I'm the CTO of a small company with about 10 engineers. We've had some straightforward products, but our latest project is much more complicated and has a larger user base. As a result, issues keep cropping up during all hours of the day and night. I've never worked in an on-call environment before, and the current situation is chaotic—I often get calls from customers at odd hours, and I end up scrambling to resolve problems or reaching out to other engineers when they're available. This has led to a lot of stress for me and uncertainty for my team, depending on when issues arise. I'm looking for recommendations on the best resources to help me establish a more structured on-call system for my team.
2 Answers
Honestly, you might want to reconsider the whole on-call idea. It's tough on everyone. If feasible, set customer expectations around support being available only during regular business hours. Otherwise, think about hiring someone to cover these night shifts. If the need for around-the-clock support isn't urgent enough to justify hiring someone, it might not be essential at all.
There's a straightforward way to manage this! Hold a meeting to find out who among your staff is willing to be on-call. You can either pay them hourly for their calls or agree on a flat fee for carrying the phone. Just keep an eye on their hours to ensure no one's overworked and that they stay above minimum wage. Also, advise them to skip early meetings if they’ve had a rough night; they might be too tired to contribute the next morning! If this burden feels too heavy to share, consider leveling up your skills or even hiring an assistant to help manage the workload.
Great tips! I also think having a clear rota reduces confusion. Maybe use a tool like Outlook Calendar to track who's on-call each week and integrate it with your phone system to make things easier.