Is there any joy left in this industry?

[Richard Pieri]

On Oct 28, 2010, at 1:56 PM, Ben Eisenbraun wrote:
> 
> It's a sysadmin job... having to participate in the on-call rotation seems
> pretty standard to me.  When I have had to carry a pager in the past there
> was usually a bonus associated with it as well.

I disagree.  Do you expect that the emergency room staff be on-call after hours with no on-site staffing?  Fire?  Police?  I don't.  A 24-hour shop has 24-hour staffing.  On-call sysadmins is nothing more than employers trying to get more than they're paying for out of their employees.  And we've let them get away with it for so long that some of us accept it as normal practice.

If there's no rotation because there is only one SA on staff it isn't because the shop is small.  It's because the employer is too cheap to hire or keep sufficient staff to provide the coverage needed.

--Rich P.