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Is this fair or unfair?.. the life & times of a 24hr helpdesk

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  • Nov 30th, 2006 11:44 am
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Aug 24, 2004
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Is this fair or unfair?.. the life & times of a 24hr helpdesk

Question for anyone whose interested.

Recently, my workplace has decided that we need to turn helpdesk into a 24/7 entity. I think its a pretty good idea, as it keeps us up to par with other firms in the industry.

So, they told us that we could choose how rotation would go between us, and we handled that... then it came down to the introduction of pay.

Right now, we rotate weekends, this would just be added to our rotation. Theres 4 of us, so each of us would spend one full week on-call for weeknights and for the 48hr weekend, per month.

So, from Monday to Friday one of us would work on-call with a blackberry by our beds while we sleep from 11pm to 7:30am (8.5h) and we get $14.85/night for that, plus any time we charge if someone calls.

I think this is more or less fair.

The problem I am having with, is the weekend.


Right now, we get $100/day for working on-call from 9am to 7pm plus time we charge if someone calls. Our weekend activities are fairly limited, because although we have a 30minute turn around time for requests, thats only in writing.. in actuality, if you had a request that was urgent, its expected of you to be near a PC and handle it immediately.

Now with the invention of this afterhours on-call..
We still make the 100/day for working Saturday/Sunday from 9am-7pm
But! from 7pm-9am (14hrs) we still only make that 14.85/night for those nights

...on top of that, we lose the ability to go out during the day/night because of the high requirement to be near a PC.. so from Friday night to Monday the next morning... we are more or less stuck at home for that weekend.

I'm trying to work up a median between management and my co-workers on this subject.. I just want to see what anyone else thinks.
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35 replies
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Oct 30, 2005
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although the weekend pay seems a bit low to me, 1 weekend a month stuck staying low isn't that bad. Are they providing laptops for the evening/weekend work?
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Aug 13, 2002
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Maybe ask for laptops with mobile cards? That way, you can be on call, and still go out.
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Aug 26, 2001
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Mississauga, ON
CodecX81 wrote: Right now, we rotate weekends, this would just be added to our rotation. Theres 4 of us, so each of us would spend one full week on-call for weeknights and for the 48hr weekend, per month.

So, from Monday to Friday one of us would work on-call with a blackberry by our beds while we sleep from 11pm to 7:30am (8.5h) and we get $14.85/night for that, plus any time we charge if someone calls.

I think this is more or less fair.

The problem I am having with, is the weekend.


Right now, we get $100/day for working on-call from 9am to 7pm plus time we charge if someone calls. Our weekend activities are fairly limited, because although we have a 30minute turn around time for requests, thats only in writing.. in actuality, if you had a request that was urgent, its expected of you to be near a PC and handle it immediately.

Now with the invention of this afterhours on-call..
We still make the 100/day for working Saturday/Sunday from 9am-7pm
But! from 7pm-9am (14hrs) we still only make that 14.85/night for those nights

...on top of that, we lose the ability to go out during the day/night because of the high requirement to be near a PC.. so from Friday night to Monday the next morning... we are more or less stuck at home for that weekend.

I'm trying to work up a median between management and my co-workers on this subject.. I just want to see what anyone else thinks.
A Saturday night is worth more than $14.85! (before tax?)

Get them to double it, at least.

Even then... Well, I'm glad I'm not an on-call monkey. :twisted:

Were you looking for a solution to allow you to enjoy your weekend, though?

I'm not sure I can think of one... other than splitting the on-call team into 2 people. One for Friday nite-Saturday day. The other for Saturday nite-Sunday day.
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Aug 24, 2004
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anom wrote: although the weekend pay seems a bit low to me, 1 weekend a month stuck staying low isn't that bad. Are they providing laptops for the evening/weekend work?

Yes, a laptop will be provided... and right now I am working on a method to use the blackberry as a modem with it.

Still might mean no going out to dinner or going to a movie, but at least its something.
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Aug 26, 2001
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CodecX81 wrote: Yes, a laptop will be provided... and right now I am working on a method to use the blackberry as a modem with it.

Still might mean no going out to dinner or going to a movie, but at least its something.
even with a laptop or berry, can't really go clubbing and/or binge drinking now can you? :razz:
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Aug 24, 2004
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lol

exactly. how rude of them to impose something like this on us.

kidding.

konfusion666
You are correct!
My biggest concern is the amount of time 1 person has to spend their entire weekend by a PC and not able to rest up from the work week.

I suggested this to them.. Sadly, since we all share 1 blackberry and no one is willing to deliver it to the other rep who would take over on nights...thats not happening.

And we cannot have the helpline switch over from a day blackberry to a nightshift blackberry due to technological restrictions of the phone system.

Phone systems not going to be upgraded for another 1.5-2 yrs.. :p
Its a rough spot.

But we all discussed it this afternoon, it was left in the air but we voiced our concerns. I thought it was going to be worse than it was.

If I was pressed to really make a monetary suggestion, I'd be satisfied with $400/week. $200 to work the graveyard on-call shift, and $200 to work during the day on weekends (since we get that already)
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Aug 30, 2003
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Kinda hard to covert all the numbers, since i'm so used to think in $/hr.

But $14.85 seems strangely low. I would say something along the lines of $100 to be on call during the weekend (especially after a full week of work).
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Oct 6, 2005
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CodecX81 wrote: Right now, we rotate weekends, this would just be added to our rotation. Theres 4 of us, so each of us would spend one full week on-call for weeknights and for the 48hr weekend, per month.

I'm trying to work up a median between management and my co-workers on this subject.. I just want to see what anyone else thinks.
There's no time in lieu?

Aren't there labour laws regarding this anyways?
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Aug 26, 2001
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CodecX81 wrote: lol

exactly. how rude of them to impose something like this on us.

kidding.

konfusion666
You are correct!
My biggest concern is the amount of time 1 person has to spend their entire weekend by a PC and not able to rest up from the work week.

I suggested this to them.. Sadly, since we all share 1 blackberry and no one is willing to deliver it to the other rep who would take over on nights...thats not happening.

And we cannot have the helpline switch over from a day blackberry to a nightshift blackberry due to technological restrictions of the phone system.

Phone systems not going to be upgraded for another 1.5-2 yrs.. :p
Its a rough spot.

But we all discussed it this afternoon, it was left in the air but we voiced our concerns. I thought it was going to be worse than it was.

If I was pressed to really make a monetary suggestion, I'd be satisfied with $400/week. $200 to work the graveyard on-call shift, and $200 to work during the day on weekends (since we get that already)

i still think it's "healthier" for your minds if the on-call can be split over the weekend somehow, so you get to "rest" properly. maybe get 2 berry's, program them the same way (?) but the Sunday guy turns his off on Saturday, so all calls go to the Saturday guy only. then on sunday, the saturday guy turns his off... something like that... dunno if that would even work.

another alternative, like you said, is to get paid much much more for losing the weekend. this ain't Future Shop, $15 ain't gonna cut it! :lol:
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Aug 24, 2004
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coolspot wrote: There's no time in lieu?

Aren't there labour laws regarding this anyways?
Time in lieu? can you explain that idea?

As for labour laws.. Nope. On-call is left up to the discretion of the company :P
any "work" we do, we charge the company extra...so everythings perfectly legal.
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konfusion666 wrote: i still think it's "healthier" for your minds if the on-call can be split over the weekend somehow, so you get to "rest" properly. maybe get 2 berry's, program them the same way (?) but the Sunday guy turns his off on Saturday, so all calls go to the Saturday guy only. then on sunday, the saturday guy turns his off... something like that... dunno if that would even work.

another alternative, like you said, is to get paid much much more for losing the weekend. this ain't Future Shop, $15 ain't gonna cut it! :lol:
Well I am glad that we're not just being greedy.. You all seem to agree.
I am going to ask to see if two blackberries can be introduced and split between days..

Right now the rotation is Wednesday to Wednesday.. At very least you only have to work the end of the first week to the middle of the next.. and you have the following Thursday/Friday to recooperate if necessary.

My original idea (which I think was the best one ever)
was a monthly rotation like this:

Rotation A:
wk1 M-F: Person A; S-S: Person B
wk2 M-F: Person C; S-S: Person D

Rotation B:
wk3 M-F: Person B; S-S: Person A
wk4 M-F: Person D; S-S: Person C

So the person that worked the first weekend, would work the night shift in the 3rd week and switch it up.

Its staggered, so the feeling of the week long trek would be split.
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Dec 13, 2003
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Your phone system may not be able to switch between blackberry phone numbers, and people may not want to deliver to the other guy but you can buy another blackberry, and have the day one forward the calls to the night one. Using call forwarding would allow for an easy switch without having to deal with the limitations of the system or unwillingness of people to deliver or pickup.

All in all $14.85 for an on call is an absolute joke. I am quite surprised to here that it is legal.
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Nov 9, 2006
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I wouldn't be too interested in being on call after working all week. And what if someone called in sick? Then what?
What if the company just hired another person to cover nights and weekends?
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mystical2003 wrote: Your phone system may not be able to switch between blackberry phone numbers, and people may not want to deliver to the other guy but you can buy another blackberry, and have the day one forward the calls to the night one. Using call forwarding would allow for an easy switch without having to deal with the limitations of the system or unwillingness of people to deliver or pickup.
I wish that was the case.. the number cannot be simply forwarded out like that.. I was hoping that we could just set it up by the voicemail options but its gotta be presets setup by the communications admin, and apparently it can only be changed over once per day.. so say we setup another blackberry.. thats no problem... but we would have to have the number forward over and split up the weekend like konfusion666 suggested..

Someone would work from Sunday 12:00am to Saturday 11:59pm...and then they'd work from Sunday at 12:00am to the following Saturday until 11:59pm.
1yellowdog wrote: I wouldn't be too interested in being on call after working all week. And what if someone called in sick? Then what?
What if the company just hired another person to cover nights and weekends?
If someone called in sick, someone would either pick up the slack or the manager would take the shift.
New hire: You kidding? then they'd have to pay them an actual competitive salary..its cheaper to get the existing people on the team to do it :P

No one in their right mind would take a job that potentially destroys their night sleep, prevents them from getting another job and ruins their weekend for $300/week (15600 yr)
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Aug 30, 2003
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i work in IT and that on-call seems very low. should be at least 30$ + minimum 4 hour charge for a call.
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My on-call rate is even worse: $100 for a week (works out to $14.28/day).

Fortunately, I don't need to pick up the phone, so it's free $. :lol:
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At my firm, we have a team that does Hosted-application support for customers.
For alot of the projects, the coverage is 24/7, and the typical SLA for a
severity 1 call is within 1 hour,
severity 2 call is within 4 hours
and sev. 3 is next business day.

The support staff will get $30 per day for 'standby' time. Plus 1.5 times their salary for overtime pay beyond the 40 hour week..
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commie wrote: At my firm, we have a team that does Hosted-application support for customers.

The support staff will get $30 per day for 'standby' time. Plus 1.5 times their salary for overtime pay beyond the 40 hour week..
Thats a pretty fair rate actually!
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what kind of work is on-call work?

I assume you answer a phone and help people out. But how does it work, you're payed per night as well as per call, or what?

Like you said $14.xx per night, but thats nothing! I'm 17 and I make almost that much working an hour in retail. And I'm gaurenteed a nights sleep. Do they pay you per call as well, or how does it work?

Do you recieve a lot of calls?

I could use a new, well paying (as in $200+ a week) job and something weeknights (4-midnight or whatever) would be nice. I dont mind staying at home infront of the computer weeknights either, incentive to do my homework.
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