On-call or working?

zagfles

This company is a complete joke. Do they even understand what annual leave is? It's time off work. You're not off work if you're on call. They even have to pay you your normal average overtime and oncall payments while on leave! See https://www.acas.org.uk/checking-holiday-entitlement/calculating-holiday-pay

No desk? So, a customer phones you direct at 2am, when you'll be in deep sleep, and starts explaining their problem when you've not properly woken up? Nothing will sink in, I've been there, apparently I sound drunk if woken from deep sleep by a phone call, even if I haven't touched a drop for days So do a lot of people I've had to phone! Not a good customer facing image. Our desk were very good at talking about rubbish for 5 mins or so before getting into any technical detail, which won't sink in if you've just woken up.

Or what about when you're driving to a call or dealing with a call, another call comes which you'll be expected to take details of it while you're driving? Unless calls are very rare, they need a 24/7 "desk" who can front end calls, maybe offer some basic advice, if calls aren't frequent enough to warrant them putting someone on shift 24/7 there are plenty of services that offer it eg https://www.answer-4u.com/24-hour-telephone-answering-call-out-services and lots of others.

The driving one is really the one to hammer home. So you're on call, had a rough night Monday night, not had your 11 hours off, into work at 9am Tuesday, work till 5pm, then get a call at 9pm Tues at the other end of the country. Driving down a long boring road you fall asleep and veer off the road have a crash and are killed. Or maybe kill someone else on the road. In those circumstances the company management could be facing prison for corporate manslaughter.

Serenity74

Alanp said:

Wow, that really is taking liberties, what job do you do..?

I work in SMB IT support. To be honest the whole industry seems to have gone rapidly downhill in the last 10 or so years. Nobody cares about providing a decent service anymore, its all about how quickly you can shift tickets off the system and how low they can get the costs to get as many contracts as possible. 

Serenity74

zagfles said:

No desk? So, a customer phones you direct at 2am, when you'll be in deep sleep, and starts explaining their problem when you've not properly woken up? Nothing will sink in, I've been there, apparently I sound drunk if woken from deep sleep by a phone call, even if I haven't touched a drop for days So do a lot of people I've had to phone! Not a good customer facing image. Our desk were very good at talking about rubbish for 5 mins or so before getting into any technical detail, which won't sink in if you've just woken up. 

Or what about when you're driving to a call or dealing with a call, another call comes which you'll be expected to take details of it while you're driving? Unless calls are very rare, they need a 24/7 "desk" who can front end calls, maybe offer some basic advice, if calls aren't frequent enough to warrant them putting someone on shift 24/7 there are plenty of services that offer it eg https://www.answer-4u.com/24-hour-telephone-answering-call-out-services and lots of others.

Helpdesk / 1st line work Mon - Fri 9 - 5 as we all do so in the week they do exactly as you say. Filter out the rubbish and make sure the priorities are right. 

Out of hours it goes to a call answering service who then try and put the call through to the mobile of whichever person is on-call. The service is appallingly bad, they log so many tickets to the wrong person or company, forget to put through calls etc. As with everything I suspect it is the cheapest possible service available. 

The multiple calls at the same time issue has been raised but dismissed as 'that won't happen'. 

I had a look at calls logged this weekend, obviously you have to take into account that we don't offer out of hours support at the moment so hard to draw any conclusions but this gives an idea of the minimum to expect. 3 calls between midnight and 2am Saturday morning, 1 at 4am then nothing until 5pm and another at 9pm. Then Sunday morning at 6am and 7am. Then one at 6am this morning.

elsien

“I’m sorry, but I will be out of the country for my annual leave/in an area with no phone reception/I do not have roaming set up on my call plan/I am not taking my phone with me.”
Or alternatively and just cutting to the chase. “I will not be in call while on annual leave, otherwise it ceases to be annual leave.” 

Brie

Your employers sound like a complete set of prats.

On a practical point - there would have to be a way to organise who is on call when and therefore a way for you to swap when you are on call with a colleague.  Our company is normally M - F but also has mandatory Saturday working where there's a lieu day given in the week preceding.  If someone has a commitment on a Saturday when they are scheduled to work then they need to find someone willing to swap.  The same could apply when someone's on annual leave.

Serenity74

Brie said:

Your employers sound like a complete set of prats.

On a practical point - there would have to be a way to organise who is on call when and therefore a way for you to swap when you are on call with a colleague.  Our company is normally M - F but also has mandatory Saturday working where there's a lieu day given in the week preceding.  If someone has a commitment on a Saturday when they are scheduled to work then they need to find someone willing to swap.  The same could apply when someone's on annual leave.

I'm glad to see others share the same opinion of my employers, was beginning to think it was just me!

The plan, if you can even call it that, is that we are given a rota which has been created with no input from ourselves as to our availability. If we then have a prior engagement, are on leave etc it is down to us to arrange with another staff member to swap. 

On a practical level I can't see this working as there will be, at least initially, only 4 of us on the rota so before long someone will be stuck with a weekend they can't do and nobody that can cover. 

pinkshoes

£100 to be on call for a week?!? Pah! I'd want £100 for my week, then double time hourly rate for any calls taken after 5pm, going to triple time after 10pm!

They sound like a want their cake and eat it sort of company!

Serenity74

Just a quick update on this. There is no update! Its been put on hold until the New Year, I suspect due to pushback. 

We are now all scheduled in for individual meetings with management, supposedly to talk about why we're unhappy but I suspect it is to apply pressure in a divide and conquer style. 

Thrugelmir

Serenity74 said:

We are now all scheduled in for individual meetings with management, supposedly to talk about why we're unhappy but I suspect it is to apply pressure in a divide and conquer style. 

More often or not there's a vocal few who like to speak on behalf of everyone else. As a result the conversation never moves on due to the entrenched views held. 

zagfles

Serenity74 said:

Just a quick update on this. There is no update! Its been put on hold until the New Year, I suspect due to pushback. 

We are now all scheduled in for individual meetings with management, supposedly to talk about why we're unhappy but I suspect it is to apply pressure in a divide and conquer style. 

It might be worth discussing tactics with colleagues so eg the same points get raised eg the WTD, recovery time, health and safety etc. Or you could all give notice that you're opting back into the 48 hour limit (if you're currently opted out), which you have a right to by law and they can't discriminate against any employee that chooses to.

The company are taking the p, it's an employee's job market in most areas at the moment, you shouldn't need to put up with a company which seemingly has no respect for the law and basic H&S.