On Call at Work

Lizardjam

Is anyone else on call? I am in IT and we rotate weekly schedules. I Don't know how but apparently I've been schedule for every 3 day weekend this year and for new year's. I've done christmas 3 years in a row because i'm always schedule for new year's and the only person that will trade me is always working christmas. I cannot complain to many people 'cause they just tell me to shut up and be happy i have a job. I am happy. But I am still PISSED about the on-call rotation. Do I not have a life? The other two people that never get those holidays should have to take them sometimes. It's only fair!


Oh yeah and honestly it's just a plug your name in the calendar and recur it ever 4 weeks. It's not like it's not faily setup, it just doesn't work out to be fair. I have said something but they're not changing the rotation until next year.

Jokertt14

Shut your phone off the can wait till the ball drops .. then just go all drunk ...

Lizardjam

jokertt14 wrote:

Shut your phone off the can wait till the ball drops .. then just go all drunk ...

I actually said if they do it to me again i'm not going to pay attention! Too bad it would affect everyone's money and\or online banking half the time if i did that. :(

_

I don't take call personally, but I make the on-call schedules where I work. We have 15-20 people per schedule and someone has to be on call 24/7. I spend agonizing, painstaking hours trying to figure out the most equitable distibution of the holidays. Here's how I do it:

I divide the holidays up into major and minor holidays and ask everyone to rank each set of holidays in order of the ones they'd most prefer to work. I also ask them which holidays they absolutely can't work. Then I check who's been on which holidays over the past 5 years and try not to stick them with them again. Then I try to take everyone's lifestyles into consideration, i.e. who's Jewish, who has kids, who has to travel to see their families, etc. I divide the holidays by the # of people in the call pool to figure out how many each person needs to take, adjusting my calculations for people who are half-time or 3/4 time. Then I just use all this info to plug them in. Finally, the rest of the call schedule gets made around the holiday schedule.

I'm sorry you're getting screwed with your schedule. I'm assuming that, being in IT, no one's life is depending on you answering your pager, right? 'Cuz you'd be amazed at how easy it is for a pager to accidentally get flushed down the toilet.

Lizardjam

scb wrote:

I don't take call personally, but I make the on-call schedules where I work. We have 15-20 people per schedule and someone has to be on call 24/7. I spend agonizing, painstaking hours trying to figure out the most equitable distibution of the holidays. Here's how I do it:

I divide the holidays up into major and minor holidays and ask everyone to rank each set of holidays in order of the ones they'd most prefer to work. I also ask them which holidays they absolutely can't work. Then I check who's been on which holidays over the past 5 years and try not to stick them with them again. Then I try to take everyone's lifestyles into consideration, i.e. who's Jewish, who has kids, who has to travel to see their families, etc. I divide the holidays by the # of people in the call pool to figure out how many each person needs to take, adjusting my calculations for people who are half-time or 3/4 time. Then I just use all this info to plug them in. Finally, the rest of the call schedule gets made around the holiday schedule.

I'm sorry you're getting screwed with your schedule. I'm assuming that, being in IT, no one's life is depending on you answering your pager, right? 'Cuz you'd be amazed at how easy it is for a pager to accidentally get flushed down the toilet.

I like your way but, we only have 4 people rotating. Yuck. Yeah no one's life will be hurt but, people's access to their money and accounts will be cut off. You know how people get with that these days....especially with the competitive nature of financial institutions right now. Oh well, two weeks until my turn again!

DocChicago

I'm on call right now. Fortunately the pager has been quiet since I finished morning rounds.

Lizardjam

DocChicago wrote:

I'm on call right now. Fortunately the pager has been quiet since I finished morning rounds.

That's always a good thing. Though, I have to respond to emails and calls. It's so wonderful I'm not on call this weekend.....Everything went down!

pretext

I'm on call now. It's important because of the population I work with. Yet we have the most ass-backwards system in the world. One, the dispatch people are not trained properly on the on-call system. Two, the cell phone frequently doesn't ring and a voicemail will pop up. But we don't have access to the voicemail. So then we have to call the dispatch house, who don't have a clue what's going on, to ask if they called us. Three, to make said call, or a call to the distressed client, we have to use our other work phone, as the on-call phone only takes incoming calls and will not dial out.
Fortunately, the phone does not ring often, though, apparently, this weekend, the phone/system failed and it went to my poor boss. :roll:

Lizardjam

pretext wrote:

I'm on call now. It's important because of the population I work with. Yet we have the most ass-backwards system in the world. One, the dispatch people are not trained properly on the on-call system. Two, the cell phone frequently doesn't ring and a voicemail will pop up. But we don't have access to the voicemail. So then we have to call the dispatch house, who don't have a clue what's going on, to ask if they called us. Three, to make said call, or a call to the distressed client, we have to use our other work phone, as the on-call phone only takes incoming calls and will not dial out.
Fortunately, the phone does not ring often, though, apparently, this weekend, the phone/system failed and it went to my poor boss. :roll:

Your phone system and whole overall method sounds horrid. truly. Though I don't think anyone's dispatch area is any good. We have something similar and it's just not.......working either.