• Re: Screaming into the void

    From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Mortar M. on Sunday, January 04, 2026 09:59:14
    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: Mortar M. to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Jan 03 2026 09:37 pm

    On-call jobs suck. I knew an IT guy that worked like that. Server crash at 3am, he's off to the office.

    I've known people working as sysadmins or server admins, and it seems most of them are on-call all the time. I don't think I'd like such a job, knowing I could be interrupted at any time with a call to go in and fix a server issue..

    I'm doing a job search now, as I was laid off a few months ago, and even for software developer jobs, I've seen a few job postings where one of the job responsibilities is rotating on-call duties where you might be on-call for a few days every few weeks or so, which I suppose wouldn't be so bad.

    Nightfox
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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Nightfox on Sunday, January 04, 2026 10:51:08
    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: Nightfox to Mortar M. on Sun Jan 04 2026 09:59 am

    I've known people working as sysadmins or server admins, and it seems most o them are on-call all the time. I don't think I'd like such a job, knowing I could be interrupted at any time with a call to go in and fix a server issue..

    I remember, a couple of jobs back, when we started an on-call rotation. The senior guys still got brought in on after-hours events.

    One of them asked, "If I'm on-call on these hours, does that mean I'm off-call on the others?" We were expected to be on-call for the on-call people as a "professional courtesy". So, no.

    A few jobs later, in the public sector, we were all union.

    Junior and mid-level employees were hourly and received 1/2 their hourly pay for on-call rotations, paid whether they were called or not. Accept a promotion to senior lead and you went salaried. They'd end up taking a serious pay hit despite an increase in pay.

    The people supporting E911 actively stonewalled increasing the pool of people supporting that infrastructure. It was quite a racket as the two people were effectively being paid for 104 hours a week.

    My boss wrote off the employees as unmotivated, and criticised them for not being in the office after 5pm. I don't think he understood the pay issue, and must have forgotten his rule that there was to be NO OVERTIME - despite paying on-call pay around the clock, not just when called.
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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sunday, January 04, 2026 11:51:11
    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Sun Jan 04 2026 10:51 am

    A few jobs later, in the public sector, we were all union.

    Junior and mid-level employees were hourly and received 1/2 their hourly pay for on-call rotations, paid whether they were called or not. Accept a promotion to senior lead and you went salaried. They'd end up taking a serious pay hit despite an increase in pay.

    If you're working a job where you're regularly getting overtime, I feel like salary is a way for companies to avoid paying overtime, and for the scenario you describe, it's a way of taking advantage of the employees.

    Nightfox
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  • From Utopian Galt@21:4/108 to Mortar M. on Saturday, January 03, 2026 22:22:54
    BY: Mortar M. (21:2/101)

    |11MM|09> |10> for my first flight to virgin atlantic, i ended up getting premium|07
    |11MM|09> |10> economy.|07
    No. Premium economy first time and regular economy on the way back.


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  • From Gamgee@21:2/138 to poindexter FORTRAN on Saturday, January 03, 2026 20:08:11
    poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Gamgee <=-

    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: Gamgee to Nightfox on Sat Jan 03 2026 03:31 pm

    That's another question I've had - If there's a move to 4-day work weeks,
    would that also mean benefits would change? Maybe they'd change it so
    that 32 hours per week is considered enough to get benefits.

    I thought the idea was 4 10-hour days, making it the same weekly hourly amount?

    You replied to me, but quoted something Nightfox said...

    He said right there that it was 4 days and 32 hours.

    <BOGGLE>



    ... He does the work of 3 Men...Moe, Larry & Curly
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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Gamgee on Monday, January 05, 2026 08:49:44
    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: Gamgee to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Jan 03 2026 08:08 pm

    That's another question I've had - If there's a move to 4-day work
    weeks, would that also mean benefits would change? Maybe they'd change
    it so that 32 hours per week is considered enough to get benefits.

    I thought the idea was 4 10-hour days, making it the same weekly hourly
    amount?

    You replied to me, but quoted something Nightfox said...

    He said right there that it was 4 days and 32 hours.

    <BOGGLE>

    I said "maybe", as in I don't really know for sure what they'd do if there was a change to make a standard 4-day work week. It could be 4 10-hour days.

    Nightfox
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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to poindexter FORTRAN on Thursday, January 08, 2026 09:57:07
    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Adept on Fri Jan 02 2026 12:18 pm

    Paris, and Amsterdam, among others, aren't too far away.

    Exactly! We're looking to retire to the English country, far enough

    Brittish are retiring to Spain for the most part, that should tell you something.

    Spain is a hellhole if you want to make a living here. If you just want to settle and have a house near the beach or near some natural environment, as long as you have money, it is a very good place.

    English speaking population is displacing the locals in certain neighbourhoods. In certain areas I think you can make do without speaking that much Spanish.


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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Arelor on Friday, January 09, 2026 07:30:25
    Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    Brittish are retiring to Spain for the most part, that should tell you something.

    We're looking for village life and reconnecting with family in England
    - and having a launching-off point for vacationing in Europe. Looking
    forward to vacations in Spain/France/Italy/Scotland and not having to
    fly for 10 hours. :)


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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sunday, January 11, 2026 05:33:45
    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Mortar M. on Sat Jan 03 2026 08:03 pm

    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: Mortar M. to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Jan 03 2026 09:37 pm

    On-call jobs suck. I knew an IT guy that worked like that. Server crash at 3am, he's off to the office.

    Sucks when you're salaried, OK when you're single and don't drink. :|
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    It is not the best but I like the money. I suspect it is not great unless you are in very good terms with the upper ups and your efforts are recognized, though.

    I mean, when a node in a cluster crashes and the whole thing enters degraded mode, you take a 2 hour trip to fix it, replace the failed hardware, then report the thing was broken and repaired and nobody noticed there was ever a problem... damn, that is 5 star service right there... if management didn't appreciate that sort of thing I would be pissed.


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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to Nightfox on Sunday, January 11, 2026 05:38:52
    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: Nightfox to Mortar M. on Sun Jan 04 2026 09:59 am


    I'm doing a job search now, as I was laid off a few months ago, and even for software developer jobs, I've seen a few job postings where one of the job responsibilities is rotating on-call duties where you might be on-call for a few days every few weeks or so, which I suppose wouldn't be so bad.

    A friend of mine used to do on-call service for mission-critical products for US customers, from Spain. That means he had to stay up awake in the night just in case he got a call, because the contract related to the product had a 5 figure penaulty per minute of downtime.

    He didn't care at all. He considered it easy money, because he used to stay up late anyway watching American sports live instead.


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  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Arelor on Sunday, January 11, 2026 18:27:00
    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Sunday 11.01.26 - 05:33, Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN:

    It is not the best but I like the money. I suspect it is
    not great unless you are in very good terms with the upper
    ups and your efforts are recognized, though.

    I mean, when a node in a cluster crashes and the whole thing enters degraded mode, you take a 2 hour trip to fix it, [...]

    The money includes the 2hr [4hr return trip] travel time?





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  • From Mortar M.@21:2/101 to Arelor on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 10:42:26
    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: Arelor to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Jan 11 2026 05:33:45

    If management didn't appreciate that sort of thing I would be pissed.

    Then you'd be soaked to the skin if you worked where I do. We got people that go above and beyond and don't get squat from management.
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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to Ogg on Saturday, January 24, 2026 14:14:55
    Re: Screaming into the void
    By: Ogg to Arelor on Sun Jan 11 2026 06:27 pm

    degraded mode, you take a 2 hour trip to fix it, [...]

    The money includes the 2hr [4hr return trip] travel time?

    If I am required out of regular working hours they pay for the bus ticket, the food, and they let me sleep in the facilities if required.

    They are not paying extra for the time itself but they will let me take the equivalent time as "break hours". So if I have to burn a big amount of hours I will be compensated next week and they will let me off the clinic earlier.

    It is very rare that anything breaks so badly it requires me to be there immediately. I think last year it happened once. If something breaks during the wekend it can usually wait until morning and be fixed right before scheduled appointments begin.


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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to Mortar M. on Saturday, January 24, 2026 14:23:17
    Re: Re: Screaming into the void
    By: Mortar M. to Arelor on Tue Jan 13 2026 10:42 am


    Then you'd be soaked to the skin if you worked where I do. We got people that go above and beyond and don't get squat from management.

    That is a common trend.

    I think modern firms have too bloated structures. The people taking decisions are too separated from the productive fabric of the firm. If you are doing the gruntwork as part of a certain team it is veary easy for other people in the team to appropiate your successes and you won't be recognized for your efforts even if the managers are the sort of people capable of recognizing good efforts.


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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Arelor on Sunday, January 25, 2026 10:40:49
    Arelor wrote to Mortar M. <=-

    I think modern firms have too bloated structures. The people taking decisions are too separated from the productive fabric of the firm. If
    you are doing the gruntwork as part of a certain team it is veary easy
    for other people in the team to appropiate your successes and you won't
    be recognized for your efforts even if the managers are the sort of
    people capable of recognizing good efforts.

    I worked recently at a company whose CEO stated on multiple occasions
    that his customer was whoever is closer to our customers. We also did "ridealongs", where all of administration spent a day working alongside
    our customer service and sales teams. It made a great impression on me.


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