What's your on-call process and what do you like about it?

[BLeR]

My team consists of 4 people (Wintel Sys admins mainly). We do 1 week in 4. On-call is incorporated into the yearly salary.

Use our own phone (sharing a phone wtf??) and then SSL VPN in. Helpdesk is 24x7 so they filter most of the junk. Aside from that we are pretty darn awesome, our stuff is too scared to break and interrupt our sleep. High Five.

Every week we have a release night where new projects get released to Prod. Sometimes that can be the only work we do...other times we get bitch slapped with outages etc. Occasionally we get single user issues escalated, but they tend to be those at the CEO type level. Anyone else can GF

[KeEnA]

Government on-call.

Rotates between 4 staff (1 week each). If recalled it's a min of 6 hours pay. Nightly stand-by rate is low (~$15 per day, double for fri, sat and sun). Sometimes 5 recalls a week, sometimes 1 or 2. Must be within 10-15 mins of primary site at all times.
No official laptop provided, everyone uses their own PC should then need to VPN to fix the issue.

[link1896]

We support approx 40 sites in Victoria and Tassie with resolution guidelines promising 80% of cases are closed in four hours. I have four guys doing one week each on call. $200 a week to be available, time and a half for a min of three hours, 4 on Sundays the moment they answer the phone. Customer runs their own two man help desk who field the " turn it on stupid" calls. Hours on call are 7am till midnight. GM is so out of touch it's taken him 9 months to approve the capex for MacBooks. It grows tiring buying netbooks when on sale under the $300 capex threshold, makes it hard for my guys trying to remote in via a netbook.

I take the initial phone call whilst my guys are still gaining experience, and normally take a gander at the logs. Part and parcel of a salary package where you sell your soul Bart Simpson style sadly.

[meth05]

Currently 3 Techs on rotating roster supporting 3500 staff

On-call Duration: From Friday 5pm through to Friday the following week 8.30am

On-call Retainer: $163.70 (for the on-call week)

Phone Support: Billed in 1 hour block x1.5 your hourly pay rate.
Even if the call takes 5 minutes, this includes remote accessing back to work

Recall: Billed in 3 hour block x2 for the first hour and 1.5 for the next two.
Even if it takes minutes, this is being recalled on-site

- Home Internet is paid every month
- Self password re-set and account unlock portal about to go live
- Laptop & 4g modem avail if needed, most times just access via vpn from home PC

[evilasdeath]

15k extra per annum paid quarterly

24/7/365 on call

phone provided (acceptable use policy exists for personal calls, but I only use this phone and never been questioned)
home internet subsidised $50 per month
most work 99% can be complete remotely via VPN I have other hands and feet to do field work.
no official TIL policy however there is understanding with the managers so you work the previous night you aren't expected to be in on time, and its roughly 1.5>2 hours per hour of work.


most calls are fairly short and few and far between but when they come they can be ball breaking.

My last major call was 11pm on a Friday night and I didn't finish until 3pm the following day after doing a full days work on Friday.

Fair chunk of my day work is to prevent things getting to the level they break that bad thou, so events like that are very rare.

[inoshiro]

Large/critical 24x7 application support for a large company, incorporating several decent Unix servers, mainframe, several Windows servers & and many thousands of desktops with our clients installed (and more who use our web server). 1 week in 3 oncall on average, Monday to Monday. Over $350 p/w (pre-tax) allowance for oncall weeks. No extra pay for calls, but get TOIL for out-of-hours effort (not that we ever have time to take all of it). Work supplies an oncall phone. When things go bad you can spend hours on the phone to India, China, US or a few other countries, depending on the vendor.

On a quiet week it's good, but on a busy week even twice the money ain't worth it. Being a critical app, I'm very restricted in what I can do on those oncall weeks. Can't exactly go out for some bushwalking or kayaking

[Ding.Chavez]

300 head company, we are on-call all the time, comes with the job.

[Matt_NZ]

Ugh, I'd love to never be on call again however somehow I don't see that happening anytime soon

Our on call service is only suppose to be for critical support of our one 24/7 site, plus responding to any server room dramas at either our head office here in Christchurch or our DR server room in Auckland. Of course, there's always the odd muppet that decides to ignore the "this is for urgent calls only" voice message and rings up about something mundane that could wait until the next work day.

Our on call duties are rotated on a weekly basis between three of us. We have our main IT number on a schedule that forwards to a cellphone that we then forward to who ever is on call that week. This is purely for the purpose of the voicemail otherwise we'd skip the extra cellphone forward. 99% of the time we let the on call phone calls go to voicemail first as a screening method but if they leave a message and it is something that needs attention we're expected to respond within half an hour.

We each get paid extra for the weeks we're on call, plus we're provided with laptops and iPhones. The laptop is nice for more detailed work that might be needed, but the majority of it (restarting servers, unlocking accounts for those at the 24/7 site, etc) can all be done through various iPhone apps while I'm still in bed

[karmic]

We have 3 teams (Helpdesk/Systems/Networking) supporting 5000 users across AU/NZ. On-call is 6pm-8am weekdays and 24/7 Sat & Sun.

Each team has an on-call mobile to be rotated through it's members on a Fri-to-Fri basis, but we generally just forward it to the lucky person's normal work-provided mobile). There is also an on-call ipad for each team, loaded with various apps and 3G/VPN access.

If you're on-call, you are expected to be able to respond and start working within 1hr. If you can do it remotely, great, if not you are expected to come in to the office.

Remuneration is $200/week for the Systems team. If you actually take a call then overtime rates apply (x1.5 or x2 depending on day) and is charged in 1hr blocks. This is in addition to the $200 retainer.

In theory, only the Helpdesk on-call person is allowed to call the Systems/Networking on-call people, unless our boss gets a call from a C-level which he forwards to us direct. We do sometimes get calls from upper management in different business areas but its rare.


Kyle

[fergo]

Originally Posted by SirNemesis

Until we have some kind of "Press 1 to indicate you agree to the charges" option before the mobile rings ....

It would be awesome to have a system that indicates when you are asleep and prompts the caller to indicate that the issue is urgent before waking you up. I get a lot of calls that can wait several hours, and I'd prefer to deal with them when I am woken up for something urgent.

The options would be press 1 if urgent and wake me up. Or press 2 if not urgent and leave a message. Ideally it would be possible to toggle this system off when I am awake, putting calls through straight away if I am not sleeping.

Any ideas on how to implement this? I have no experience with Asterix but I gather that it could do this (and it would be overkill). Are there other options?

[fireater]

Here is a copy of our agreement.
Central service desk number that is forwarded to their mobile when it is their turn to be on-call.

Staff are asked to only call when it is a safety or production issue.

IT On-Call Agreement

1. After Hours Work
a. In order to ensure certain Information Technology services have a high availability, it will be necessary for some Company IT staff to work or be On-Call to work outside of office hours.
b. This agreement applies only to the Company IT staff required to provide a range of specific support services outside of normal working hours.

2. Glossary of Terms
a. “Company Brisbane Business Hours” are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Friday AEST, exclusive of public holidays.
b. “After Hours” Any time outside of “Company Business Hours”.
c. “Critical business function” means an Information Technology task, project or service that is of priority to the operational needs on the company.
d. “Safety function” means an Information Technology task, project or service that is of priority to the safety needs of the company.
e. The “After Hours Service” role is a function performed by an IT staff member to receive, interpret and respond to certain after hours incidents.
f. The “After Hours Technical Service” role is a function performed by an IT technical specialist to provide advanced technical services in order to allow IT to respond to after hours incidents.
g. “Planned Overtime” means after hours work not arising from “on-call” activities.
h. “Unplanned Overtime” means after hours work arising from “on-call” activities ot unscheduled after hours work.

3. General conditions for all IT staff working After-Hours and On-Call rostering.
a. Each staff member who is placed “On-Call” will be rostered “On-Call” in an equitable manner for no more than 26 weeks per year unless agreed to by the staff member.
b. Staff participating in any after-hours work is provided the option of a minimum 8-hour break between the time of ceasing work and recommencement.
c. Management will consult with the individual staff member and mutually agree arrangements, should it be necessary for staff to be “On-Call” for two or more consecutive weeks.
d. Staff working the “After Hours Service Desk” are not considered to be “On-Call” during “Company Brisbane Office Hours”.
e. Staff working “On-Call” or “After Hours” must remain fit for work.

4. After Hours Service Desk
Note: The “After Hours Service Desk” role is one that will be used during times of critical business or safety related functions.
a. Staff performing the “After Hours Service Desk” will not be required to attend the office to resolve incidents, unless they are unable to work effectively and efficiently from the remote location.
b. From time to time, where a Critical Business Function or Safety Function dictates, it may be necessary to roster other staff to be available outside of normal hours in order to provide an enhanced service for limited duration.
c. Being “On-Call” means that the staff member must ensure that they can be contacted outside of normal working hours regarding an incident within the following target timeframes:
i. Receipt of incident notification acknowledged within a 15 minute time period.
ii. Where remote access is appropriate, work on an incident is to start within a 1 hour time period.
iii. The staff member “On-Call” must remain able to arrive on-site between 1 and 2 hours of acknowledging a call.

5. On-Call Allowances
a. An “On-Call” allowance rate has been established which will be paid to all IT staff members over the periods they are rostered for On-Call work.
b. The “On-Call” staff member is to ensure that they are able to provide services to Company in an appropriate manner, they must ensure that they are contactable and able to perform required duties throughout the whole period that they are performing an on-call role.
c. Where the “On-Call” day rostered is a Public Holiday occurring on a normal weekday, the on-call staff member will treat the public holiday as a workday and receive a day in Lieu.
d. Percentage rate of 10% for weekdays, and 15% for weekends (and public holidays falling on a weekday).

6. Call Definition
a. A “Call” occurs when the staff member on-call receives an “Alert” from the Company IT monitoring systems, or Telephone call “After Hours” from a client or IT Manager, which relates directly to a Staff Safety or may adversely affect production at a mine site.
b. For “After Hours Technical Support” staff, a call is initiated when the rostered on-call member contacts them.

7. Payments
a. Time spent in travelling to and from the place of duty in order to respond to a call, in accordance with section 4c, will be included in the hours worked for the purpose of call payment calculation.
b. Payments will be made according to the provisions of section 5d for the on-call period, and according to section 8 Table 1 (below) for call-out activity.
Note:
i. When staff are required to return to work outside of normal business hours, a minimum call-out period of 3 hours will apply with continuous work following that period paid in ½ hour blocks at appropriate rates. This payment will include and supersede any call up fee provided in Table 1 below.
ii. Any call received within the same call time block will not be treated as a separate call.

Table 1: After Hours Technical Support
Category Problem Type On-Call Overtime Paid
A Phone call and the technical specialist can immediately report that they cannot provide relevant assistance. Between 5:00pm - 10:00pm and 7:00am – 7:30am weekdays: No payment for the first three calls per day. ½ hour blocks at appropriate rates for subsequent calls.
Between 10:00pm and 7:00am: 1 hour “call up fee” at appropriate rates with a maximum payment of 3 “call up fees” to be paid per night.

B All other On-Call work Between 5:00pm – 10:00pm and 7:00am – 7:30am weekdays: Work will be paid in ½ hour blocks at appropriate rates.
Between 10:00pm and 7:00am: 1 hour “call up fee” at appropriate rates with a maximum payment of 3 “call up fees” to be paid per night. Work will be paid in ½ hour blocks at appropriate rates.

8. Overtime Rates of Pay for On-Call and Planned Overtime
a. Overtime incurred as a result of being on-call, will be paid in accordance with Table 2
b. On-Call overtime periods are calculated in ½ hour increments, rounded up to the nearest ½ hour.
c. Work resulting from Planned Overtime is to be recorded on time sheets and may be taken as time off in lieu.

Table 2: On-Call Overtime rates

Time On-Call Overtime multiplier
Between 5:00pm – 11:00pm Time x 1.5
Between 11:00pm and 7:30am Time x 2
After hours worked after the first 3 hours Monday to Friday Time x 2
Weekends Time x 2
Public Holidays Time x 2.5

9. Optional On-Call Overtime Payment or Time Off in Lieu
a. Employees may request to take time off, in lieu of on-call overtime payment. A maximum of 3 concurrent days may be taken at any one time.
b. Time off in lieu must be taken within three months after the entitlement is accrued, and must be approved by the IT manager.
c. The official record for accrued time off in lieu will combine records held as a result of the call-out process, and those controlled by the IT manager for pre-approved overtime for specific scheduled work.
d. If time off in lieu is unale to be taken within the specified three month period then full payment for the time owing must be made to the staff member.

10. Specialist equipment provided to rostered On-Call IT staff members
a. Each IT staff member rostered to be On-Call will be provided with equipment or services determined by IT management as necessary for a rostered staff member to perform duties required of the role.
b. Staff will not be compensated for use of their own equipment.

11. Staff rostered On-Call who need to return to work
a. All staff who are called back to work to correct a problem will be reimbursed the travel amount or will be provided with Cab Charges.

12. Review of this Agreement
This Agreement will be reviewed on request by either party, but not later than six months from date of signing and thereafter every twelve months.

[HUMMER]

when i worked on call it was a call is one hours pay. unless you get a multiple calls in that hour. then its still one hour. it goes for 12 hours. however you can sleep at night so long as you wake up when you get called or receive SMS from the monitoring tools that something needs to be fixed. SMS works the same as a call.

first 3 hours of oncall is 1.5x pay. every hour after that is double.

[FiShy]

Originally Posted by evilasdeath

15k extra per annum paid quarterly

24/7/365 on call

phone provided (acceptable use policy exists for personal calls, but I only use this phone and never been questioned)
home internet subsidised $50 per month
most work 99% can be complete remotely via VPN I have other hands and feet to do field work.
no official TIL policy however there is understanding with the managers so you work the previous night you aren't expected to be in on time, and its roughly 1.5>2 hours per hour of work.


most calls are fairly short and few and far between but when they come they can be ball breaking.

My last major call was 11pm on a Friday night and I didn't finish until 3pm the following day after doing a full days work on Friday.

Fair chunk of my day work is to prevent things getting to the level they break that bad thou, so events like that are very rare.

Wow, shits on our one.