[deeptote]

This is why I started my own contracting/consulting company, I hate on call and it always gets abused.

I mean, really, what's going to happen if you can't see the score of a baseball game until tomorrow?

[happyopossum]

> I mean, really, what's going to happen if you can't see the score of a baseball game until tomorrow?

Well, nothing. Unless you’re MLB.com and have tens of millions of people paying you >$100/yr to have that information readily available. If that’s the case, you’re issuing credits (which is a huge time and money sink) and losing customers.

[geraldwhen]

Then maybe they should pay people to be ready to fix bugs 24/7.

They won’t. No one will. They want their salaried employees to also be firefighters and the premise is absurd.

I don’t take calls at night; you cannot reach me. What are they gonna do, fire me?

Good joke. I run interviews and staffing someone who knows their left hand from their right is nearly impossible. Leverage works wonders.

[askafriend]

> This is why I started my own contracting/consulting company, I hate on call and it always gets abused.

Hate to break it to you, but starting your own contracting/consulting company means you are forever on-call. It just so happens that it's not called that explicitly, and the people you have to answer to are your customers (aka your bosses).

[lrvick]

That is not true at all. I have active retainer contracts with several companies providing security engineering and support. All of them understand I am only reachable when I am physically in my home office.

I get back to clients typically within one business day or I will show up to any meetings scheduled a week in advance. This has never been an issue.

I do not carry a cell phone and I make sure every client knows this. If I am outside my office I am living my life.

[lrvick]

Having been on call as a sysadmin for several companies over 15+ years, starting my own company was mainly so no one can ever demand I do this again.

[tyingq]

Bookies might care :)