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My data is pretty old, old enough that the person on call carried a pager (remember those?), but very similar comp structure. I remember, because the on-call c
by dbcurtis 4y ago
My data is pretty old, old enough that the person on call carried a pager (remember those?), but very similar comp structure. I remember, because the on-call costs hit my budget directly.
1. Time on-call was paid at 25% of normal hourly rate. (Maybe holiday premium boosted the base rate? I can't remember.)
2. Issue-resolution pay was the normal overtime rate, including shift premium and holiday premium, from the time the pager went off until the issue was cleared.
3. The person on call had to: a) be able to get to the plant in 20 minutes, if necessary, but remote support was perfectly fine and paid the same. Only resolving the issue mattered, not where you did it.
4. The person on call had to remain sober and work-ready the entire time on call.
It's 3 & 4 that justify the 25% pay for carrying a pager. Friend having a party? I'll have cranberry juice, thanks. Fresh snow in Tahoe? I'll have to miss it this weekend.
Restricting someone's movements and social life without compensation is simply abusive. As an industry, we need to stop.
- doubled112 4y agoI had a pager in ~ 2015. Was that a long time ago? Company policy said we had to have different devices on different networks, so the company issued cellphone was one, and the pager was on another provider.
- bluefirebrand 4y agoI'm pretty sure this is just a sign your company is a dinosaur and way behind the times. Why would you pay for a separate pager device and service when every cell phone in the world can receive text messages? Bizarre.
- hurflmurfl 4y agoI think a separate device isn't necessarily that bizarre. If I'm on call, I wouldn't want to now take every notification on my phone as something critical to check immediately. Just react promptly to a separate notification on a separate device. Now, of course, the company could just buy a separate phone, but I'm pretty sure it's cheaper to get a pager and the battery will last much longer too, making it impossible to "forget to charge" the device.
- doubled112 4y agoThis is spot on. They were cheap vs a phone plan. They did have long battery life and ran on AAs. They had clear notifications. Two devices going off? Better check. Way simpler than ringtones for select users, or the “was that a simultaneous email and text?” game. Mostly they were cheap. We promised we’d always have redundant providers. I’m sure this seemed like a good idea at the time but didn’t scale well. They’re no longer in use.
- marssaxman 4y agoMany employers don't provide work phones, since most devs rarely make phone calls anyway. Pagers are cheap and reliable, and might be a better choice than an entire cell phone & voice plan when all that's needed is an occasional text message.