I hate, hate, hate being On-call

I hate being called this late even more.

One of my colleagues, she had 4 kids. She LIKED being on call. She slept better on call, so she said.

I don't sleep better on-call. After a rough one a few years ago I felt my whole body jump at the sound of the microwave going off. I almost missed a call last week while watching House M.D because I thougt the beeper going off was on the show.

I used to be on call monitoring loads for a data warehouse. The pager would go off at least every four hours over the weekend even if everything was going OK. We had to hand-check results to make sure that everything was correct and update the website with the current status. I'd go to work on Monday morning feeling like a total wreck and being thankfull that I wasn't an intern at a hospital.

the closest to on call i've ever been is being responsible for any disaster that may have befallen the retail store where i was second in command. the boss lived 40 miles away and i was only across town. everything from employees not showing up for shifts to dealing with the police if the alarm went off in the middle of the night made my phone ring.

somehow i also became the district problem solver too. i cursed the day i ever got that cell phone.

blech. if i wasn't already really motivated to go to college, that would have been enough. i wasn't paid enough to deal with that crap.

Be thankful you are employed in this economy.

To quote a friend who had been laid off once, "It's nice having a job to complain about".

Yep, better I should screw up a database than a person.

That bit about "be happy to have a job to complain about" is exactly the way the Robber Barrons want us to think. Whenever I hear someone complain about anything like health insurance or unpaid overtime I remind them that Elbonians don't need health insurance. When one gets sick they just throw 'em in throw trash. I love capitalism

I did my time managing a hotel -- that was being on call 24/7 for a YEAR.
It never failed. Not one. single. solitary. day (or night) were they (my wonderful staff) able to make it without calling me about SOMETHING.

I no longer work in that industry

My wife brings donuts and coffee to the ER before each of her in house calls. Since she's done this, her white cloud calls have increased in frequency.

What timing! I get the pager this morning, then see this thread. and being I have the pager, I get to work through the weekend so it's the start of a 12 day week for me. Oh ya, and with the RNC in town next week, we got 45,000 foot tapping Republicans coming through MSP, news media is allready here (including Al Jazera ).

Ok I give up. What is a 12 day week?

Twelve days of working without a day off.

Tom

Hey qbee- I see you live in northern Michigan (the UP?) I lived in Lansing for 6 yrs. Worked at Sparrow hospital. I like Michigan. A house is affordable there. I didn't mind the winters too much. How does your Prius fare in the snow there? :car: (I know you get plenty of it in the UP)

Our Prius is a great winter car. I've never driven a vehicle that tracks and handles as well in the snow. On the negative side, it doesn't have a lot of ground clearance, and the traction control is a bit on the sensitive side. Good tires help with that.

Tom

I don't mind being on call. The usual computer or database glitch I can resolve in under 20 mins. My contract is a minimum 4 hour bill for call in

So, all that hot sex in hospital 'on-call' rooms is just...tv? Oh, I'm so disillusioned.

Some of it is for real. I speak from experience, dating a hot nurse

Darn you. Now I have the whole "nurse in a white uniform" fantasy scene playing in my head. I'm never going to get back to work.

Tom