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by coldpie 704 days ago
The issue is the change in workload. If I'm going from "40 hour work week" to "40 hour work week plus on-call" then you need to compensate me for the increased workload. If you're not going to increase my compensation, then I'm not going to agree to increase my workload.
1 comments

I agree that that would be fair, but we should also acknowledge that usually an IC doesn't actually have any leverage in this situation, although this depends on your location and particular employment situation. Typically (and maybe this is changing) a US software developer is employed overtime-exempt at-will, right? So, you can ask for this, but as per your employment agreement, they can absolutely demand this of you and let you go if you don't agree. I'm not arguing that is the way that it _should_ be, just that to my knowledge that's the way it usually is.

Edit - you say you're willing to quit if they don't agree, so I guess you're up for this possibility. More power to you!

Yup. There's a hojillion jobs out there, and I'm a good engineer. I can find another one if my current one decides to piss me off. I value work/home separation very, very highly. No work stuff goes on my personal devices, and I leave my laptop at the office. You want me on-call, you're gonna be paying me for it :)

But regardless, outside of rare exceptional circumstances (sometimes there's a deadline and shit's gotta get done), I'd recommend anyone to tell their employer to pound sand if they ask for more work from you than you agreed to.