No more hiding in the server room

On call allowance

We're looking at expanding our service to cover 24/7 operation. We don't currently have any on-call process in place. My question is for those who currently work in an environment where you receive an on-call allowance. How is the on-call allowance calculated? What is the level of expectation (are you expected to drive in if necessary, simply take a call, or fix remotely?)? Do you have a shift system or are you paid the allowance and then you're on call 24/7/365?

I've been asked to put a proposal forward and would appreciate some guidance.

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Permalink Reply by Simon Lye on June 2, 2009 at 7:10pm

At my previous employer (a large bank), I did on-call work. The system worked like this:

- We were paid a flat rate for every week we were on call, irrelevant of whether we received any calls or not. This was compensation for the inconvenience of being on call. The rate was approximately 50% of a weeks normal salary.
- I worked in an on-call rotation where I did on call work for a week at a time, rotating weekly with other colleagues. The week started and finished at 9am on a Thursday morning (strange time, don't ask me why, it just did!)
- We were on call 24 x 7 for that week.
- We were issued cellphones, and expected to respond to calls within 15 minutes (if the phone was not answered immediately), and to be able to work on any issue (whatever this required) within 45 minutes.
- We were required to be able to drive to the office if required, so obviously no out-of-town trips, nights out, etc.
- As soon as we answered the phone, we could charge a minimum of 1 hours work for our time. If we needed to connect to the office network to work on the issue, a minimum of 2 hours could be charged. If we needed to travel to the office, a minimum of 3 hours could be charged.
- Any overtime worked was billed at our normal hourly rate - there was no time-and-a-half, double time, etc.

I did this for around 5 years, usually being on call maybe one week in 3 or 4. I ended up making a reasonable amount out of it, although my partners never really appreciated being woken up by my phone at 3am in the morning! One of them also told me, after one such occurance, that I was 'too grumpy' to the operator who had called me ... the cheek!

I always thought the scheme was pretty fair, even generous to those who were doing it. We would normally get 5 or so calls a week, although some weeks there would be 20 or more, and others there would be none at all. It did get to be a bit of a drag some times, but overall I couldn't really complain.