Re: Slightly off topic (apologies) - DBA on call rate?

In our last gripping episode Brian Peasland <peasland_at_edcmail.cr.usgs.gov> wrote:
> Different companies handle this differently. From what I've seen,
 there
> are basically three schools of thought (or derivatives of the three).
>
> 1. Companies feel that you are a salaried employee and do not deserve
> any compensation for being on call. It's part of your job.
>
> 2. Companies understand that when you get called at night, that it is
> disrupting your personal time. So they "pay" you back with
 compensation
> time, or comp time. If you get called and work 2 hours on a problem,
> then you have 2 hours that you can take off of work at any time.
>
> 3. Companies pay extra for being on-call. Normally, you'll get paid a
> small fee to carry a pager 24x7 and then get paid for the time you
 work.
> This normally isn't too much (maybe your salary calculated to an
 hourly
> rate).
>
> Where I work, we use option #3. We get paid for 4 hours of extra pay
 at
> our normal hourly rate just for carrying a pager. If we get called,
 then
> we get paid for that too. But we can also trade our extra hours for
> unofficial comp time to be taken instead of vacation time.
>
> HTH,
> Brian
>
> Fuzzy wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > My employer is starting to mumble the dreaded words "on call". This
> > hasn't been an issue until recently (I'd like to say due to my
> > masterly skills). What I have no clue about is what to ask for in
> > terms of outside normal hours on-call rates, and rates when a call
> > actually happens.
> >
> > Any rough ideas out there of what kind of rate to expect/demand? (I
> > don't need to know exact $$ unless you're comfortable with that,
> > percentages of normal rate will do fine). The work will mostly be
> > trouble-shooting critical Oracle performance problems, connectivity
> > glitches, "Oh-my-god-I've-screwed-the-database" situations,
 emergency
> > restores, etc.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> > Fuzzy
> > #;-)
>
> --
> ========================================
> Brian Peasland
> Raytheons Systems at
> USGS EROS Data Center
> These opinions are my own and do not
> necessarily reflect the opinions of my
> company!
> ========================================
>

Most companies I have worked for follow Rule #1 or Rule #2; Brian is fortunate that his company follows Rule #3. I am also fortunate in that when I was heavily on call I was also a contractor and could bill for the time (many times at time-and-a-half).

I would expect to find that Rule #1 or Rule #2 will be used. And, if Rule #2 is used, you may have trouble using that comp time you are accruing.

--
David Fitzjarrell
Oracle Certified DBA


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