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This is my attitude. Come 5pm, the phone goes into a focus mode ignoring work. I ignore any other desktop communications, frequently closing Slack and Superhuma

This is my attitude. Come 5pm, the phone goes into a focus mode ignoring work. I ignore any other desktop communications, frequently closing Slack and Superhuman. Disconnecting from work is the only way to stay sane. No one has yelled at me yet at this job. Previous jobs were awful though. We started work at 10am everyday and the CTO woke me up by calling twice at 7am to break through my do not disturb, just to tell me to push a feature asap. Nothing critical at all. Some bosses absolutely have zero respect for personal time and space.

pnutjam 4y ago
Last place I worked, I was on call once every 4 weeks or so which entailed getting up in the middle of the night at least 3 days and often more then once. They also practiced dog-pile trouble shooting where everyone was expected to hop on "red alerts" and stay on the call until the issue was resolved. I've seen it take 6hrs+, running past 5 o'clock or sometimes starting in the evening and running for hours. During the pandemic, I unplugged around 3pm to grab some new shoes for a kid that had ripped theirs out, because other guys were around and after 5pm I'm on my own. Boss starts texting me, "where are you" and "you should do this stuff after hours"... This really left a sour taste and I've since moved on. We need some sort of ability to demand OT, hour for hour comp time, and after hours compensation. One person can fight back, but we are constantly undercut by management. I would often try to comp time and get hit up because it's a busy week, then later that comp time would evaporate and I'd get alot of flack trying to claw it back. My preference is not to comp my time in the morning, but I'd end up clocking in an hour later afew times a week just to try and get some of my time back.
- taf2 4y ago
  Did you get a new job and does it have better options for you requiring less time?
  - pnutjam 4y ago
    Yes, more pay and better on call hours. All remote.
- cameronh90 4y ago
  Compensation or time off in lieu for overtime and callouts is the bare minimum we should expect. That shouldn't even be up for debate, and I'm glad to say, everywhere I've worked (in the UK) respects that. Where I have problems is being expected to be available while "on call" but not being paid for it. In my opinion: if you can't get shit faced, you're working, and should be compensated accordingly with all working time regulations applying as normal.
  - pnutjam 4y ago
    Yeah, we didn't get anything above our regular salary.
  - genewitch 4y ago
    Remember the hurricane that hit Virginia in 2012 or 2013? I wasn't even "on call" - i was just the only person with credentials. I told the DBA and the boss and the CTO that you can't just fix an outage at a cloud provider due to hurricane with telnet and a prayer candle. Then i opened a bottle of whisky, and listened to them try to figure out how much data we lost, until about 5 AM. I don't remember if i was hourly contract or hourly employee at that point, but i did get ~8 hours of pay that evening for doing nothing but not unmuting my voice on the phone call! I don't do Disaster Recovery anymore, no one really listens.
- zrail 4y ago
  > We need some sort of ability to demand OT, hour for hour comp time, and after hours compensation. The word is "union". You want a union.
musicale 4y ago
> Some bosses absolutely have zero respect for personal time and space. Pecking order is everything. In most organizations, exercising said disrespect for subordinates is a key method for management to demonstrate, enforce, and enjoy their higher social status. Similarly, subordinates must exercise respect and deference to the time, space, and attention of management. This is a key method to help employees demonstrate, acknowledge, and internalize their lower social status. Any threats to the status hierarchy threaten the structure of the organization and are usually dealt with harshly.
- gsibble 4y ago
  Indeed. I'll never work for a company like that again. And it's another reason managers want people back in offices.

pnutjam 4y ago

Last place I worked, I was on call once every 4 weeks or so which entailed getting up in the middle of the night at least 3 days and often more then once. They also practiced dog-pile trouble shooting where everyone was expected to hop on "red alerts" and stay on the call until the issue was resolved. I've seen it take 6hrs+, running past 5 o'clock or sometimes starting in the evening and running for hours. During the pandemic, I unplugged around 3pm to grab some new shoes for a kid that had ripped theirs out, because other guys were around and after 5pm I'm on my own. Boss starts texting me, "where are you" and "you should do this stuff after hours"... This really left a sour taste and I've since moved on. We need some sort of ability to demand OT, hour for hour comp time, and after hours compensation. One person can fight back, but we are constantly undercut by management. I would often try to comp time and get hit up because it's a busy week, then later that comp time would evaporate and I'd get alot of flack trying to claw it back. My preference is not to comp my time in the morning, but I'd end up clocking in an hour later afew times a week just to try and get some of my time back.

taf2 4y ago
Did you get a new job and does it have better options for you requiring less time?
- pnutjam 4y ago
  Yes, more pay and better on call hours. All remote.
cameronh90 4y ago
Compensation or time off in lieu for overtime and callouts is the bare minimum we should expect. That shouldn't even be up for debate, and I'm glad to say, everywhere I've worked (in the UK) respects that. Where I have problems is being expected to be available while "on call" but not being paid for it. In my opinion: if you can't get shit faced, you're working, and should be compensated accordingly with all working time regulations applying as normal.
- pnutjam 4y ago
  Yeah, we didn't get anything above our regular salary.
- genewitch 4y ago
  Remember the hurricane that hit Virginia in 2012 or 2013? I wasn't even "on call" - i was just the only person with credentials. I told the DBA and the boss and the CTO that you can't just fix an outage at a cloud provider due to hurricane with telnet and a prayer candle. Then i opened a bottle of whisky, and listened to them try to figure out how much data we lost, until about 5 AM. I don't remember if i was hourly contract or hourly employee at that point, but i did get ~8 hours of pay that evening for doing nothing but not unmuting my voice on the phone call! I don't do Disaster Recovery anymore, no one really listens.
zrail 4y ago
> We need some sort of ability to demand OT, hour for hour comp time, and after hours compensation. The word is "union". You want a union.

musicale 4y ago

> Some bosses absolutely have zero respect for personal time and space. Pecking order is everything. In most organizations, exercising said disrespect for subordinates is a key method for management to demonstrate, enforce, and enjoy their higher social status. Similarly, subordinates must exercise respect and deference to the time, space, and attention of management. This is a key method to help employees demonstrate, acknowledge, and internalize their lower social status. Any threats to the status hierarchy threaten the structure of the organization and are usually dealt with harshly.

gsibble 4y ago
Indeed. I'll never work for a company like that again. And it's another reason managers want people back in offices.