top | item 29369677

(no title)

rubinelli | 4 years ago

You should also be compensated for the time you spend on-call (which means you can't take on other commitments you otherwise might.) Anything less and it's outright exploitation. "We pay you well" is a non-sequitur.

discuss

order

ploxiln|4 years ago

> "We pay you well" is a non-sequitur.

Not at all. The choice might be between $60k salary plus around $20k for overtime in one career, vs another career with $200k+ salary plus crazy benefits (gym memberships, a variety of mental health services, $20k in fertility treatments (no joke), 3+ months paternity leave, over 10 more things I can't even name they make no sense...)

I don't even use any of the benefits, just the money (and the parental leave) but calling a few on-call nights per month "abuse" or "exploitation" is just ... without perspective. Nobody that does real work has it this cushy - not doctors, not teachers, not construction workers. Maybe aristocratic political appointees or something, but jeez, no field that is accessible to anyone with an old laptop and sufficient motivation. This is as cushy as it gets, for a real job. Enjoy it while it lasts.

credittw2021|4 years ago

Agreed.

My brother makes about what I do, but he is an MBA and a plant manager with background in logistics.

Sometimes he gets calls and has to go in to work. Hell there has been at least one instance where he had to drop everything and courier a bag of parts on a commercial flight so a line wouldn't stop.

That said, I have worked in 'abusive' on call environments. I.e. we had a system that would break at least once a week between 3am and 6am (like, multiple times in that period). But because the oncall labor to remediate was 'free', fixing the problem was never a priority over the 2 years I worked there.

ianai|4 years ago

“We pay you well” just means “the labor market favors us so much that we can hire a replacement for you to do it.” Charitably, it’s because their pay is above a willingness to work threshold in the market. As a market participant, the supply side of labor typically is too large, not at all organized, and lacks information and any market power to price these things into valuations.