News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:I Don't Want to Be on Call Anymore by jodrellblank on Sunday November 28, 2021 @08:16PM (#29375191)
> what's the alternative?

Let it crash. If you can't afford to pay people enough that someone /wants/ to fix it at 2am, and you can't arrange a retainer for a contractor halfway around the world to be available if needed during their worktime, and you (owner/manager) don't want to do it yourself, then it can be off until someone starts at 9am next business day. (Most products and services aren't life critical).

Re:I Don't Want to Be on Call Anymore by statictype on Sunday November 28, 2021 @08:38PM (#29375307)
I think the whole point of the article and the discussion is that many people don’t want to do it even when paid enough.

Nobody on any of the threads is arguing that you should not be paid more for being on call.

Re:I Don't Want to Be on Call Anymore by atoav on Monday November 29, 2021 @01:38AM (#29377066)
The issue with being on call constantly is, that you have to basically give up any private life you should have. Your daughters theatre play? Sad to interrupt! Your long awaited weekend trip with your girlfriend? Would be a shame if you had to cancel!

The quality of life lost by being on call is not insignificant. This is why being on call should always be the absolute exception and not a reliable, planned in, tool at your companies disposal.

If you regularily fail to organize your core business around business hours, maybe you should get someone who is good at planing projects and communicating these plans and put them in charge? Or maybe just close your company and search for a different career path if you are unable to plan your projects?

Re:I Don't Want to Be on Call Anymore by emodendroket on Monday November 29, 2021 @02:05AM (#29377203)
This is kind of absurd. The point of on-call is not to have regular off-hours work, but to have someone available for emergent situations. Since anybody who intends to operate a service with constant availability must always have someone who can respond to emergencies, on-call is the system used by the world's most successful tech companies, not just two-bit upstarts. It's hard to imagine anybody serious about running any kind of online business who is going to respond to an outage on Friday night by saying "we'll look at on Monday at 9:00 PT." It's unfortunate, but it's really not that different from ER doctors, firefighters, utility workers, and numerous other workers working with similar constraints.

Besides that, the rotation is known, and planned for, long in advance. So your "long-awaited weekend trip" shouldn't have been scheduled during your on-call shift in the first place.

Re:I Don't Want to Be on Call Anymore by emodendroket on Sunday November 28, 2021 @10:02PM (#29375874)
They can pay me enough that I’ll do it but not enough that I’ll want to do it.
Re:I Don't Want to Be on Call Anymore by ghaff on Sunday November 28, 2021 @10:52PM (#29376185)
You've probably just described most jobs.
Re:I Don't Want to Be on Call Anymore by emodendroket on Sunday November 28, 2021 @11:00PM (#29376219)
Yeah, and this is a relatively good one, so let's have some perspective.