[NickRandom]

When I first started in the industry I was on call 24/7 (since being on-call is a P.I.T.A. that nobody wants - ergo 'give it to the new guy'). There was a very small stipend paid for being on duty with a reasonable rate if I received any calls out of hours that varied depending on if I could resolve it remotely / over the phone (aka - 'Have you tried rebooting it? If not, try it and call me back if that doesn't solve it') with time and a half (including travel time) for anything that needed a hands-on solution.

As I progressed up the ladder I became second level support (i.e. if the 'junior guy' couldn't fix it I would get a call from them to see if I had any magic wand solutions).

As I progressed further up the ladder I began carrying three phones (one work phone, one personal phone and one for high value clients).

To this day, I have kept that third phone number active and still accept calls on it even though I am semi-retired.

I agree that being on call is disruptive and I always had trouble sleeping just in case I missed a call. I also found that not being able to drink/'smoke' etc immensely disruptive.

Being on-call on a week long rotation as an engineer with 20 years experience (as in your case) I would be like 'ah hell no, stuff it up your jumper'. Being asked to do that for zero recompense would be a hard 'No' for me but I guess it depends on your own personal circumstances in terms of being able to walk if they (employer) insisted that I either suck it up or ship out.

I’m sorry I can’t offer you any more concrete advice except my own personal experiences but hopefully others here will chime in with some more helpful input.

Best of luck.