On call rota. What to do?

[OrmIrian]

I need some advice please. I work in the IT dept of a manufacturing company. I have been here for years and all in all they have been good to me with regard to working conditions and flexibilty. Not paid that well but I have no commuting costs.

We are installing a whole raft of new systems atm to replace the legacy systems that were written in house over the years. My main area of responsibility is separate to those and will remain as is. Recently a 24 hour call ?out rota has been instigated with all the members of staff in the dept on it ? about 15 in all. But I was originally excluded because I work part-time. One of the others has had to pull out and my manager has asked me if I?d be prepared to consider being included. An entire week on call (overnight basically and early weekend mornings) will pay an extra £250 approx so not exactly a fortune. Once every 5 weeks. I feel in a way that I should do this as it?s a way of learning about the new systems and I am concerned about being side-lined if I don?t. My gut feeling is that I?d hate it as I don?t feel confident at all about my knowledge, I have 3 young kids and all the stresses involved with that and I am simply not sure that I would cope. Being woken at 3am to deal with a problem I don?t initally understand sounds a step too far to me?.but all the others have had to take it on. Am I just being a total wimp?

I?ve told my manager about my concerns and that I will talk to DH. It will impact on him too. Manager is very nice about it but it?s clear he wants me to do it.

What to do?

[SoMuchToBats]

How would it work out at home? Would your dh always be there to cover if you get called out? Also is there any possibility of your doing only half the week, instead of a whole one if you work part time?

[flowerybeanbag]

Are you supporting an organisation that works 24 hours or would it just be some kind of emergency only, i.e. you wouldn't actually have to do anything very often?

[OrmIrian]

I have a laptop at home so I'd never had to go into work. It's simply the problem of being called to sort a knotty problem in the wee small hours when I rarely get enough sleep as it is. Dh probably would be there most of the time as it would be mainly at night. I don't think part-week would be possible - they don't have enough bods as it is.

[OrmIrian]

Yes. The production lines and despatching goes on 24/7 these days flowery. That is why it's needed now. So there is a good chance of some horrible little problem coming my way at some time or other.

[SoMuchToBats]

What would happen if you said "No" - would it have an impact on your working conditions, promotion prospects etc. And can they make you do it even if you don't want to?

[flatmouse]

Do you get paid more if you are actually called out? Will you be able to address issues from home (ie on dial-up) or will you have to go in? Will you get educated/trained? Is there enough documentation about these new systems so that you'd be able to trawl through and find the answer?

What response times do you have to meet? Are you on call on your own or 2 or 3 of you at a time? How do you escalate if you can't resolve the issue?

I've been doing 7x24 call out for many years - at the moment half the time i don't even know if the server they are calling me about is one i support! It's actually good money for little effort in my opinion, but i do understand the "out of my depth" feeling. If your answers are yes to some of the above, that might help!

[OrmIrian]

flatmouse - no, yes and not yet but getting there. There would be a primary contact and a secondary contact - you would take it in turns to be both. There is a whole raft of contact numbers but largely helpdesks abroad. But you need to know what you're looking at and what the problem is before you know what to ask.

I am just feeling plain terrified atm.

[OrmIrian]

bats - no comeback in direct terms, and no I don't think they can make me do it. But it will have an impact in that I will end up being left out of so many areas and confined just to my specific area. Which worries me.

[flowerybeanbag]

If you don't feel confident about your knowledge, this might do wonders to improve your confidence - you might surprise yourself how much you do know when confronted with a problem to solve. And if you are worried you could speak to people who are already doing it, ask what type of problems come up and how to deal with them.

I would do it if you can. If everyone else basically has to, you will probably have to eventually, it may cause resentment if you resist it, and may have a negative impact in the way you've identified it might. Your manager might be very nice now, but if it's clear he wants you to do it he may become less nice somewhere down the line, particularly if they are shorthanded as it is.

Can you ask that someone else is on call as well as you the first time you do it - so if you are worried by a problem you are faced with, you have another pair of ears.
If you are up at 3am sorting out a problem, is your manager likely to be relaxed about you going in late/leaving early the following day or anything, to help deal with your tiredness?

[flatmouse]

Perhaps you could do a trial period, and perhaps you could arrange that for your first week on Primary you can call your secondary to work through the issues?

It is amazingly good confidence boost when you realise that you can do it really. Once you have your first few callouts under your belt you won't mind anymore.

Of Course, you need to be wary of the "Your mobile is too loud" complaints from DH and how difficult it is to get back to sleep when the birds are singing.

[flatmouse]

I would also suggest (if not already being done) that a call out report is sent round to all those who do callout each time. Doesn't have to be too detailed but a basic, "What was reported?" "what was the actual issue?" "how was it resolved?" will help everyone.

[OrmIrian]

"If you are up at 3am sorting out a problem, is your manager likely to be relaxed about you going in late/leaving early the following day or anything, to help deal with your tiredness? "

Yes he probably would be.
I think you are right flowery. It has to happen and in a way I want it to, but I'm nervous. Had a look round the factory last week and it's so amazing - all automated and robotic. Have this terror of everything frinding to a halt because orm, in her messy kitchen, can't find a way to solve a problem

[OrmIrian]

flatmouse - we do that. Something called Trackit which is supposed to be updated everytime. Sadly it's very slow to access from home apparently

[SoMuchToBats]

If manager realy wants you to do it, is that an indication that he has faith in your abilities? Maybe you are worrying about it far more than you need to, and you will be more than capable of doing the job. (But I know if it was me in that sort of situation I would be nervous of not coping, too, so I'm not much help, am I ).

[flowerybeanbag]

Being a bit nervous is not necessarily a bad thing, but your nervousness will soon disappear - you'll feel fab when you solve a problem for someone successfully. Which you will.

If you don't do it, your confidence will definitely not improve.

You know what to do, bite the bullet - a bit of scary extra responsibility at work is no bad thing - if everything's in your comfort zone you're not developing as you could.

[flatmouse]

i second flowerybeanbag

You'll be fine - honest - before you know it you'll be volunteering to stand in for others!

[Kaloo20]

Go on - join up. Make sure you understand the environment you are supporting and have acess to the correct knowledge bases. You will be surprised how little you get called!

[OrmIrian]

kazoo - "Make sure you understand the environment you are supporting and have acess to the correct knowledge bases"

That is the problem! I have absolutely no understanding of any of it - I've never been involved before.

I listened to all your comments and agree totally. But after 2 days thinking I decided against it. Mainly because I already do quite a bit of out of hours work from home (within my area of responsibility) and I don't want to have any more time when I'm ignoring the kids, plonking them down in front of the TV etc. They are still my main job. I can address the lack of knowledge thing. I can't address the family thing.

I've told my boss. He was understanding but disappointed. I have a feeling that it won't be left at that for long though.... the nature of the company is changing and I have a feeling that long term it's shape up or ship out. Not sure that I wouldn't rather ship out though in that case. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for all your advice. It wasn't ignored beleive me.

[bozza]

OrmIrian I think you should do it. I understand reasonably well where you are coming from. I do callout (but overnight 4/5 nights a month and in practice most things happen in the evening) for the legacy system I work on. As there are only two of us working on this legacy system (my colleague full time and me part time) it wouldn't be practical for me not to do it.

I do understand why you are nervous though. I am very much stuck in my comfort zone but our system is being replaced by SAP over the next 3 years so things are going to have to change. SAP will be supported in India, and we might loose the contract in less than 3 years so sometime soon I am going to get a rude awakening and I am quite scared really. But I think you should put aside your fears and go for it.

[bozza]

oops too late.

[OrmIrian]

Ahhh yes too late But I daresay I'll get a chance to 'rethink' sooner or later. I've been supporting legacy systems for years too...unofficially. I was always the one who got called when my system went down and one of the first ports of call if there was a problem with the old iSeries - so it's not totally a new concept to me.

My main problem is I can't deal with work stress atm. Used to be great - calm in a crisis with huge self-confidence when anything went wrong. Now, I'm not! I just had a problem with some data we're sending to a customer (big big scary customer with a lot of clout!). And I was almost in tears with stress and worry. This happens everytime and I hate it. It's making me snappy at home. I think this is probably the underlying problem atm.

Thanks bozza.

[flowerybeanbag]

orm don't beat yourself up about it. If you are getting more stressed than is usual or 'normal' about things at work, then that's definitely a good reason to not do this on call thing at least for the time being and see if you can resolve the stress a bit first.

[OrmIrian]

Thanks flowery.

I just know it will come up again. My boss made me feel like I'd been told off by headteacher at school - he looked gravely disappointed

Problem is I have a feeling that I'm making myself look like dead wood [sa]. Everyone has to change in the company atm and why should I be an exception? But I've been in IT for 16yrs now (I have an BA in archaeology and English of all things!) and I just don't think I want to do it any more.

Went to school this afternoon to attend a phonics workshop to help my youngest to read. Given a list of things to do with him regularly. Added to my eldest DS who is struggling a little in Yr 6 and has to tied to the chair to do his hw everynight and an 8yr old DD who is getting bolshy because she doesn't get enough attention... and I simply don't know when I'm supposed to do it all. Let alone the call out stuff as well. I'm within a gnat's willy of writing my resignation letter but gawd knows what we'd do for money. We're struggling atm as it is.

Sorry for the rant. I think this has just bought it all to the fore...

[flowerybeanbag]

I think that's right it has brought it to the fore. Which is not necessarily a bad thing really is it? I think you've identified that the request to do on call per se isn't really the issue - you don't want to be there at all.

Gnat's willies aren't very big I imagine so if you're so close to resigning even though you would struggle financially, why don't you try and find some time (I know..) to sit by yourself and work out what your options are. Stay home, stay where you are, find another similar job, find a completely different job, do less hours at something, change direction entirely.

If you're this unhappy and stressed by it all you don't have an awful lot to lose. If you can identify a short term or even a medium to long term idea about where you want to end up/what you want to be doing, even if you can't do it straightaway, you can focus on it which makes putting up with current job easier, and even do tiny things towards achieving it.

Might be worth trying to find an hour to sit down and have a think to clear your head a bit anyway.

[OrmIrian]

Clear mt head...hmmm.... probably should have done that before opening the wine methinks

Thanks again flowery. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. DH suggested looking in the local paper for any sort of job - just to keep things ticking over whilst I rethink. Maybe...