Anyone else do "on call"?
29 November 2009, 12:27 AM
#1
Anyone else do "on call"?
5 hours after my normal 9-5.30 on Friday, 11 and a half hours I worked yesterday (Saturday) and I've been woken up again now ...
On call is a royal pain in the *** .. once they know you're on call thats it .. 37 phone calls yesterday .. FFS
On call is a royal pain in the *** .. once they know you're on call thats it .. 37 phone calls yesterday .. FFS
29 November 2009, 12:56 AM
#2
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29 November 2009, 08:51 AM
#4
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When i was younger i was on call 7 days a week 
It was ok if you got called out, £££
but then my old boss started putting a limit on how many call outs we got
paid for
Cheeky sod, it wasnt as if we could just deal with it over the
phone lol
Mart
It was ok if you got called out, £££
but then my old boss started putting a limit on how many call outs we got
paid for
Cheeky sod, it wasnt as if we could just deal with it over the phone lol
Mart
29 November 2009, 10:17 AM
#6
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29 November 2009, 10:21 AM
#7
I would have thought at the rates on call gets, (for me its time and a half normally and double for Sundays, bank holidays) plus an on call allowance, anything that I get called out for has to be worth more to the business that paying, the team that calls me, the people I engage etc ..
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29 November 2009, 10:26 AM
#8
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29 November 2009, 10:40 AM
#10
I do on call (DBA), one week in three looking after databases on an oil rig in the North sea, if they cant access the system, they cant produce any oil and thats very costly so they pay us to do 7 in the morning until ten at night. Have done 24 x 7 and got woken at 3 am quite a lot.
Its worth it as its like a pay rise !
Would do it every week as to be honest we dont get called much, use a virtual desktop pc in or data centre so as long as I am somewhere with internet and a pc I can still do the support, have a blackberry and get alerts to that so can usually spot things before we even get called.
Its only £150 a week which I only see just over half of but its better than not getting it.
Its worth it as its like a pay rise !
Would do it every week as to be honest we dont get called much, use a virtual desktop pc in or data centre so as long as I am somewhere with internet and a pc I can still do the support, have a blackberry and get alerts to that so can usually spot things before we even get called.
Its only £150 a week which I only see just over half of but its better than not getting it.
29 November 2009, 11:22 AM
#11
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We do a weeks call at a time, on a 1 in 6 rota , dont get called very often but get over £200 for the week plus any overtime so its not too bad.
Chip
Chip
29 November 2009, 02:32 PM
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I guess its one of those things, if you knew "on call" was part of the job.... Thats life!
Do you get paid for the time spent, or calls dealt with?
PITA I agree, but such is life.
Used to be on call, but not these days. Just irriated by people at work after I have finished (not quite the same)
Do you get paid for the time spent, or calls dealt with?
PITA I agree, but such is life.
Used to be on call, but not these days. Just irriated by people at work after I have finished (not quite the same)
30 November 2009, 10:30 AM
#20
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I guess its one of those things, if you knew "on call" was part of the job.... Thats life!
Do you get paid for the time spent, or calls dealt with?
PITA I agree, but such is life.
Used to be on call, but not these days. Just irriated by people at work after I have finished (not quite the same)
Do you get paid for the time spent, or calls dealt with?
PITA I agree, but such is life.
Used to be on call, but not these days. Just irriated by people at work after I have finished (not quite the same)
Les
30 November 2009, 10:39 AM
#21
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The oncall system here is great. £270 per month and cover 1 day in 7. Get 3 hours standard pay for answering the phone, then time and half for every hour worked 
Granted - you can be screaming round Elvington when the phone rings and need to dash home and get online to sort out a "crisis". I swear, people who deal with faults and declare 'Major Incidents' need their head checking!
Granted - you can be screaming round Elvington when the phone rings and need to dash home and get online to sort out a "crisis". I swear, people who deal with faults and declare 'Major Incidents' need their head checking!
30 November 2009, 01:29 PM
#22
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Yep, do it one week in 4 - or did until yesterday, as next year a new rota comes in, so it'll be more like 1 week in 8.
Don't really mind it to be honest - ok I got woken up at 3am on Sunday morning, but it's well worth it for the extra money.
Only real draw back is you can't go out on the pis$ when on-call (for obvious reasons!), so wouldn't want to do it more than 1 in 4 weeks.
With my previous job I worked for a firm which had expanded quite rapidly, and on-call was a nightmare then as it was always so busy. Was a week of hardly any decent sleep - would just get back from work and go straight to bed, knowing I'd be woken up by the Blackberry beeping within hours! On the plus side never got less than £1k a week extra for it, but they ended up having staff on 24hours instead which was the correct thing to do!
Don't really mind it to be honest - ok I got woken up at 3am on Sunday morning, but it's well worth it for the extra money.
Only real draw back is you can't go out on the pis$ when on-call (for obvious reasons!), so wouldn't want to do it more than 1 in 4 weeks.
With my previous job I worked for a firm which had expanded quite rapidly, and on-call was a nightmare then as it was always so busy. Was a week of hardly any decent sleep - would just get back from work and go straight to bed, knowing I'd be woken up by the Blackberry beeping within hours! On the plus side never got less than £1k a week extra for it, but they ended up having staff on 24hours instead which was the correct thing to do!
Last edited by Petem95; 30 November 2009 at 01:31 PM.
30 November 2009, 03:04 PM
#23
Yep - provide out of hours cover 365 days of the year for a specialised data collection system under a 99.9% availability SLA.
I don't mind it too much as I am the technical lead for this system, so I have control over its day to day running so can often prevent out of hours problems before they occur. Unfortunately no remote access, so when the phone goes its a case of find the car keys and get going.
I think the payment works out around £300 a month. Its an insurance policy for the organisation essentially as call outs are few and far between. If it were a windows based system I suspect things may be a bit busier out of hours!!!!
I don't mind it too much as I am the technical lead for this system, so I have control over its day to day running so can often prevent out of hours problems before they occur. Unfortunately no remote access, so when the phone goes its a case of find the car keys and get going.
I think the payment works out around £300 a month. Its an insurance policy for the organisation essentially as call outs are few and far between. If it were a windows based system I suspect things may be a bit busier out of hours!!!!