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Should You Be Paid For Being On Call?
theodp writes "Fortune's Dear Annie takes on the case of poor Dazed and Confused, an independent webmaster who's expected to be on call for his client at all hours of the day and night, but doesn't get paid for being on call, only for the 40 hours a week that he's in the office. Surprisingly, Annie throws cold water on the contractor's dreams of paid OT, citing these pearls of wisdom from an attorney who's apparently never had the 'privilege' of being a techie on call: 'Many companies see the on-call issue as analogous to a fire fighter's job. Most of the time, a fire fighter is off-duty but on call, hanging around the firehouse, cooking, sleeping, or whatever. What that person really gets paid for is the relatively small, but crucial, amount of time he spends walking into a burning building with an ax. A webmaster, likewise, has slow times and busy times.'" What on call policies are you used to working with and how should it work in an ideal world?
Here's the way I see it. Mr. Lawyer, you want to pay for support 40 hours a week? I'll give you a cellphone number I'll answer 40 hours a week.
It is ridiculous to presume that offering the opportunity to interrupt one's life at any time, any place, with an overriding obligation to deal with your problems, has no value.
Oh, you want the 168 hour phone number? Well, that's gonna cost ya...
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Obviously, with all else equal, the guy who is 40 hours + on call needs to be paid more than the guy who is 40 hours only, unless we want to go back to the good old days of indentured servitude or something.
However, it doesn't really much matter exactly how that extra money is delivered. It could be that "The job description of 'Job A' includes being on call, which is why people who do it earn a hefty salary" or it could be "'Job B' is 9 to 5; and time on call is X dollars/hour outside of that". That seems to be the point of confusion.
As someone who is a web developer/webmaster web-whatever-you-want-to-call-it. At most of my jobs I spend most of my 40 hours a week busy. Doing work. When I have done systems administration, it's been the same thing. I am 90% busy those 40 hours per week. There are VERY little slow periods, unlike a Fire fighter (not to dis fire fighters) who spend most of their day waiting to be called to work. If I work 40hrs during the week, and then get called in 3-4 nights because something is acting up, in a way that wasn't expected, I should get paid for being on call, or the employer should wait until I am in during the morning. Mister Lawyer. Until you are in my shoes, please politely STFU.... Thanks
I tried this once, but I hated being on a leash so much that I quickly found another job. It just wasn't worth my sanity.
You want the opportunity to use my services at your convenience? Pay me a retainer equal to X hours a month. I work any more than X, you pay me an hourly rate. I work less than X, you still owe me for those hours.
Well, the firefighter mentioned is flawed - he is *at work* waiting for a call to come in. On call is not at work, but available should the shit hit the fan.
The hospitals I worked in, the staff that were on call (CAT scan techs, nuke med techs, OR nurses, recovery room nurses, dialysis folks) were paid $1 or $2 per hour just for carrying the beeper. Should they get called in, they were guaranteed 2 hours of pay, but they had to stay waiting for something to do for that whole time (a CT tech could come in and scan someone in 10 min - but they then had to hang out and wait for the extra hour and 50 minutes). This pay was at regular pay rates/levels, so night shift differential or holiday differential kicked in, as would over time if their total for the pay week was over 40 hours.
So... followign this, our poor over worked web master would be paid say $1/hr for totin his beeper or whatever. If he gets called, he comes in and fixes the issue, gets a minimum of 2 hours of work at his hourly rate, and probably gets over time. Sounds good. In reality, he's probably a salaried employee, so over time is out the window, and if he's lucky he may be allowed to leave 15 minutes early on Friday to make up for it.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
The problem is that, when you're "on call", your time is not your own. You're expected to be ready and able to drop everything at a moments notice and go to work, immediately. Furthermore, you can be limited as to where you can go, particularly in areas with poor cell phone coverage. Most employers I've worked with have given a day of "comp" time in exchange for a week on-call, although they've sometimes been a bit sketchy on actually doing this and on how you should report it. To me, it should be official, recognized, and fully compensated--but often it just happens at manager's discretion.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
Firefighters aren't just "hanging around the firehouse" when they're not putting out fires. They spend that time maintaining equipment, training, performing building inspections, and a lot of other duties. I'm sure municipal policies vary, but I'm certain that many firefighters work regular shifts, and when an emergency call extends beyond their regular shift they are paid overtime.
Proverbs 21:19
On-call duty is to be paid, end of story. Anyone trying to sell you otherwise is trying to save money at your expense.
That said, of course it isn't paid at the same rate as a regular work hour. After all, you can spend it dozing, surfing the web for porn, fighting with your loved one or going shopping.
The alternative for the company to having someone on call is to have someone there, on the clock. Obviously, that's a lot more expensive. Since they're a company and trying to make a profit, they'll try to get things as cheaply as possible, and free if at all possible. That doesn't mean you have to give it to them for free. Next they'll be asking for free overtime, and then if you'd mind not being paid at all.
Really, I'm not being sarcastic. They are essentially asking you to work for nothing. It's not much work (carrying a cell phone and picking it up if it rings), but it's work.
And don't let them fool you with examples of other jobs. There are some jobs where being on call is so standard that it's figured into the regular salary. That doesn't mean it's free, it's just not explicitly listed on the paycheck. And of course firemen get paid for the time they're waiting for an emergency. After all, that's why we have professional firefighters - to have someone ready to come at a moments notice. And if you check their contracts, they certainly don't say "a work week consists of 3,5 hours inside burning buildings and 1,5 hours rescuing lost cats", but much more likely something like "a work week consists of 40 hours".
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
But in California I was always payed 2 hours for responding to a page, just carrying the pager was considered a 'better' alternative to requiring after-hours onsite staff. This was a large financial institution, and I was a Unix Systems Engineer, one among 8 or 10. Once I moved to a smaller venue, ie development lab and system support, the pager time dramatically decreased and was swapped with comp time as it arose. I don't think you are going to get payed up front for carrying the pager but you DO have a right to get payed if a response is required, and if you are required to remain within a certain distance from home or work you might have a valid issue as well.
http://www.gotovertime.com/facts.html#myth_comp
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I think you'll find many businesses do though.
You're basically hooked to a pager, which means you need to be near a phone, and usually near a computer with internet connectivity.
And you need to be sober. Depending on what it is you like to do with your free time, the possibility of having to work at any moment might severely impair your ability to properly enjoy your free time. That has value.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
At my last job we didn't have an on call schedule but we were generally expected to be accessible to our customers if Something Bad happened. One Friday night, around 7pm, my colleague got one of those calls. He listened to the customer explain the problem, and then proceeded to tell him that he would be best served by calling the manufacturer's support line as he had been drinking for several hours and would probably just make things worse in his current condition. No one could really fault him; he did the right thing by the customer.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
I'm the "lone" IT guy where I work. Web admin, network engineer, helpdesk. I'm "On-Call" but with the stipulation of "you get me if you get me. If you don't, call our service vendors" ... if I answer a call, I get an automatic hour's pay, and then whatever else is needed after that, plus travel.
So far it hasn't worked out at all.
"You get me if you get me" has been to the company owner "Get him. Get him now. Where is he? This is unacceptable!" and nothing like what we agreed to. I've had to correct them once already when they tried to write me up for neglect and I produced the documented they agreement to defend myself.
As the only person, I can't be reasonably expected to always be on-duty and my manager (nor do I) want me to make updates to her as to when I'll be available. The policy seemed fair until they get bent out of shape.
The moral of the story is - get whatever you can for being on call, and make sure they know the rules apply only when you're on call. Expect your employer to try and abuse it and be firm with them when they do. Set boundaries early and keep them in place.
Maybe for now it works well, but over time it can be a pain. I consider my time at 3am on a sunday morning to be worth WAY more than time at 10am on a monday morning.
And does the lawyer offering this advice accept a retainer fee from his clients so that he can be on call for them?
24x7 support is costly in any business. The firefighter is not an apt analogy... Is he expected to work an 8 hour day and THEN be on call for fires?
And is he serious when he thinks a firefighter is paid for only the small amount of time he is out firefighting? If that were the case, I expect we would see a lot of financially insolvent firefighters-turned-pyromaniac in order to put their kids through college.
If the guy FTA agreed to "whatever" to not be unemployed, then he needs to live with the consequences, force a contract renewal, or look for a new job.
That said, I don't think you can equate what he's doing to a plumber, lawn mowing guy, electrician, mechanic, etc. Inferring from his comments, Dazed and Confused is working 40 hrs/week and getting paid for it, but then he's on call 24/7 without any type of reimbursement (not only no pay for being "on call", but also no compensation for work performed "after hours"). If you paid your auto-mechanic for 40 hours of work, do you expect him to be at your beck and call, no matter the day or time, and expect service without further payment? If someone manages to convince any of these "use you when I need you" people to work on this basis, they are one hell of a salesman.
It seems you've never dealt with these kinds of people. :)
Even if his system is rock solid, with "free 24/7 contact" (essentially what we're talking about here), one can expect calls at all hours of the day or night with such wonderful nuggets as these:
"I know you're not the website-guy/guy who does the copy/whatever, but..." ...
[SELECT]
[OPTION] We'd really like to change the text on our About Us page
[OPTION] The main page is off center on our senior partner's (320x200) screen
[OPTION] The site is running really slow (9/10 times, some asshole in the office has eDonkey/Bittorrent going full blast)
"... and ..."
[SELECT]
[OPTION] the website-guy is out of town
[OPTION] the website-guy wants to charge us
[OPTION] the website-guy isn't taking our calls since we decided not to pay him
[OPTION] we trust your work more <====== My personal favorite. Get your waders out...