There are plenty of jobs in good companies that pay well and don't require you to be a slave to your job. Companies that can move fast and treat their employees well vs. companies that exploit their employees. I am a manager in such a company and my team can move fast and own stuff during the work day and then relax on their weekend so they can get back to moving fast and owning stuff when they're back at work.

This has totally not been this way for decades.

Now if you're a founder, or you're being paid for this extra work or own a significant part of the business and benefit from it's success, that's a little bit different.

"Getting paid 200k+ for a job that had on-call as part of stated duties (and thus baked into the comp) prior to accepting the offer is now working for free? There is hyperbole and then there is whatever this is."

The lawyers at my company go home at 5 and make way more. I know a doctor who gets paid somewhere around $1500 for every day he is on call. And when they actually call him he makes even more.

You're likely very wrong about the lawyers. They leave at 5 when nothing is urgent. But in certain crisis situations -- company being bought out, a severe injury occurred on premises, a client is suing you, etc -- those lawyers will be expected to respond 24/7 all through a full weekend or beyond.

Of course, you can still go to law school if you're really that jealous.

How many IT people on call are actually making 200+k? The general rule I have seen is people on call get paid less as people eventually negotiate very slightly lower salaries for not being on call.

Amazing to see all these awful takes. This _is_ America I suppose.