The Glade 4.0

So I'm voluntarily on call right now. I've been doing a 2 week rotation out of every 10 weeks for like the last 4-5 years now. The entire time, we've been getting paid $500 gross ($290 net after they rape us). Initially, it was great. Get called maybe 3-5 times total on a bad rotation. Now you can knock that out inside of 2-3 days. We've added more clients that contract for the support but our on-call pay has never been bumped.

My sleep is getting wrecked by it for two weeks every time now and its not infrequent those of us on call end up calling out sick one day during that rotation. Being late to work the next business day is pretty common. Three of the five us on call are high level support, can fix 98% of what comes in. Every time we say its becoming less worth the money, we're told they can get others to do it. I don't think the bosses realize that if the three of us are off the rotations (and we're all pissed about it) their lives are going to be busier because then they can't call us when they get stuck.

We didn't get raises last year, so going off this would be a pay cut during a time when the extra money is nice (but not needed). I have mid-terms next week, and when I start taking higher level courses, I can't see getting my sleep interrupted and losing productive hours for $290 for a two week stretch. I don't have any debt beyond my mortgage, so I can afford this cut.

What do you think?

Take a gamble to get them to pony up more dough?
Go off it altogether just to preserve sanity and productivity?
Suck it up and keep making the money in a time when the economy is slow and every dollar helps?

EDIT: Wow. After finally winding down and going back to sleep, the on call phone rang again. And now its for a problem where I have to wait around for them to call me back. I think I forgot to mention that the 3 of us that are high level support are salaried so we don't get paid time and a half. Our boss is cool enough in that he usually lets us do comp time off, but he still tends to look at it as "we're getting paid for it" and the comp time is given begrudgingly.

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The Dude abides.

I hesitate to give anyone advice that may affect their livelihood, but if it were me and I didn't need the money and had classes, I would get off it altogether and only reconsider it if they came back and made it financially worth the sacrifices that I was making. How much is your sleep worth?

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Suck it up. 2 weeks out of every 10 isn't bad at all for on-call. I'm on-call 52 weeks out of 52, 24 hrs a day every day and have been for 20 years or so. I consider it adding to job security and encourage my employers to "put me in, coach"! I WANT them to know I'll be there any time, day or night.

Change something now and you end up painting a bulls-eye on your own back. During times like this where employment is shaky people need to go low profile with any issues and high profile with accomplishments.

Unless you are bulletproof I'd just go with the flow.

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In time, this too shall pass.

I'm with the Camel devotee on this one. If you get to the point where you need to go off the voluntary rotation for health or serious school reasons, go off it, but otherwise, suck it up, make the extra scratch, and sock it away for bad times.

If the bad times never come its a good add to the retirement fund.

See how you fare with not spending the extra $290 for a few months, see if it is really as unneeded as you think.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Never Get So Busy Making a Living that You Forget to Make a Life. - Anonymous

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"That'll be $6,000 a month" - Average Nursing Home operator.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Nursing home? My retirement plan is wander the Earth like Kane from Kung-Fu. Yeah.

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Or jump into a volcano at the end of a seriously awesome cruise.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Joe v. The Volcano. Now that is stylistic.

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Well, I would say I'm bullet proof.

I'm going to school in the hopes of entering a career completely unrelated to the technical field and one that's highly competitive to get into. I'm having difficulty justifying the money if it hurts my ability to get A's in my classes.

I dunno. I talked with one of the other guys and we're going to push the Support department to be more proactive. It seems a better solution to this whole mess would be Support being more proactive.

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The Dude abides.

your on call time is voluntary?? No fair, we are not given a choice.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

A couple things.

Understand that the situation is never going to get better unless management feels the pain of the situation.

If you don't need the extra money, and you won't be committing political suicide by getting out of the rotation, then I would say drop it so your education (main priority) doesn't suffer. It also gives you a break to unwind a bit.