Luckily circumstances have conspired to make working away from the office pretty much impossible.

If you're not paid to be on call, you're not on call.

Well said.

Technically, for me, "on call" involves being out of work and is generally regarded as the unsocial hours and covering either admissions or wards. However, at the mo, I. doing shift work around the clock, which at times can be very crap.


When I was with O2 on their broadband max connection, I was regularly exceeding 100GB for most of the year with no issues whatsoever. Downloaded loads of DVD rips and then watch them on HDTV.

as a student, i should be revising for my January exams right now, which i guess constitutes "working"

but right now i am faar too hungover, and would probably blotch it even worse than if i were sober D:

Yay! Job completed, and a nice "thank you" email received from the very sexy (and very married) end user.



Do you not feel any responsibility to the company?

If I didn't do this work, people might die and we could lose the contract. I won't get paid for it, but my job security depends on keeping clients happy. No clients = no job for me or my colleagues, most of whom I consider friends. If we don't all work together for the benefit of the company, then the company will suffer and so will we.

Surely, if something like this is so business critical then it is the company's responsibility to make sure that it is covered and should in no way rely on making employees feel guilty.

Exactly.

If I'm not paid to be on duty, I'm not on duty.

What is a company, if not a collection of people? Surely everyone within an organisation is responsible for that organisation? I personally know everyone in the company I'm a part of, and I want to do my best by them.

I can see how "us" and "them" can become polarised in a faceless corporation who you despise working for, but that is surely not healthy.

And that organisation has a responsibility to both you as an employee and to the customers who, as it sounds, could face life threatening situations if it weren't for the good nature of you as an employee.

What would happen if no employee were available to do something for nothing? It sounds a very irresponsible company that would put clients in such a position that they could possibly die because they haven't made sure that there is somebody on call for such a business, and life, critical need.

Finally, even good companies need to be reminded how to act like good companies.

I should point out that any life threatening situation would be purely the responsibility of my client. We only offer 9-5 cover, and the client went with this option.

However, I say again, what is a "company" if not the total of it's employees? There is no such entity as "the company". There are only individuals acting together. I care about my clients and I want to provide them with a good service, often above and beyond that stated in the SLA. If everyone in the company thinks like that, then the clients should be satisfied.

To my mind, thinking that everything is someone else's responsibility is what destroyed British industry. The expression "Jobs-worth" comes to mind.

I worked today. All day.

I do, however I am paid for when I am at work. I am not paid when I'm at home unless I was on call. I would expect additional pay to be on call and to only occasionally have to do it.

If your contract says you have to do on call then fine. Mine didn't, it did say that I could have to work additional hours when required, however would be reflected in flexitime when it was available.

My job security was based on keeping customers happy, no software fix = angry customers/no more customers. The company shouldn't suffer because they don't have contingency for emergency support when they are a support company... It's a pretty big foresight!

It's not your sole responsibility to fix their problem, for free. It is the companies responsibility and they should have a better contract available. If the customer didn't take it, that is THEIR problem, not yours. Your job is to fix things 9-5, not on Bank holidays or on days off.

First PIEmage post of the year!

Mark

And Unions were created to stop companies taking advantage of their employees.