> I was on call for five years. It nearly broke me - but this article is just whining

You admit you worked a job for five years that "nearly broke you". You do understand that life is not supposed to be about how much punishment you can endure in exchange for money, right? There are ways to pay your bills that don't involve inducing physical and mental health issues?

Sure, but what's a reward without a challenge?

A sane and healthy lifestyle. Do you have Stockholm Syndrome?

Bullshit. Reward without challenge is the fast-track to complacency and feelings of entitlement.

When this is done to a child it's called "spoiling" them - for good reason.

I've worked jobs that have challenged and fulfilled me without "nearly breaking" me.

I'm sorry someone hurt you.

It depends how often you get the pager, no?

If your calls were often at 4am and you had to work a normal schedule, it certainly does no good. Also, you are saying that nearly broke you, as if it's a badge of pride or something good...

I did on-call for a sleep medicine company. My calls were specifically during sleep hours (when the equipment is in use is when it has problems). The calls were rarely short, and I had no direct link to the equipment to run my own tests - it was always trying to troubleshoot via a usually non-techinical enduser. It was a great night if you received zero calls. I have my on-call battle-scars.

So this being said, I agree with the GP - on-call sucks, but one week in four is not that bad. One week in five and it's fairly breezy. One week in three or less and it's pretty bad - you basically stop having an external life altogether. Like the GP, I also thought the article was a bit whiny. Yes, there were some truths in it, but whines like "omg, there is crunch time" make the author sound pretty self-entitled. Another whine was "not working for the same boss that hired him"... after six years in the company. Who could take such a complaint seriously? One of the more valid problems listed is the shifting of priorities every two weeks. That stuff is a killer - to morale, to progress, to development, to pretty much everything.

That's the thing. For the types who do ooo work, it is a badge of pride - and I dare say if anything this is what she made him go to therapy over - I've had the conversation - "your job is ruining our fucking lives!" - "I enjoy it. It's hard but rewarding" - "you're getting your head checked".

From experience, getting 5-8 pages a night every night during 12am - 6am gets very old very quickly; even if it is once every 4 weeks. Even more so when you're also expected to front work at 8:30am regardless of the night before.

The OP's described situation sounds like it is hideously under staffed / resourced.

But it doesn't have to be that way; I have friends who worked at Sun (back in the day obviously) where they had approx 1 in 5 week rota, and always two on call at once (one primary and one secondary). And that with a typical 2-3 pages out of hours. A night and day difference.

Would you actually get 10 pages a day every day while you were on call though?

On occasion, yes. I've done OOO both of trading desks and ecommerce operations, very high pressure - and with the added bonus that you're having to answer the phone to angry people while working on a technical fix.

It's called support hell for a reason - but what this guy's wife describes isn't extraordinary. It sounds like most mission critical support roles.