On call in IT - How prevalent is it?

[opethdisciple]

So I've just started a new job. They've made me an offer I couldn't refuse as well as the opportunity to play with some new technology. It's a DevOps (Linux) role.

I'm only a few days in so far.

The issue is I feel like they duped me in to this job. All my conversations with the recruiter, never once was on call rota mentioned. At interview never once was on call rota mentioned.

It wasn't until I had signed my contract and handed in my notice that I noticed one of the clauses in my contract mentioned an on call rota. I then inquired about this clause and then they told me, yes we operate a 24/7 service!!

At the time I nearly pulled the plug on this. I was close to saying I want to reverse everything, take back my old job and not go anywhere. But I was told by the recruiter I was making a mountain out of a mole and it wasn't such a big deal. Also the CTO said that although the rota exists there rarely is an issue....

So I took the gamble. I took the money and I started this role.

I am already wondering how long will I be in this job. I ALWAYS avoid jobs with on call rota. I do not want to be tied down on the weekend or receive calls at 4am that I need to respond too.

If I had known this was the case I wouldn't of even applied for this job! I would have dismissed it out right.

I've now left a job that was very good for my CV but only lacked in the wages department. It was an easy come easy go place that suited me down to the ground.

I only willy nilly applied for two jobs and suddenly an avalanche of interest sweep me in to this one. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse, I took it and now I'm wondering if I made the right decision.

Are on call rotas common place in IT and really I have just been lucky to be in jobs without it?

---

Maybe I'll just stay for a year and then move on. But that then reflects on my CV, and two I was planing on getting a new job and then in about 6 months getting a mortgage. I do not fancy getting a mortgage an then starting the process of looking for a new job again.

---

Seriously flipping recruiters. Once your CV goes up on these job boards the whole of London suddenly starts calling you trying to get you to go to interviews.

 

[brendy]

I moved from a fairly easy steady field services job to a company who provide complete IT hardware and in house software solutions, not 2 years into the job they stated they were bringing in compulsory on-call weekends even though the additional money helped.

I spoke with the director and said I was not doing weekend work, he said he'd give me a couple of months to ease into it, I repeated that I wouldn't be doing it and began looking for other jobs, one turned up by chance inside 2 weeks and located just 5 mins from home and have been here 10 years now this November. If it really bothers you and you do get a lot of out of hours calls then look around, you found this one easily, why not another too?

As it turned out I've had opportunities to go to the US, Denmark, China and India plus a lot more exposure to new hyperconverged technologies etc and brands than I'd ever have seen in either of the two previous jobs.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Try it. I have been on call before and I was paid for nothing. 2 hours a saturday for a full days shift pay.

 

[Liquid_Entity]

Thankfully on our OOH call rota we rarely get any night calls. We have key times around 22:30 and 5.30am for store polling and then Sundays during the day when our normal service desk is closed. The rest of the week will be 1 or 2 hours work in an evening around 7 or 8pm but wont actually take an hour, maybe 15 mins max.

Without this extra income I think I'd be massively in debt as it usually adds about 6 or 7k on to my salary over a year.

 

[Biz.Kid09]

On call for a week (7 days, 24hrs) once every 10 weeks or so. Don't get paid anymore for it or any days in lieu or anything. Not too bad really, cant remember really dealing with anything recently.

 

[opethdisciple]

Does indeed sound like I am over reacting then.

They told me it's 1 week ever 8 weeks. But I'm only 2 days in to the job so we will see what the reality actually turns out to be.

 

[peterwalkley]

Developer for a large supplier to telecoms companies here. We are usually asked to be on call when new releases go live (typically done at a weekend). It averages out at 3 or 4 times a year. No extra money on offer but taking TOIL afterwards is how it gets balanced out.

I have a kind of superstition that if you're in a role where you won't be called when the brown smelly stuff starts hitting the round spinny thing then you're ripe for being replaced for cheap offshore people.

 

[Bounce]

So I've just started a new job. They've made me an offer I couldn't refuse as well as the opportunity to play with some new technology. It's a DevOps (Linux) role.

I'm only a few days in so far.

The issue is I feel like they duped me in to this job. All my conversations with the recruiter, never once was on call rota mentioned. At interview never once was on call rota mentioned.

It wasn't until I had signed my contract and handed in my notice that I noticed one of the clauses in my contract mentioned an on call rota. I then inquired about this clause and then they told me, yes we operate a 24/7 service!!

At the time I nearly pulled the plug on this. I was close to saying I want to reverse everything, take back my old job and not go anywhere. But I was told by the recruiter I was making a mountain out of a mole and it wasn't such a big deal. Also the CTO said that although the rota exists there rarely is an issue....

So I took the gamble. I took the money and I started this role.

I am already wondering how long will I be in this job. I ALWAYS avoid jobs with on call rota. I do not want to be tied down on the weekend or receive calls at 4am that I need to respond too.

If I had known this was the case I wouldn't of even applied for this job! I would have dismissed it out right.

I've now left a job that was very good for my CV but only lacked in the wages department. It was an easy come easy go place that suited me down to the ground.

I only willy nilly applied for two jobs and suddenly an avalanche of interest sweep me in to this one. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse, I took it and now I'm wondering if I made the right decision.

Are on call rotas common place in IT and really I have just been lucky to be in jobs without it?

---

Maybe I'll just stay for a year and then move on. But that then reflects on my CV, and two I was planing on getting a new job and then in about 6 months getting a mortgage. I do not fancy getting a mortgage an then starting the process of looking for a new job again.

---

Seriously flipping recruiters. Once your CV goes up on these job boards the whole of London suddenly starts calling you trying to get you to go to interviews.

Well you had the opportunity to not sign the contract and stay with your previous employer, and now that's the recruiters fault?

If you were not happy with it why sign it and hand your notice in? - makes absolutely no sense.

 

[JustBen]

Contract should state the requirment, mine details i am required but doesn't state how much so i only need to do one day a year. On-call isn't to bad for me, tops up my wage quite well and i rarely get called.

 

[opethdisciple]

Well you had the opportunity to not sign the contract and stay with your previous employer, and now that's the recruiters fault?

If you were not happy with it why sign it and hand your notice in? - makes absolutely no sense.

Buried deep in 20 pages. Recruiter was putting pressure on my to sign. Telling me they are a business and that they would move on if I didn't.

 

[tom_e]

Buried deep in 20 pages. Recruiter was putting pressure on my to sign. Telling me they are a business and that they would move on if I didn't.

And you believed them? When a recruiter says that what they actually mean is "I need this for my figures so I'll say whatever is needed to get that signature".

My last job I was OOH support 365 a year with TOIL for anything I had to respond to, it was grim and one of the reasons I jumped ship. A week or a weekend every now and again wouldn't bother me too much.

 

[Eliot]

On call in IT is basically like being an out of hours doctor. You are there to be called and you WILL be called for a lot of stuff, more often that not it will be more that "lil timmy" down the road has a cold than someones leg is hanging off.

I have always avoided and now "thank god" in a situation where I will probably never be on call again.

But in terms of your role, i'd say it has to be out of the ordinary surely, so I sympathise that you would have really been looking for rota/on call in the contract in the first place.

Sounds like a stay there 6 months while looking for a new role and leave situation.

 

[opethdisciple]

We'll see guys. As far as I have seen from my peers in the industry on call is fairly common.

One of my mates said, the higher up you go the more responsibilities you have. In fact all three of my mates who essentials do the same thing as me all have or do have 'on call responsibilities'.

 

[dowie]

It is very common, especially in a tech firm or a start up etc... though varies from support people getting called a lot through to developers etc.. not getting called very often (unless they're really bad and QA has been really slack). I mean technically almost anyone can be called re: a technical issue up to and including the CEO in some firms aside from the people who aren't really part of the core business (HR, finance, legal, admin etc...).

On call for a week (7 days, 24hrs) once every 10 weeks or so. Don't get paid anymore for it or any days in lieu or anything. Not too bad really, cant remember really dealing with anything recently.

That's bad, if you are called out and it does take up significant time over some weekends then days in lieu should be offered, especially if it takes your holiday entitlement below statutory minimums... (in which case you should definitely flag it up).

Likewise if you're called at say 4am and stay on the phone for 4 hours then I'd be inclined to go back to sleep after and not come into the office until lunchtime or just work from home until lunch and finish early (assuming you're not behind on deadlines or have anything else urgent). If you're not being paid for the call/remote work then you've just worked half a day already... flexitime.

Buried deep in 20 pages. Recruiter was putting pressure on my to sign. Telling me they are a business and that they would move on if I didn't.

His point still stands to be fair, you had the opportunity to not send off the contract/not take the job when you noticed the clause - perhaps better to read the contracts before signing and handing in your notice in future...

Yes they've potentially been shady in not mentioning it (perhaps less so if it is very unlikely you'll actually need to be called) but the thing that is really bugging me about this is that you've just accepted it! This would have been the opportunity to ask for more money. It is a very valid excuse to ask for more, the recruiter is just panicking because they deal they thought was closed is potentially coming undone so they pressured you to just agree to this, there is a chance they have a second choice candidate they've left hanging but they might also need to start the whole recruitment process again and/or potentially lose the deal to another recruiter.

Honesty, any excuse you have to ask for more money after you've received an offer is a complete gift, companies/hiring managers almost always have additional budget when hiring.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

On call for a week (7 days, 24hrs) once every 10 weeks or so. Don't get paid anymore for it or any days in lieu or anything. Not too bad really, cant remember really dealing with anything recently.

You don't get paid for it?

Why are you doing it then?

I have never heard of a SINGLE company that doesn't at least pay some kind of token allowance for on call then at least the hourly rate if responding to a call.

 

[malachi]

On call for a week (7 days, 24hrs) once every 10 weeks or so. Don't get paid anymore for it or any days in lieu or anything. Not too bad really, cant remember really dealing with anything recently.

The hell with that!

Only been in a on call job once. They paid for the time plus every call you got.

 

[Biz.Kid09]

You don't get paid for it?

Why are you doing it then?

I have never heard of a SINGLE company that doesn't at least pay some kind of token allowance for on call then at least the hourly rate if responding to a call.

The hell with that!

Only been in a on call job once. They paid for the time plus every call you got.

I'm doing it because it's part of my job

Well the base salary and other perks are a good 30 if not 40% more than competitors so I guess you could argue I'm already being looked after in terms of pay.

As I said, it's not a problem really. Been there 18mths and had maybe 3 calls for a total of 1hr of work.

 

[Rroff]

It isn't uncommon in those kind of roles - but a lot will depend on the other staff you work with (it is no fun if everyone else runs a mile to avoid it) and how well the company organises it. Any reputable company will have some kind of remuneration for it - if they don't get out as they obviously don't care about the employee :s

 

[Shoeyuk]

Same here due to a smaller company it was expected and was given flexitime and time in lieu as well.

Now we have an office the over side of the world there is cover for the majority of a day

 

[Vince]

Like some others in here I am on call basically 365 days a year. The business I work in operate 9-5 but we tend to always have attorneys out of the office in china, usa, europe or wherever they might be and it's generally those guys that ring for support ooh, this is something that is loosely worded in my contract but i'm under no obligation should I be doing something else. I operate generally 8-4 or from home or whatever and to be honest it has never really caused me an issue. I'm basically their insurance policy on anything that might go wrong but then I have a large budget and the ability to build resilient infrastructure to minimise impact on me. The guys who report to me also have a clause in their contract which stipulates that they may be called on out of hours if the business requires it but In 8 years I don't think I have ever called on one of them. In fact I don't think that in the last 5 years (took 3 years to rebuild everything when I joined) that we have had any downtime at all apart from scheduled patching.

In your average year I might do 10 hours of ooh "on call" work, the rest is stuff I decide to do myself as it's better, more convenient or can be done in my own office with a beer so a few months back I migrated exchange from 2010 to 2016 and decided it was best done in it's entirety during the evenings so that is exactly what I did (working from home for me is seamless, I have everything at home that I have in the office so ip-phone, always on access to infrastructure at all our sites etc etc). I guess it depends on the company, the culture and what you find acceptable.

I find these questions interesting as I asked one of my staff during their appraisal a few weeks back what he would find acceptable in terms of pay for doing my role if I decided to leave or got hit by a bus and his answer was he would do it for 90k a year which to be honest is more than I expected to hear and about 3x what this particular person is paid already. What it did show me though is that everybody puts different value into their time outside of work, all you need to do is decide if your current package fits for the expectations put on you.