Personally, I wouldn’t have a problem taking a job that required occasional pager coverage (1/3 or less of my time outside of work). I’d factor that into my decision to take a job. But I did have a job that suddenly ran out of people willing to volunteer for the 24×7 coverage, and pagers/cell phones were about to be forced on some or all of the employees (no additional compensation offered). I got out before they could hand one to me.

It used to be when I first started carrying it, but now I try to write programs that automatically fix the things I normally get paged for before the pager goes off. I went from having my pager going off nightly to going off only once or twice a month.

Of course, I’ve cursed myself by posting this.

xjbx, the thing about it is the pager isn’t in my job description. Our job responsibilities are so loosely defined that management can easily slide pager support in there.

I agree Scott, remote access can be a blessing and a curse. It’s nice when you don’t have to go into the office to take care of something but it sucks when you’re at home but logged in all night.

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It’s one thing to be paged by someone else. It’s another thing to have to wrestle within yourself to set boundaries.

Just another take on 24/7 connection, for what it’s worth.

That said, the week I am on call is hell. I pretty much just don’t make any plans for anything outside of work that week. My goal is to work up to a management position or some other kind of IT position where my personal life is not affected as much. I feel your pain.