[guitarbill]

Nice try at guilt-tripping people doing on-call, and doing it for free.

But to parent's points: if you call a plumber or HVAC tech at 3am, you'll pay for the privilege.

And doctors and nurses have shifts/rotas. At some tech places, you are expected to do your day job plus on-call. For no overtime pay. "Salaried" in the US or something like that.

[xvector]

And these companies often say "it's baked into your comp!" But you can typically get the same exact comp working an adjacent role with no oncall.

[sneak]

Then do that instead. What’s the problem with simply saying “no”?

[xvector]

Yup, that is precisely what I did and what I'm encouraging others to do as well.

Edit: On-call is not always disclosed. When it is, it's often understated. And finally, you can never predict being re-orged into a team with oncall.

I agree employees should still have the balls to say "no" but to imply there's no wrongdoing here on companies' parts and that it's totally okay for them to take advantage of employees like this is a bit strange.

Especially for employees that don't know to ask this question (new grads) or can't say "no" as easily (new grads or H1Bs.)

[baq]

You’re looking for a job in this economy with a ‘he said no to being on call’ in your job history.

This is plainly bad regulation, the market at large discovered the marginal price of oncall is zero, but it’s rather obviously skewed in employer’s favor.

[sneak]

Guilt tripping? Quite the opposite.

If you or anyone else are doing on-call for no additional pay, precisely nobody is forcing you to do that. Renegotiate, or switch jobs. It was either disclosed up front or you missed your chance to say “sorry, no” when asked to do additional work without additional pay. This is not a problem with on call but a problem with spineless people-pleasers.

Every business will ask you for a better deal for them. If you say “sure” to everything you’re naturally going to lose out. It’s a mistake to do so, obviously.

An employee’s lack of boundaries is not an employer’s fault.

[guitarbill]

First, you try to normalise it:

> It is completely normal for staff to have to work 24/7 for critical services.

> Not only is it normal, it is essential and required.

Now you come with the weak "you don't have to take the job" and this gem:

> An employee’s lack of boundaries is not an employer’s fault.

As if there isn't a power imbalance, or employers always disclose everything or chance their mind. But of course, let's blame those entitled employees!