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There are many issues with being on-call, particularly in environments where false alerts routinely happen, and where management aren't in the rota so don't dir
by jon-wood 4y ago
There are many issues with being on-call, particularly in environments where false alerts routinely happen, and where management aren't in the rota so don't directly feel the pain. One of my biggest though is the concept of a weekly rota, with people being on-call for a full week at a time.
Sometimes that works fine, and you'll get no alerts all week, but incidents tend to cluster. If something has changed that caused an incident odds are it's going to have knock on effects, and you'll see more alarms over the course of a week. With a weekly rota you end up with one person handling that, who by the end of the week is completely destroyed.
Anywhere I've been responsible for setting up an on-call rota I've instead gone for daily rotations. That means if you were up in the night last night, someone else is going to be in the night tonight. It also means if nothing happens you don't have to spend an entire week either cancelling plans or lugging a laptop around with you just in case.
- monster_group 4y agoDaily rotation seems too frequent to me. Sometimes you need 2-3 days to really deep dive and fix the core issue after the alarm has gone silent. Also, with daily rotation it is tempting to wait it out and punt the problem to the next person.
- PeterisP 4y agoFixing the core issue should be done during regular day hours on a normal work schedule, so it does not justify a longer on-call shift. If something needs 2-3 days of deep dive, you should get proper time for rest (i.e. not on-call) between those days.
- femiagbabiaka 4y agoYeah I have a vivid memory of hysterically crying after getting less than 12 hours of sleep over 3 or 4 days during a particularly bad shift. My pager went off 30 minutes before the end of my shift and I lost it. I should’ve passed the pager but I was too “up” to recognize it and my manager at the time was completely clueless about oncall work. Actually at that same company getting paged 8-10 times off-hours during an oncall shift was not unheard of, the burnout was real… I’m surprised there aren’t more lawsuits regarding this because the toll of sleep deprivation on health is well known.
- bckr 4y agoThanks for sharing that. I had a similar experience at my last job. The emotional/physical toll is so real. On the one hand, guess that's why we get paid? On the other hand, screw that.
- jrochkind1 4y agoHow often does someone get a daily rotation though? One week out of four is not uncommon. One out of every four days on-call would really destroy your life though.