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There are plenty of jobs where it’s not like that. Of course it depends on the job, so this isn’t 100% guaranteed to be the case, but I find people who think t

There are plenty of jobs where it’s not like that. Of course it depends on the job, so this isn’t 100% guaranteed to be the case, but I find people who think they always have to be online are often just imagining that they have to because of anxiety, and if they just didn’t respond, nothing bad would happen to them.

giantg2 2y ago
I sort of agree. Like who is so important that their peer or superior can't handle issues if they're out? How do leaders see their business surviving if the person they're calling gets hit by a bus? But at the same time, it does seem that most tech jobs expect you to be available after hours for calls and extend that to vacation by default.
- namibj 2y ago
  I'm Germany HR should be punishing managers for doing that, as a single call is basically directly an entire day of new vacation time, plus punitive damages for disturbing the employee. Of course employees who can't afford to bankroll the lawsuit tend to get shafted.
- School-Cotton 2y ago
  > it does seem that most tech jobs expect you to be available after hours for calls and extend that to vacation by default Not any tech job I’ve ever had, except very occasionally after hours if unavoidable due to working with people in Asia, and planned well in advance. Never during vacation, that would be crazy. But there have probably been people on my same teams who thought it was expected, due to them being workaholics or just bad at sticking to boundaries.
  - giantg2 2y ago
    You have a separate team for on-call? Never need to do off-hours elevations? That sounds wild.
    - School-Cotton 2y ago
      Obviously on-call is an exception. That would fall under “rare and planned in advance”.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      Except for my very first job when I was running shipyard jobs, no one has ever expected that they'd be able to reach me off-hours though they may have left messages of various types.
ghaff 2y ago
Back in the day, I took some month-long vacations to places like Nepal that were really off the grid at the time. Some people I knew were incredulous that I did so. My actual managers didn't care because I did my best to pick "good" times to do so and did my best to inform people and make arrangements. It was never a problem. I do think, over time, being more or less continuously in-touch became more normed.

giantg2 2y ago

I sort of agree. Like who is so important that their peer or superior can't handle issues if they're out? How do leaders see their business surviving if the person they're calling gets hit by a bus? But at the same time, it does seem that most tech jobs expect you to be available after hours for calls and extend that to vacation by default.

namibj 2y ago
I'm Germany HR should be punishing managers for doing that, as a single call is basically directly an entire day of new vacation time, plus punitive damages for disturbing the employee. Of course employees who can't afford to bankroll the lawsuit tend to get shafted.
School-Cotton 2y ago
> it does seem that most tech jobs expect you to be available after hours for calls and extend that to vacation by default Not any tech job I’ve ever had, except very occasionally after hours if unavoidable due to working with people in Asia, and planned well in advance. Never during vacation, that would be crazy. But there have probably been people on my same teams who thought it was expected, due to them being workaholics or just bad at sticking to boundaries.
- giantg2 2y ago
  You have a separate team for on-call? Never need to do off-hours elevations? That sounds wild.
  - School-Cotton 2y ago
    Obviously on-call is an exception. That would fall under “rare and planned in advance”.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    Except for my very first job when I was running shipyard jobs, no one has ever expected that they'd be able to reach me off-hours though they may have left messages of various types.

ghaff 2y ago

Back in the day, I took some month-long vacations to places like Nepal that were really off the grid at the time. Some people I knew were incredulous that I did so. My actual managers didn't care because I did my best to pick "good" times to do so and did my best to inform people and make arrangements. It was never a problem. I do think, over time, being more or less continuously in-touch became more normed.