[Tallianar]

My company(UK) recently tried to force on-call on all engineers.

The initial wording was very restrictive, like 5 minute acknowledgement time and 15 minutes at-laptop. 24/7 for 7 days. They tried to have this implemented without any extra remuneration or perks for the on-call engineer.

On top of it possibly being very illegal, it seems very immoral to spring something like that on people that did on agree to it when they took the job.

I fought for it and I got them to change their policy in 2 mostly meaningful ways:

- It's an opt-in method

- On-call engineers get paid extra for just being on-call and get extra time off whenever they need to actually do something.

This makes sure that you only get people actually willing to do it and there is an incentive. I think it's been quite a successful program!

Luckily I didn't need to get them involved, but in the UK there are unions starting to form for tech workers, I suggest you join one like https://prospect.org.uk/tech-workers

[throwaway22032]

A company I used to work for asked me to do on-call, it wasn't in my contract, I declined, that was that.

I don't understand what "force" means in this context - the conversation went something like "I have commitments outside of work" and that was that. I mean, there was a back and forth, but yeah, at the end of the day I took the job knowing I'd be available for the hours they wanted when I took the job.

[Tallianar]

Forced means, they didn't announce it as you could not do it. It's was a "be on-call" or you are out.

In a call I was explicitly told "every company does it like this, if that's not ok you might not be a right fit for this company".

[throwaway22032]

Well, sure.

I don't think anyone is the right fit for any relationship in which one side attempts to change the parameters without consultation.

It just doesn't make any logistical sense. You may as well ask a teenager doing a weekend job to come in on Tuesday. They're at school.

UK employment law doesn't really permit these sorts of shenanigans.

[Tallianar]

Indeed, which is why I think they ended backing out. But even if it could, there are definitely better ways of handling it. The deal we ended up getting is one that benefits all sides and I wish more companies would adopt.

[pydry]

>In a call I was explicitly told "every company does it like this, if that's not ok you might not be a right fit for this company".

In situations like this it's helpful to have a no-management backchannel team chat group set up so you can use it synchronize a series of "nope, not doing that".

[Throwiemcthrow]

I joined Prospect because my company tried to implement an unspoken on-call arrangement, whereby they would try to call me on my mobile 24/7 expecting an immediate response. I asked what the additional renumeration is for that, and they said there isn't any.

Now I'm a Prospect member, and my mobile is always on mute.

[mouzogu]

why are people so inconsiderate or callous.

it's like as long as its not me, i dont care how much your suffer.

[muttled]

I used to work for an MSP. They billed 2-3x the normal rate for on-call to clients. We, however, were simply paid our hourly rate plus overtime. It created a perverse incentive to have as many on-call events as possible as it was very profitable for the company. They billed minimum time to clients, but we were told we could only bill for the exact minutes spent working.