Not Available whilst on Call - Sack able Offence?

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

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Someone i know works in IT support, on Sunday he was due to be on call but after a late one on the Saturday night he slept through a couple of calls to his works phone from a client.

He's not been there long (5 months). From what i know there haven't been any other issues prior to this and in January had a 3 month review which went really well. His probation period was 6 months and i think given he's within that it probably suggests the company would take a different view of the situation than if they were a long standing employee.

Just wondering what peoples opinions on this are. The guy in question is only 20 so only young. I know this isn't an excuse at all but i feel that dismissal feels slightly harsh in the circumstances (assuming there's nothing else i know of).
 
Depends on the reason. If its due to illness or being burnt out then no. If its due to partying too hard then at least a warning as he should have arranged cover.
If hes normally good and available and takes calls when needed then I wouldn't sack him.
 
Depends on the rules set out in the employee handbook, if there is one? Probably a verbal/written warning though.
 
Depends who he works for.
Friend of mine is IT support and works OOH, on call and all that. If he's not able to take the call and log in to resolve the issue, pretty much all of MTV-E's channels (about 40 in each country, I think) will fail to broadcast and Viacom loses a LOT of money!!!

I expect he'd need a very good reason (like death, although even that isn't a sure bet) for not being available, else he'd be bounced out the door within the hour by very heavy hands... probably after being dropped down the staricases several times.
 
Marvt74 said:
i feel that dismissal feels slightly harsh in the circumstances
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Why?

As his employer I would be fuming if someone didn't fulfill their obligations because they had a heavy night?

Nobody made him drink, he knew he had to be on call. If hes doesn't have the ability to moderate himself then tough **** as far as im concerned.
 
kindai said:
Why?

As his employer I would be fuming if someone didn't fulfill their obligations because they had a heavy night?

Nobody made him drink, he knew he had to be on call. If hes doesn't have the ability to moderate himself then tough **** as far as im concerned.
Click to expand...

Precisely this.

At the end of the day, if he doesn't get severe punishment, then he'll think he's got away with it and start doing it as a regular occurrence.
 
I work IT on-call, in the office 8am-4pm, on call 5pm-8am at home.

We're unofficially told to "live our lives as normal" while on-call, and we're given an hour to respond to any missed calls.

I've missed a few due to being in deep sleep at 4am, however management is pretty understanding and I've never had anyone say anything about it.

I'd see if he can get the terms of his on-call, but I'd agree dismissal would be incredibly harsh.

With the amount of calls I take we're essentially working 5 day long shifts. We only get a few hours of sleep during the night in between calls.
 
I'm not sure I see the point of having people on call in a support role who are not actually available when called, for whatever that reason may be.

On call means just that - on call. Not "I'll respond when I wake up or maybe not at all if I've had a few"

I don't work in an IT role, but I do work on an IT project, and I have seen, first hand, the disastrous consequences for the business when IT support is flaky especially at times like this, so I'm probably a bit more sensitive to it that those in IT roles.

If he were my employee, It be seriously considering letting him go.
 
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A one time occurrence? I think dismissal would be overly harsh given that you say his performance review went really well.

I'd have expected the missed calls to be chased up as soon as the on-call guy saw them though.
 
One time one of my team missed a whole nights worth of calls. This was due to us using a **** iPhone and the physical mute button had accidentally turned on when he took it out of his pocket.

No excuse for a heavy night out. I've been in some right states but still answered and dealt with some serious calls.
 
Have we actually ascertained whether he slept through the phone due to being on the razz, or being knackered from the previous day's work and call out?
 
Sorry if it wasn't clear. It was due to being out on the razz. No excuses for that at all. It was a stupid thing to do and i'm not defending it in the slightest. My original opinion was that dismissal was a little harsh IF it was a first time issue and the previous 5 months had been problem free. Especially for someone fairly young, who might turn into a productive member of the team for many years to come.

My advice at the moment has been to try and beg and ask for a second chance, even to suggest extending the original probationary period for another 3 months to prove his worth/reliability.

For some more info, the company involved is a fairly small (i think) Third Party IT Support type company, maybe around 5-10 employees. The person in question is my stepson so i accept i can't be fully impartial, although i do my best to take everything into account and believe i question things i don't know (such as whether there have been other incidents he's not told us about)
 
I think it might come down to how hes acted in response to them being annoyed with him. If hes genuinely sorry then I'd be surprised if they dismissed him. If he was mouthy at them, telling them they can stick their job, then he hasn't got a chance.
 
Yeah i agree with you there. The fact it came to today for the dismissal after work Tuesday-Thursday suggests they've been looking at his reaction and haven't been convinced by it.
 
Hang on so he's actually been dismissed? You didn't state that in your original post. Even so, I think the company has made the correct decision.
Sorry for your stepson, but monitor his reaction. If he takes a "well screw them, they're idiots anyway blah blah blah" stance then there is a strong chance he'll find himself in a position in a very similar position in his next job....
 
If he worked for me it would be a verbal or possibly written warning with dismissal if he kept repeating it.
 
Marvt74 said:
S
He's not been there long (5 months). From what i know there haven't been any other issues prior to this and in January had a 3 month review which went really well. His probation period was 6 months and i think given he's within that it probably suggests the company would take a different view of the situation than if they were a long standing employee.
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yup, they've not seen him for long enough it isn't a good sign

for a regular employee I doubt it would mean getting sacked, you'd definitely have a meeting without coffee and probably a warning about it

for someone on probation, well I don't think you'd sack them the next day either, however if would be a negative factor when it comes to the end of those 6 months... if there were other reasons for them to be a bit uncertain about him then that could mean saying good by at the 6 month point, it could also just mean they might want to extend the probation period - especially if this is the only slip up, if he's an otherwise good employee then it doesn't make sense to sack someone just because they can after a single screw up, it costs a lot of money to recruit and train someone.

the other factor perhaps is what is the impact on the clients, were they just calling for something routine or has his actions caused some grief... did they have a critical production issue that has cost them tens of thousands of pounds because of the additional delay in getting someone to fix it, is the account manager (perhaps in a different department) getting a load of grief over it, is someone senior in sales in the middle of pitching a multimillion pound upgrade but because our friend doofus here in support has screwed up then the client is now worried about the ability of the vendor to support it... if there is a significant impact as a result of his screw up then he might well be told to go as his manager might well be less inclined to stick his neck out for someone who's problem was entirely self inflicted and is still brand new to the team
 
Probation... is the time when you have to be squeaky clean. If you are off sick even for a day during your probation at my company then that's a good reason to let you go.

Only 5 months in and he can't even be bothered to do his job? But chooses to go out the night before instead? No sympathy. Right decision to let him go.
 
Probably. But realistically, a well played lie will sort this right out.

My phone didn't ring. (bonus points for well acted confusion)

Maybe the call forwarding wasn't working?

It only rang for a second and then stopped, must have been a dropped call.

Im sorry, my phone was playing up but I managed to sort it and then people were able to get through.

Etc etc etc...
 
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