How do most companies handle 24 x 7

[chuckcounty]

Our boss expects us to be a 24 x 7 shop without compensating us for being on call at night and on the weekend. Just curious how other shops handle this problem. My boss is a workaholic so he does not want to hear about personal time. And of course everything is a crisis. There are a few reasons for 24 x 7, but my feeling is someone should have to pay.

We are looking for ways to solve this problem. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[mattKnight]

>but my feeling is someone should have to pay.

oh YES

I used to work for a company that offered 24/7 support. The way they worked it was 250GBP for being on-call for weekdays and 200GBP for on-call over weekends.

If we had to go to work then we got paid overtime.

It is important to remember that the company is charging big money for 24/7 support. Why shouldn't you share in that extra.

What does your contract say about out of hours working?

just my disjointed thoughts

 

[chuckcounty]

Acutally we are a local government and I am management. So we are not "charging" anyone for the extra coverage. Being management, we are expected to work 50 hours a week. We do have union personal who by contract get paid if they are on call. However, they do not want to pay these people to be on call. They want everything to be handled by management. At no cost. Not hear to bash my boss - he does have a point about the coverage, but this is a problem that needs solved, and not by me being on call 24x7.

 

[carp]

At most places I have worked, either you were told about the 24x7 BEFORE your salary was set or else there has been a salary differential offered for filling this square. One place I worked for offered $75/weeknight and $150/weekend day for carrying a pager and an additional $50 for each time somebody actually paged you.

On the other hand, my current employer feels that carrying the pager 24x7 is part of the job and offers no compensation for this. It wouldn't be so bad if the pager rotated between team members, but it doesn't. Consequently, being the production DBA is a very unpopular position - for some reason, management doesn't understand that 24x7x52 is unacceptable.

 

[JGirl]

Where I work, we have a callout roster rotating on a weekly basis...Im on call maybe once every 6 weeks, in which time I get maybe 1 or 2 calls...I get a mobile phone and home phone line paid for for being on call, plus any overtime for the actual amount of time that I spend working - 15 bucks extra a week after tax for an hours work at 4am doesnt sound like too much of a good deal compared to some of the others that have posted messages here, but I get a free mobile and home phone to use as I like (and boy do I use it!), so it works for me! This was a part of the contract that I signed when I started working for the company, so I knew what I was in for.

I guess the policy you end up putting in will be largely determined by the volume of calls your team receives over the weekend.

J

 

[Kjonnnn]

Lemme me tell you, a few years ago I interviewed at a huge corporation (this corp. recently got in trouble because of the Enron thing and is now basically a shell of its former self.)(Take a guess which one.)

First bad sign was, the interviewer told me "Well dont you're gonna make here what you made at your former job." (And I was only making low 40s doing support).

Then, I was told I'd be on call 24/7 for two weeks a month. And I would have to do my "special projects" on my own time (which was outside of my expected 50 hour workweek). All for the big dollar price of 25K.

 

[bobocop]

well, you guys are very very luck compared to me, I'm working as a technical support on a company that claims to be no. 1 in soho and medium scale networking. My salary is 200 dollars a month, will you beleive?

 

[KenCunningham]

And your outgoings? Not being cheeky here, BTW!

 

[ecarlson]

I am the Technical Support Manager for a telecommunications company. I am on-call 24x7x52 with no "extra" compensation. This was agreed upon before I signed the dotted line.

I am entitled to vacation and sick leave. When I take this time, the nights and weekends responsibility falls another member of the team. and they are compensated time and a half if they have to work off-hours.