24/7 Availability, but You Still Owe Us a Commute

The on-call rota. It’s a burden that many software developers have to carry, but it isn’t pleasant in any way.

Yet when you join a rota you think, fine. You’ll get the occasional ping. Perhaps an infrequent late-night alert. Everyone else does it, I must be able to handle it.

Can I?

The Reality of On-call

Ah, our on-call. It’s a 24/7 deal where you can never be more than ten minutes from your computer. Suddenly you need to make sure that your grocery store has good enough Wi-Fi for a desperate Zoom call because our AWS instance is down. Want to keep fit? Well you need to cancel your gym session as your on-call week is next week.

On-call is in the contract. But they didn’t mention it was quite like this.

You’ll still need to come in

This might be manageable if it weren’t for the hybrid requirement. Yes, that shiny workplace benefit everyone brags about. Three days in the office! Two from home! Work-life balance!

Unless you’re on-call.

Because when you’re on-call, they still want those three days in the office.

That gives a logical conundrum. You need to respond to Slack within 10 minutes, even if you’re driving. That doesn’t matter to the company, they simply need to do it and anyway you can’t is a you problem. Drop the ball and you’ll likely be out of a job. So how and when can you possibly commute into the office? Don’t worry, there’s a solution for you (and it’s not work from home).

Work Later, Travel Later

We expect you to be on your laptop late at night, and early in the morning. In our world we get lots of traffic during retail hours, and those don’t finish until after 6 in these parts.

So just at the time you want to go home, that’s when everyone might need absolutely urgent assistance.

So what do they suggest?

It’s simple, and a classic. Simply work late into the evening so you don’t need to travel during peak times. Work till 10 p.m. Like that’s sustainable for anyone not on a strict diet of caffeine and despair.

There’s an alternative. Simply work five days a week before an on-call shift and then work from home (making up the missing day on the subsequent week.

It’s really important that you’re in the office, so you need to make up any *missing* days from your WFH schedule. If you have parental or caring responsibilities, well that seems like a you problem.

People keep suggesting to management that we work from home during on-call weeks. They’re usually shouted down. Office presence is sacred. Meanwhile, your personal time is disposable.

You’re Not Really Working

I’ve tried to explain this to people (obviously not friends, let’s be realistic here) who have never had the pleasure of an on-call job.

My company doesn’t call it work. You need to be available but it’s a service you provide that doesn’t need to be recompensed (what would you be doing anyway?). Yeah, you’re tethered to a computer, unable to leave your home, unable to take your kid to swimming, unable to attend dinner with friends. You’re living under a silent pressure to be always there, but not quite counted.

It’s Schrödinger’s productivity. You’re not really working, but also not free. You’ll feel the pressure.

“Can’t You Just Work From Home?”

Here’s the kicker: every few weeks, someone on the team meekly raises their hand and asks:

“Hey, since we’re on-call, and we’re expected to work evenings and nights, could we maybe just… work from home those days?”

The answer, every single time: No.

Why? “That’s not our policy.” Or “we need people in the office to collaborate.” Collaboration is strongest when the person next to you is sleep-deprived, tethered to their Slack app, and frantically trying to commute between alerts.

Conclusion

Please write in the comments that I’m entitled. I’ll enjoy that, but the truth is I don’t mind hard work.

Ok, I didn’t sign up for on-call (they added that to our team after we joined) but overall I’m paid enough for it. The issue is that our current setup is absurd.

You can’t be “always on” and also be commuting during peak hours, doing mandatory office attendance, and expected to avoid perform at any time the company wants.

Except we do. We make it happen. That’s because we’re special. We’re on-call.

About The Author

Professional Software Developer “The Secret Developer” can be found on Twitter @TheSDeveloper.

The Secret Developer is on-call for you and your meaningless wittering in the comments section.