Bonkers

[David Cantrell]

On Tue, May 08, 2007 at 11:40:31AM +0100, Smylers wrote:

> There've been a few messages here recently with people objecting to
> employers expectations of being able to call them out of hours; I've
> also witnessed resistence to it from other people I've worked with.
> 
> It seems reasonable to me that as a general rule work time is for
> working and non-work time is for home life, but occasionally emergencies
> from one will inconveniently occur during time scheduled for the other
> -- I like that work will let me deal with a domestic emergency that
> crops up during the day, and I don't object to being phoned out of hours
> to see if I can help with a work emergency.

It's OK with a reasonable employer, and indeed my current employer has
my mobile number and I really wouldn't mind being called once or twice a
year.  But I've had an employer take the piss in the past and annoy me
EVERY FUCKING WEEKEND because the boss was too stupid to operate his
email properly and needed hand-holding to configure Windows to use
dial-up every time he took his laptop home.  Unfortunately you can't
tell in advance that your boss will be reasonable and, of course, bosses
change.

These days I don't mind so much anyway because I'm sufficiently
confident of my own irreplacable genius that I can tell them to fuck
off.  If necessary, I'll use the excuse that "sorry, I was drunk".

But being on-call is entirely different from the occasional emergency.
On-call means you have to be available and capable.  So no buggering off
up a mountain, or going to the cinema, or getting pished.  Considering
that the only reason I work is so that I can do things like bugger off
up mountains, buy books n beer, eat, have a roof over my head, I clearly
want to minimise the amount of time that I waste for my employer.  That
means I am ... disinclined to do on-call.  And certainly not for 40 quid
a month of DSL.

-- 
David Cantrell | Godless Liberal Elitist

    If I could read only one thing it would be the future, in the
    entrails of the bastard denying me access to anything else.