I've had some interesting experiences. Years ago in addition to our internal IT infrastructure I had to support a third party platform (effectively an appliance

I've had some interesting experiences. Years ago in addition to our internal IT infrastructure I had to support a third party platform (effectively an appliance in our server rack) which would constantly need to be kicked just due to end users using standard features. That was a nightmare as back then I was too eager and diligent and strove to be available to deal with things promptly whether it was responding to a crisis caused by another developer's code or responding to a failure in the third party platform. I had all the responsibility and none of the authority to implement any definitive fixes. As you can imagine, the stress was not enjoyable and burnout was a factor. Since then I've taken a fairly laissez-faire attitude to being on call. I'll pick up notifications on an as available, best effort basis. That means if I'm around and get an alert, I'll do my best to resolve the issue right away. However, if I'm with friends, my phone will be in my jacket pocket hanging in a closet somewhere while I might be drinking and I'll see any alerts when I'm leaving for the night. That could be many, many hours later. I make no effort to restrict my activities so that I'm always around. And if I leave my phone on vibrate and don't pick up any alerts while I enjoy a sound night's sleep, so be it. If "as available, best effort" on my part isn't good enough, then the company will need to compensate me appropriately for the interruption that comes from a higher level of commitment. Some physicians get $100/day and cardiologists get up to $1600/day to be on call[0] as they need to limit their plans and avoid activities which make them unavailable. In a nutshell, if getting paged at all hours of the day and night and having quick responses to issues is important enough then the company needs to pay for your time, lifestyle interruption, and mental energy at a rate you think is fair. I suggest a minimum daily/weekly/monthly rate based on making yourself available plus hourly compensation for the actual time you put in at a 1.5x or 2x hourly rate. This all goes out the window if you're in some scrappy underfunded startup, but if you're employed in a company which has graduated from shoestring budgets and has paying customers and decent revenue then you should be getting something for what is effectively overtime. [0] http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/modernmedicine/modern-medicine-news/daily-pay-call-coverage-increases?page=full http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics...