why other places don't handle it this way. It worked well for everyone involved.
- hawaiianbrah 5y agoGermany has laws around this. A German coworker of mine gets almost $800/week that he is on call.
- przyrostek 5y agoDo you have paragraphs at hand to share? I would like to see if company I work for is compliant with those laws
- teraku 5y agoCourts ruled that when you are on-call, they have to pay at least minimum wage for every hour you are on-call. Additionally, you get tax benefits for working night and Sunday, which your employer has to declare. That's why you earn so much more during on-call in Germany
- adrianN 5y agoThat depends on the exact arrangements of your oncall duties. Typical developer oncall where you can be wherever you want as long as you can reach your laptop with an internet connection within x minutes does not fall under these laws.
- teraku 5y agoNo, it does. Because whenever you have to be "ready" for work, it counts as work. >Bereitschaftsdienst Beschäftigte im Bereitschaftsdienst halten sich in der Regel im Unternehmen oder in unmittelbarer Nähe auf, damit sie die Arbeit bei Bedarf sofort bzw. zumindest zeitnah aufnehmen können. Ein typisches Beispiel sind Feuerwehrangestellte, die auf der Wache die Nacht verbringen, aber dort schlafen können. Bereitschaftsdienst gilt in vollem Umfang als Arbeitszeit und muss daher bei der täglichen und wöchentlichen Arbeitszeit voll berücksichtigt werden. Die Vergütung des Bereitschaftsdienstes richtet sich nach dem jeweiligen Arbeitsvertrag, beziehungsweise gültigem Tarifvertrag oder Betriebs/Dienstvereinbarung. >Arbeitsbereitschaft Bei der Arbeitsbereitschaft sind die betreffenden Beschäftigten im Zustand „wacher Achtsamkeit im Zustande der Entspannung“ am Arbeitsplatz anwesend. Sie sind jederzeit einsatzbereit. Ein Beispiel könnte eine Beschäftigte in einem Elektrizitätswerk sein, die beim Piepsen eines Überwachungsmonitors sofort aktiv werden muss, über längere Phasen aber keine Aufgaben zu erledigen hat. Arbeitsbereitschaft ist Arbeitszeit und muss im vollen Umfang auf die tägliche und wöchentliche Arbeitszeit angerechnet werden. >Die Vergütung richtet sich auch hier nach dem jeweiligen Arbeitsvertrag, beziehungsweise gültigem Tarifvertrag oder Betriebs/Dienstvereinbarung. To add to this: If your boss calls you when you are on vacation, you get that full vacation day back. If your boss asks you to be ready in case he might call during your vacation, you also get those vacation days back.
- adrianN 5y agoThe law distinguishes between Bereitschaftsdienst and Rufbereitschaft. The latter does not count as working hours and is defined by being able to freely choose where you are and what you do during that time (until you get paged of course). That fits the typical developer oncall where you don't have to be on site or close by during your oncall shift.
- tootie 5y agoI think if most shops after some incremental bonus for overnight on-call, just nobody would sign up. Salaries are high enough without it.