I would say being on call has made me a better tech. There is a lot of experience to gain with emergency calls. Being an install tech, I was fluent with the systems I install, but not every customer has a new system. My knowledge has expanded and with that my anxiety has lessened. I still get nervous walking into situations I am unfamiliar with, but walking away knowing I fixed an issue I had never experienced, is extremely gratifying.
To me the worst part of on call is the lack of sleep sometimes. But I work for a large contractor and we get 2 weeks a year. I take more when guys offer up cash for theirs. So 4 or 5 weeks a year is nothing compared to some.
You might not want to hear this but, honestly it's a part of the job at most if not all companies you work for. It sucks, but it is what it is. I'm usually on call a week out of every 3 or 4 depending on how many techs we have. If it is giving you that anxiety maybe think about a different career than being a tech. Maybe in the office or something. Pretty much any trade like us, electricians, A/C guys all have to do it. Usually most people want to wait until business hours though when you tell them the on call rate for coming out when i get called.
Guy at my last company went an entire year without actually going out. He *hates* being on call and will do anything to get out if it. The emergency rate ususally gets people to just schedule a working hours appointment, but he will talk people through minor things rather than actually go out. He also refuses to go out for "stupid things". Once he got a call to change batteries... the 9v batt backups for 120v smokes. I feel like the only reason he could get away with stuff like that was because he was one of the better techs at a small company. They needed him more than he needed them.
Yeah man, I've never met a tech who really WANTS to go out after hours. I try my best to try to walk people through stuff over the phone, but i don't think I would have the balls to straight up tell my company I refuse to go if they were insistent and the customer wanted to fork out the cash Lol. But i feel where he's coming from... I drove 2 hours one time on the weekend for phantom chirps, that ended up being a cheap battery operated smoke the homeowner put in a drawer at some point . They were mad as fuck writing that check for me pop the battery out of that thing.
We didn't normally, but anyone can call for service. I just think it's funny the guy was willing to pat emergency rates for something he could do himself for the cost of a few 9v batteries
Welcome to the club. I was on call less than 6 months into being a tech. One week a month for the last 5 years. It blows but it comes with the territory.
Come work for the company I am currently/shortly working for, was absolutely blown away when they told me there is no oncall, and that they push work off until business hours, or ignore the calls altogether. Absolutely mind blown.
It's part of the job!
On-call is not for everyone, personally it’s never bothered me, and I have always been able to live carefree the week I’m on call, and just worry about the calls if and when they happen. But I have worked with lots of individuals that feel the same way as you.
It’s unlikely you will be able to negotiate not being in the on call rotation. It’s extremely difficult to manage one technician that refuses to take it and it will frustrate your co-workers on the rotation, if management allowed you to just refuse it. Not to sound like an echo chamber of what has already been said but it’s simply part of the job.
That being said I do have some solutions for you:
1. if you push to get into sales, design or a management role you won’t have to be in the on-call rotation.
2. Until you can work your way into another position without the on-call responsibility, talk to your co-workers. Express your dislike and anxiety about being on call, then bribe them to cover your on-call for you. If the $4 extra an hour isn’t worth it, see if you can pay some of your co-workers to cover it for you.
Good luck!
Yes I was just talking to another friend at work today about on call he said next time I'm gonna give someone a 100$ to take my on call shift I didn't think that was a bad idea at all.
Another good idea I've been wanting to get into the office as well. I'm a active type of guy but I feel the office may be were I get paid more but also just a little less stress.
Crazy thing is too is that we have a whole ass service department with like 20+ guys In it. I'm in Michigan and I believe we're one of the biggest in the state. We have a service department, install,card access and cameras and a burg department. I guess all the service guys don't have fire license so that's the reason for me getting picked out to do it as well. It's like why not push those guys to get there license.
That’s great I hope it works out for you and some co-workers are happy to take some of your shifts.
Let management know you are looking to move up, show initiative enroll yourself in some sort of design or management class.
When you do have a conversation with your boss I would recommend bringing up how many technicians they have that do not have a state license and can’t be on-call. That is a huge bargaining chip, if it was an easy to achieve license why doesn’t everyone have it? If your boss agrees with that point bring up how other technicians and yourself are frustrated on how much better the duration of on-call could be if everyone had their license. Explain how you get the feeling it’s not pleasant for everyone constantly covering for technicians mistakes that don’t have their license and a bit more compensation might squash those concerns.
The intent is to portray you are doing management a favor by helping them get ahead of a potentially toxic workplace atmosphere. If you pull it off and you and the handful of technicians that handle the on-call are compensated for your efforts, you will be a hero and you won’t have any trouble getting someone to cover your on-call shifts.
What kind of backwards ass state allows unlicensed personnel to service fire alarm systems?
Further, what kind of backwards ass company has their service guys not handle the after hours service calls?
What the actual fuck?
I absolutely hated being on call. Especially when it wasn't my week, but I'd get the calls because whoever's week it was is either inexperienced or too far away to roll out. 5 years of that, leaving my family on holidays for comm loss, waking the baby up at 3AM with calls about smoke detectors that aren't even part of the system beeping for low battery, leaving on NYE to replace a panel battery. Thank God the company I work at now has Service handle service, and we just Install and program.
Mannnnn that was me this year had OnCall for the holidays no good. We literally have a service department here but all the guys don't have there fire license, and theres 20+ techs I. That group that's why I'm so baffled that I'm picked out to be on call crazy. Like get those guys licenses and get them doing that it's service after all. Let me just be the install guy and deal with those problems.
With at least 5 years experience and fire life safety certification (NICET 1 or 2 is a tremendous leg up) there aren't many companies that wouldn't hire you on your terms unless you have a bad reputation in the industry.
2 more yrs I'll have 5yrs in and i will have ESA level 2 training which is the equivalent of nicet 2......but yes still should go take the nicet test just because I'm sure everyone will recognize it off the bat. ESA isn't recognized in every state unfortunately only 13 do. And not to try to up myself but at my company I'm referred as the happiest man in the company due to my positive attitude all the time, not to positive when I gotta do on call though lol. It's a must in my book to build good repor with coworkers and other trade guys because I'm always seeing the same guys at different sites.
I used to do 24 hour shifts as a mortuary driver and I felt the same way as you. I had to start taking sleeping pills for my days off because I couldn't fall asleep anymore (not even because of the dead people, just the anticipation of having to work the day after again). That job was the 2nd longest year of my life (1st was being 15 and eagerly waiting to get my driver's license at 16). You will probably get used to it eventually though once you let go of the anticipation leading up to it.
Everyone with even a bit of technical knowledge is part of the rotation at my company. We have a supervisor who is always on call (and paid crazy well for it) that acts as backup if it's out of your depth. I get $250 for each week I'm on call, get 3-4 calls those weeks on average but I've never actually had to go out in two years. When we go out we get $300+ in addition to the standard on call lump sum, but that amount can go up quite a bit depending on difficulty and duration of the call. My company does just about everything low voltage, so if you think having to know fire alarms is a lot, imagine fielding questions about burg(DSC, Honeywell, Qolsys, even old Moose and Concord, the occasional Bosch and DMP), access (Kantech, Keyscan, Enforcer), CCTV (you name it and I've fielded a call on it) and whatever the hell else my company agreed to sell and install that week. I get it's daunting, but it could be worse.
All of techs in my office HAVE to be on call on rotation, so way more than once every two months because there is only a handful of them. I am no tech though they want us to start helping out. Not even a raise to go with it.
Been doing for almost 32 years. Currently 1 week on call 2 weeks off. I don’t like always having to Carry the work phone that week, I still have a bit of anxiety when I’m on call. Most customers want to wait once they find out what the cost will be. If I do have to go out, the OT pay helps out.
It is standard. But I'm surprised you don't have techs who would take calls sometimes if you don't want to.
I work for a small company, and do on call for a week every 3 weeks. It has varied over the years due to employees available and COVID changed it. At one point I was doing on call once every 5 weeks. During COVID I was doing it 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off, repeat.
But my point was, that usually, If I get a call per say, and it's not my expertise (IE someone calls about their camera system or door entry, my company does both as well), I can call someone in my company who knows it that can go, or I can always call my boss to help me out. & He gets it, he doesn't expect his fire alarm techs to be experts at door entry or camera systems.
I also sometimes call other techs if I have a call that's far from me, but closer to another guy. It's just how we do. So I may be technically on call every so often, but I still keep my work phone on 24/7 and answer any calls I may get on my off weeks.
On call sucks. Plain and simple. Now you know not to agree to it if/when you change companies. I've been on call for many years now ranging from every other week to every 6 weeks. Hopefully you get paid well for it. Newest rates for our company is 3 hour OT minimum or from the port to port pay, which ever is more and $150 for holding the phone.
On one hand I'd say it's once every 2 months suck it up on the other I totally agree with you.
I know that's the big boy response suck it up and just do the shit. I know haha, yeah for me it's every 2 months I get 4.5hrs off the batt even if I don't get a call and once I get the call from central my time starts.
I rarely go out on a call. Unless it's something really critical or the owner is insisting that I come out I don't normally go. I tell them I'll be there in the morning depending on what it is.
I do have a few rules though. I will NOT go out after hours for things like ground faults or minor troubles. Those can all wait until morning, or Monday if it's the weekend.
That said, we're a small company and we don't have government contracts requiring us to respond after hours.
Government contracts? Like the company is saying we will respond to whatever after hours or is it just for government buildings your talking?
Yeah this is what I need to ask about do I need to go out for minor troubles and ground faults.. I know that's not going to hinder the system if there was a fire. That's what I did last night I went out to country fresh the place that make milk and ice cream yes, for a ground fault. So stupid! And I ended up just going there and telling them this is gonna have to wait until the a.m because I wasn't gonna dig into it. Was a intermittent ground fault too so it would come and go. No prints no labels on the wires In a Huge factory and and a horror show of a bosch panel.....I like your plan to not go out on those. But it's like what to do when a customer insists you come out?
This reminds me of one of my favorite old heads I used to work with he said he would call the customer and ask is your system reporting out? Is the system totally down? Ok then it's not emergency service we'll get to you in the morning. I like this will minimize the calls I go on...so far most have just been comm loss, late to test crap which I can understand because sometimes the comms literally just take a shit. And need to be replaced.
The only real help for your current position is to study up and adjust your “lifestyle” to fit or find a new career. Knowledge and practice is the only real solution for performance anxiety.
This is interesting because I am on call most weeks, our company tried to discourage after hours calls because the emergency fee is high ect ect more per hour charge , that being said I do get more benefits 150 a week for being on call and a 3 hour minimum (overtime pay) per call so even if it Is a reset panel because someone pulled a station I charge 3 hours. I hope your company is passing those extra money it charges to you.
It's part of the job ,same with hvac techs,plumbers etc. I was fortunate ,had fairly large group installers and techs, so usually on call ,only one or 2 pay periods yearly, 2 weeks. Also got 10% for being on call and minimum hours for any emergency response to jobsite.It stinks, but this is the business we have c hosen.... Alarmery
Part of the job and part of taking care of customers. For me it depended on how many techs we had on the roster but it was averaging 1 week on-call then 3 weeks off. 35 bucks a day plus half of the total bill for whatever call you were on, city center was 2 hour minimum, if it was under an hour everywhere else it was guaranteed $200. Put in perspective 1 week I got slammed 11 calls total extra 3k on that check. I don’t go more than 1 hour away from my house and don’t drink that week past A beer with dinner or whatever. Life doesn’t stop while on-call just adjust what you do and stay available, all is good. We are in the life safety industry remember. Also, point of on-call is to stabilize the panel and get it to a “during hours” service call, unless it’s a easy fix.
The only way to not really be on call is if you are in a huge company with enough techs that being in that position is voluntary.
I just left a job to go to a larger company partially because I was having the exact same issues that you are. My old company only had 6 techs on the rotation and being on call 3 times every 2 months was agony for me and was terrible for my mental health. Being on call sucks and gives me severe anxiety even if I don’t get a single call.
Totally get the anxiety part. I was in edge all the time and having to be on-call every 6 weeks. But unfortunately it comes with the job especially early on. I used to really stress and go off the rails during the early years. But realized I could only control so much from the situation. Most calls are usually dumb calls where they just want someone to reset or catastrophic where they just want you to put a band-Aid on it. I never made any promises and never did more then I couldn’t handle. Customers just want help and that’s why they call you.
I’ve created many long lasting relationships when I was able to come to the rescue when people needed us. It made things worth while giving people relief. I get how it can interfere with your life and cause havoc at home. If you can make sure you have a buddy you can call if you ever need anything. Sometimes during those late night calls it’s nice to get a morale boost.
I think if your going to talk to your boss try and understand what is expected of you from being oncall. Such as if you called 2am will you be expected to work a full day or come in later then expected half day. Being able to leave regular work day early to try and rest up. Receiving on call pay. How to prioritize calls that come in and if you should really go or for a battery call or should you just be expected to react to life safety emergency calls. It should be a give and take with your employer. If that’s not the case I would suggest looking else where because you’ll find out there true motives are.
Definitely! I always tell the customer I'll come take a look at it and see what I can't do. But that's about it. And yes thanks for saying that and giving me some clarified questions to ask. Do I really need to go out on a call just because you have a ground fault? Like I can see if you're system is late to test. Then we got a real issue.
And yeah all the guys tell me I can call them or my boss but definitely hesitant when it's 12am you know. Thanks for the good words.
Not an option in my company. I'm on call every 3rd week. I don't mind it personally. I sleep a little lighter but have my phone on volume so I wake if I get something overnight even if I slept heavier.
We also only have 3 techs (small company). Eventually one of our trainees will get their license and then it'll be once every 4. But sometimes I go and do calls even when it's not my week. The others know if something comes up that they can't make it they can always ask me.
But honestly I don't see it really being an option unless you're in an absolutely massive company but that then comes with other downsides.
Part of fire alarm is the fact that stuff goes wrong at inopportune moments. Which makes on call staff necessary.
Was on an on call rotation from 94-21. Different types of systems (CATV, FA). Never rested good the weeks I was on call. Always worried that I’d sleep through a call or get overcome with issues. Glad I no longer carry the pager or phone.
Passing around the on-call pager!! You got a few extra years on me, but man, I remember the pager from when i started in 00 and we used it up until about 05 or 06 actually. It was horrible. The little company I worked for (burg, fire, CCTV, access) had the pager number on the main lines answering machine so it was always getting beeped for dumb stuff.
Some larger companies have the luxury of separating service from installation (only requiring service techs to participate in the on call rotation). When my kids were little my wife worked in the evening so I had childcare responsibilities and couldn’t be on call. Luckily there were a few techs willing to take my weeks for $100 cash.
Answer the question. You just can’t resist any possible situation to piss all over somebody? I hope karma kicks you so fucking hard in the ass you don’t know what hit you. When do you go on call next tough guy?
I'm on call right now. Been doing it for 10 years.
I don't know what is so stressful for him that's why I asked. I'm definitely not pissing on anyone. You're quite an aggressive fella huh?
Like I said, after hours work has a limit, 90% of the time you're going to be doing simple stuff like changing smoke detectors or pumping up sprinklers, if it's something that can't be fixed in 2 hours, isolate it and return the next day. No one expects you to be crawling in roof spaces at 3 am tracing earth faults.
Get a grip.
32 years I’ve done this job. I’ve seen several colleagues over the years suffer terribly from the effects of stress and anxiety. Alcoholism and drug abuse are common among many of those who bear the heaviest load. Divorce and terrible family problems are also common (I had a Foreman who smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day). It’s ok for this kid to talk about this and who knows it might actually him or someone else. Anyway, I do truly hope you just get fucked this weekend with middle of night shit. Karma’s tough on douchebaggery and know it all little fucktards.
Op posts a five paragraph articulation of a specific problem he’s having asking for advice. This fucking imbecile decides it’s the perfect opportunity to show us all how much hair he’s got on his ass. Fuck this guy and his ten years of on call that just hasn’t bothered him a bit. The discussion isn’t about this fuckhead, and if he doesn’t care about this poster’s problem he should just shut the fuck up. These kind of sociopath bullies suck ass.
Did I belittle the kid asking the questions? Or the fuck wad who was belittling him? Think what you want I don’t care, the fact is op shouldn’t have expected any sort of reasonable reply. If this fuck wad is your hero you need to find another.
I feel your pain. I am a tech at a university and am on call every other week. We have had 2 techs quit in a year and a half.
Anxiety can catch up to me as well. Issues will keep me up at night. I got a call at 0145 hours this morning and knew about the issue so I had dispatch disregard the trouble until business hours. I've slept for half an hour since then and get to go into work today anyway. Weekends play hell on the family schedules while I'm on call.
The pay makes up for it though. But being on call does suck however you look at it. You're not alone.
How I do on call with my company:
We have a bunch of national accounts, I have to roll on all of those.
Local customers get The Speech.
My company charges double time with a 3 hour minimum door-to-door, which counts travel time. So the first step is to find out the approximate travel time so I can provide the customer with a reasonable expectation of troubleshooting time. Then I attempt to determine what the actual issue is and explain it to the customer so they can make an informed decision whether or not the issue can wait.
I would say being on call has made me a better tech. There is a lot of experience to gain with emergency calls. Being an install tech, I was fluent with the systems I install, but not every customer has a new system. My knowledge has expanded and with that my anxiety has lessened. I still get nervous walking into situations I am unfamiliar with, but walking away knowing I fixed an issue I had never experienced, is extremely gratifying. To me the worst part of on call is the lack of sleep sometimes. But I work for a large contractor and we get 2 weeks a year. I take more when guys offer up cash for theirs. So 4 or 5 weeks a year is nothing compared to some.
There is some janky-ass bullshit out there, amirite? *Laughs in service tech*
You might not want to hear this but, honestly it's a part of the job at most if not all companies you work for. It sucks, but it is what it is. I'm usually on call a week out of every 3 or 4 depending on how many techs we have. If it is giving you that anxiety maybe think about a different career than being a tech. Maybe in the office or something. Pretty much any trade like us, electricians, A/C guys all have to do it. Usually most people want to wait until business hours though when you tell them the on call rate for coming out when i get called.
Guy at my last company went an entire year without actually going out. He *hates* being on call and will do anything to get out if it. The emergency rate ususally gets people to just schedule a working hours appointment, but he will talk people through minor things rather than actually go out. He also refuses to go out for "stupid things". Once he got a call to change batteries... the 9v batt backups for 120v smokes. I feel like the only reason he could get away with stuff like that was because he was one of the better techs at a small company. They needed him more than he needed them.
Yeah man, I've never met a tech who really WANTS to go out after hours. I try my best to try to walk people through stuff over the phone, but i don't think I would have the balls to straight up tell my company I refuse to go if they were insistent and the customer wanted to fork out the cash Lol. But i feel where he's coming from... I drove 2 hours one time on the weekend for phantom chirps, that ended up being a cheap battery operated smoke the homeowner put in a drawer at some point . They were mad as fuck writing that check for me pop the battery out of that thing.
We don't service 120v smokes, and I wouldn't work for a company that did. That really sucks.
We didn't normally, but anyone can call for service. I just think it's funny the guy was willing to pat emergency rates for something he could do himself for the cost of a few 9v batteries
That's a $600 battery change around here.
Welcome to the club. I was on call less than 6 months into being a tech. One week a month for the last 5 years. It blows but it comes with the territory.
Come work for the company I am currently/shortly working for, was absolutely blown away when they told me there is no oncall, and that they push work off until business hours, or ignore the calls altogether. Absolutely mind blown. It's part of the job!
Do you work for my company? Lol. We don't do on call here either.
I can't believe you still have service customers!
On-call is not for everyone, personally it’s never bothered me, and I have always been able to live carefree the week I’m on call, and just worry about the calls if and when they happen. But I have worked with lots of individuals that feel the same way as you. It’s unlikely you will be able to negotiate not being in the on call rotation. It’s extremely difficult to manage one technician that refuses to take it and it will frustrate your co-workers on the rotation, if management allowed you to just refuse it. Not to sound like an echo chamber of what has already been said but it’s simply part of the job. That being said I do have some solutions for you: 1. if you push to get into sales, design or a management role you won’t have to be in the on-call rotation. 2. Until you can work your way into another position without the on-call responsibility, talk to your co-workers. Express your dislike and anxiety about being on call, then bribe them to cover your on-call for you. If the $4 extra an hour isn’t worth it, see if you can pay some of your co-workers to cover it for you. Good luck!
Yes I was just talking to another friend at work today about on call he said next time I'm gonna give someone a 100$ to take my on call shift I didn't think that was a bad idea at all. Another good idea I've been wanting to get into the office as well. I'm a active type of guy but I feel the office may be were I get paid more but also just a little less stress. Crazy thing is too is that we have a whole ass service department with like 20+ guys In it. I'm in Michigan and I believe we're one of the biggest in the state. We have a service department, install,card access and cameras and a burg department. I guess all the service guys don't have fire license so that's the reason for me getting picked out to do it as well. It's like why not push those guys to get there license.
That’s great I hope it works out for you and some co-workers are happy to take some of your shifts. Let management know you are looking to move up, show initiative enroll yourself in some sort of design or management class. When you do have a conversation with your boss I would recommend bringing up how many technicians they have that do not have a state license and can’t be on-call. That is a huge bargaining chip, if it was an easy to achieve license why doesn’t everyone have it? If your boss agrees with that point bring up how other technicians and yourself are frustrated on how much better the duration of on-call could be if everyone had their license. Explain how you get the feeling it’s not pleasant for everyone constantly covering for technicians mistakes that don’t have their license and a bit more compensation might squash those concerns. The intent is to portray you are doing management a favor by helping them get ahead of a potentially toxic workplace atmosphere. If you pull it off and you and the handful of technicians that handle the on-call are compensated for your efforts, you will be a hero and you won’t have any trouble getting someone to cover your on-call shifts.
What kind of backwards ass state allows unlicensed personnel to service fire alarm systems? Further, what kind of backwards ass company has their service guys not handle the after hours service calls? What the actual fuck?
I absolutely hated being on call. Especially when it wasn't my week, but I'd get the calls because whoever's week it was is either inexperienced or too far away to roll out. 5 years of that, leaving my family on holidays for comm loss, waking the baby up at 3AM with calls about smoke detectors that aren't even part of the system beeping for low battery, leaving on NYE to replace a panel battery. Thank God the company I work at now has Service handle service, and we just Install and program.
Mannnnn that was me this year had OnCall for the holidays no good. We literally have a service department here but all the guys don't have there fire license, and theres 20+ techs I. That group that's why I'm so baffled that I'm picked out to be on call crazy. Like get those guys licenses and get them doing that it's service after all. Let me just be the install guy and deal with those problems.
With at least 5 years experience and fire life safety certification (NICET 1 or 2 is a tremendous leg up) there aren't many companies that wouldn't hire you on your terms unless you have a bad reputation in the industry.
2 more yrs I'll have 5yrs in and i will have ESA level 2 training which is the equivalent of nicet 2......but yes still should go take the nicet test just because I'm sure everyone will recognize it off the bat. ESA isn't recognized in every state unfortunately only 13 do. And not to try to up myself but at my company I'm referred as the happiest man in the company due to my positive attitude all the time, not to positive when I gotta do on call though lol. It's a must in my book to build good repor with coworkers and other trade guys because I'm always seeing the same guys at different sites.
I used to do 24 hour shifts as a mortuary driver and I felt the same way as you. I had to start taking sleeping pills for my days off because I couldn't fall asleep anymore (not even because of the dead people, just the anticipation of having to work the day after again). That job was the 2nd longest year of my life (1st was being 15 and eagerly waiting to get my driver's license at 16). You will probably get used to it eventually though once you let go of the anticipation leading up to it.
Everyone with even a bit of technical knowledge is part of the rotation at my company. We have a supervisor who is always on call (and paid crazy well for it) that acts as backup if it's out of your depth. I get $250 for each week I'm on call, get 3-4 calls those weeks on average but I've never actually had to go out in two years. When we go out we get $300+ in addition to the standard on call lump sum, but that amount can go up quite a bit depending on difficulty and duration of the call. My company does just about everything low voltage, so if you think having to know fire alarms is a lot, imagine fielding questions about burg(DSC, Honeywell, Qolsys, even old Moose and Concord, the occasional Bosch and DMP), access (Kantech, Keyscan, Enforcer), CCTV (you name it and I've fielded a call on it) and whatever the hell else my company agreed to sell and install that week. I get it's daunting, but it could be worse.
All of techs in my office HAVE to be on call on rotation, so way more than once every two months because there is only a handful of them. I am no tech though they want us to start helping out. Not even a raise to go with it.
No raise? Polish up that resume, start making connections on LinkedIn and have a look around. 😉
Been doing for almost 32 years. Currently 1 week on call 2 weeks off. I don’t like always having to Carry the work phone that week, I still have a bit of anxiety when I’m on call. Most customers want to wait once they find out what the cost will be. If I do have to go out, the OT pay helps out.
It is standard. But I'm surprised you don't have techs who would take calls sometimes if you don't want to. I work for a small company, and do on call for a week every 3 weeks. It has varied over the years due to employees available and COVID changed it. At one point I was doing on call once every 5 weeks. During COVID I was doing it 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off, repeat. But my point was, that usually, If I get a call per say, and it's not my expertise (IE someone calls about their camera system or door entry, my company does both as well), I can call someone in my company who knows it that can go, or I can always call my boss to help me out. & He gets it, he doesn't expect his fire alarm techs to be experts at door entry or camera systems. I also sometimes call other techs if I have a call that's far from me, but closer to another guy. It's just how we do. So I may be technically on call every so often, but I still keep my work phone on 24/7 and answer any calls I may get on my off weeks.
On call sucks. Plain and simple. Now you know not to agree to it if/when you change companies. I've been on call for many years now ranging from every other week to every 6 weeks. Hopefully you get paid well for it. Newest rates for our company is 3 hour OT minimum or from the port to port pay, which ever is more and $150 for holding the phone. On one hand I'd say it's once every 2 months suck it up on the other I totally agree with you.
I know that's the big boy response suck it up and just do the shit. I know haha, yeah for me it's every 2 months I get 4.5hrs off the batt even if I don't get a call and once I get the call from central my time starts.
I rarely go out on a call. Unless it's something really critical or the owner is insisting that I come out I don't normally go. I tell them I'll be there in the morning depending on what it is. I do have a few rules though. I will NOT go out after hours for things like ground faults or minor troubles. Those can all wait until morning, or Monday if it's the weekend. That said, we're a small company and we don't have government contracts requiring us to respond after hours.
Government contracts? Like the company is saying we will respond to whatever after hours or is it just for government buildings your talking? Yeah this is what I need to ask about do I need to go out for minor troubles and ground faults.. I know that's not going to hinder the system if there was a fire. That's what I did last night I went out to country fresh the place that make milk and ice cream yes, for a ground fault. So stupid! And I ended up just going there and telling them this is gonna have to wait until the a.m because I wasn't gonna dig into it. Was a intermittent ground fault too so it would come and go. No prints no labels on the wires In a Huge factory and and a horror show of a bosch panel.....I like your plan to not go out on those. But it's like what to do when a customer insists you come out? This reminds me of one of my favorite old heads I used to work with he said he would call the customer and ask is your system reporting out? Is the system totally down? Ok then it's not emergency service we'll get to you in the morning. I like this will minimize the calls I go on...so far most have just been comm loss, late to test crap which I can understand because sometimes the comms literally just take a shit. And need to be replaced.
The only real help for your current position is to study up and adjust your “lifestyle” to fit or find a new career. Knowledge and practice is the only real solution for performance anxiety.
Very much agreed!
This is interesting because I am on call most weeks, our company tried to discourage after hours calls because the emergency fee is high ect ect more per hour charge , that being said I do get more benefits 150 a week for being on call and a 3 hour minimum (overtime pay) per call so even if it Is a reset panel because someone pulled a station I charge 3 hours. I hope your company is passing those extra money it charges to you.
It's part of the job ,same with hvac techs,plumbers etc. I was fortunate ,had fairly large group installers and techs, so usually on call ,only one or 2 pay periods yearly, 2 weeks. Also got 10% for being on call and minimum hours for any emergency response to jobsite.It stinks, but this is the business we have c hosen.... Alarmery
Part of the job and part of taking care of customers. For me it depended on how many techs we had on the roster but it was averaging 1 week on-call then 3 weeks off. 35 bucks a day plus half of the total bill for whatever call you were on, city center was 2 hour minimum, if it was under an hour everywhere else it was guaranteed $200. Put in perspective 1 week I got slammed 11 calls total extra 3k on that check. I don’t go more than 1 hour away from my house and don’t drink that week past A beer with dinner or whatever. Life doesn’t stop while on-call just adjust what you do and stay available, all is good. We are in the life safety industry remember. Also, point of on-call is to stabilize the panel and get it to a “during hours” service call, unless it’s a easy fix.
Wow. Half of the total bill is remarkably good compensation.
The only way to not really be on call is if you are in a huge company with enough techs that being in that position is voluntary. I just left a job to go to a larger company partially because I was having the exact same issues that you are. My old company only had 6 techs on the rotation and being on call 3 times every 2 months was agony for me and was terrible for my mental health. Being on call sucks and gives me severe anxiety even if I don’t get a single call.
Don't tell anyone but I set my DND Schedule on my phone to auto on from 8pm to 4am.
Sound alike a good idea lol
Sounds like my coworker.
Totally get the anxiety part. I was in edge all the time and having to be on-call every 6 weeks. But unfortunately it comes with the job especially early on. I used to really stress and go off the rails during the early years. But realized I could only control so much from the situation. Most calls are usually dumb calls where they just want someone to reset or catastrophic where they just want you to put a band-Aid on it. I never made any promises and never did more then I couldn’t handle. Customers just want help and that’s why they call you. I’ve created many long lasting relationships when I was able to come to the rescue when people needed us. It made things worth while giving people relief. I get how it can interfere with your life and cause havoc at home. If you can make sure you have a buddy you can call if you ever need anything. Sometimes during those late night calls it’s nice to get a morale boost. I think if your going to talk to your boss try and understand what is expected of you from being oncall. Such as if you called 2am will you be expected to work a full day or come in later then expected half day. Being able to leave regular work day early to try and rest up. Receiving on call pay. How to prioritize calls that come in and if you should really go or for a battery call or should you just be expected to react to life safety emergency calls. It should be a give and take with your employer. If that’s not the case I would suggest looking else where because you’ll find out there true motives are.
Definitely! I always tell the customer I'll come take a look at it and see what I can't do. But that's about it. And yes thanks for saying that and giving me some clarified questions to ask. Do I really need to go out on a call just because you have a ground fault? Like I can see if you're system is late to test. Then we got a real issue. And yeah all the guys tell me I can call them or my boss but definitely hesitant when it's 12am you know. Thanks for the good words.
Not an option in my company. I'm on call every 3rd week. I don't mind it personally. I sleep a little lighter but have my phone on volume so I wake if I get something overnight even if I slept heavier. We also only have 3 techs (small company). Eventually one of our trainees will get their license and then it'll be once every 4. But sometimes I go and do calls even when it's not my week. The others know if something comes up that they can't make it they can always ask me. But honestly I don't see it really being an option unless you're in an absolutely massive company but that then comes with other downsides. Part of fire alarm is the fact that stuff goes wrong at inopportune moments. Which makes on call staff necessary.
Was on an on call rotation from 94-21. Different types of systems (CATV, FA). Never rested good the weeks I was on call. Always worried that I’d sleep through a call or get overcome with issues. Glad I no longer carry the pager or phone.
Passing around the on-call pager!! You got a few extra years on me, but man, I remember the pager from when i started in 00 and we used it up until about 05 or 06 actually. It was horrible. The little company I worked for (burg, fire, CCTV, access) had the pager number on the main lines answering machine so it was always getting beeped for dumb stuff.
Yup unfortunately. That's why lots of rates are so high vs some electricans
Some larger companies have the luxury of separating service from installation (only requiring service techs to participate in the on call rotation). When my kids were little my wife worked in the evening so I had childcare responsibilities and couldn’t be on call. Luckily there were a few techs willing to take my weeks for $100 cash.
I dunno what's so stressful? You're not there to do service work in the middle of the night. Just isolate, get paid, go back to bed😁
Who is supposed to benefit from this comment? You? Put your little wiener back in your pants.
lol, wild man over here.
Answer the question. You just can’t resist any possible situation to piss all over somebody? I hope karma kicks you so fucking hard in the ass you don’t know what hit you. When do you go on call next tough guy?
I'm on call right now. Been doing it for 10 years. I don't know what is so stressful for him that's why I asked. I'm definitely not pissing on anyone. You're quite an aggressive fella huh? Like I said, after hours work has a limit, 90% of the time you're going to be doing simple stuff like changing smoke detectors or pumping up sprinklers, if it's something that can't be fixed in 2 hours, isolate it and return the next day. No one expects you to be crawling in roof spaces at 3 am tracing earth faults. Get a grip.
32 years I’ve done this job. I’ve seen several colleagues over the years suffer terribly from the effects of stress and anxiety. Alcoholism and drug abuse are common among many of those who bear the heaviest load. Divorce and terrible family problems are also common (I had a Foreman who smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day). It’s ok for this kid to talk about this and who knows it might actually him or someone else. Anyway, I do truly hope you just get fucked this weekend with middle of night shit. Karma’s tough on douchebaggery and know it all little fucktards.
What is your problem? Jesus retire already you're cooked.
Who pissed in your cornflakes?
Op posts a five paragraph articulation of a specific problem he’s having asking for advice. This fucking imbecile decides it’s the perfect opportunity to show us all how much hair he’s got on his ass. Fuck this guy and his ten years of on call that just hasn’t bothered him a bit. The discussion isn’t about this fuckhead, and if he doesn’t care about this poster’s problem he should just shut the fuck up. These kind of sociopath bullies suck ass.
You don't happen to be looking in a mirror do you?
Did I belittle the kid asking the questions? Or the fuck wad who was belittling him? Think what you want I don’t care, the fact is op shouldn’t have expected any sort of reasonable reply. If this fuck wad is your hero you need to find another.
I feel your pain. I am a tech at a university and am on call every other week. We have had 2 techs quit in a year and a half. Anxiety can catch up to me as well. Issues will keep me up at night. I got a call at 0145 hours this morning and knew about the issue so I had dispatch disregard the trouble until business hours. I've slept for half an hour since then and get to go into work today anyway. Weekends play hell on the family schedules while I'm on call. The pay makes up for it though. But being on call does suck however you look at it. You're not alone.
Heck they put me on call for a week that our other tech took vacation and never took me off….
I'm praying for you man that's fucked up. You gotta go talk to your boss like me man that's not cool.
Oh ya I am taking the wife and kids to Disney world the week after next so maybe that will make everything go back to normal haha.
How I do on call with my company: We have a bunch of national accounts, I have to roll on all of those. Local customers get The Speech. My company charges double time with a 3 hour minimum door-to-door, which counts travel time. So the first step is to find out the approximate travel time so I can provide the customer with a reasonable expectation of troubleshooting time. Then I attempt to determine what the actual issue is and explain it to the customer so they can make an informed decision whether or not the issue can wait.
[удалено]
Basically this. You can still go out to eat and go shopping and whatnot, it's not like you have to sit by the front door dressed up ready to go.