Why On-Call Keeps Your Business Going

🤷‍♂️ Let's be real: Nobody wants to be on-call.

Updated: Wednesday, 09 October 2024

Published: Wednesday, 09 October 2024

There's nothing to be happy about getting a 2 a.m. ping. Or maybe it's the weekend and your spending time with your family when, boom, something breaks and you got to fix it. It's stressful, it interrupts your life, and no one looks forward to it. Keeping the balance between maintaining a healthy work-life balance and managing on-call duty can be tough. That's why is it so difficult to adopt on-call rotations in a team.

But here's the thing - on-call is critical. It's a bit like an insurance for your business. When something goes wrong (and trust me, something always goes wrong), having someone ready to jump in can make or break the situation. Whether it's a server going down, an unexpected bug in the system, or a customer emergency, if there's no one available to fix it, the consequences can be lethal - revenue loss, damaged reputation, unhappy customers. Being part of an on-call team means you're kind of a lifeguard for the business. You're the hero in the background ensuring things run smoothly. It’s not fun, but it’s vital.

Why On-Call Matters

Think of the services you use every day. Your favorite streaming apps, the online store you can't stop shopping from, your work tools - all of them depend on someone being available when things go wrong. If nobody's on-call, those services would collapse the minute something broke, and users would be left frustrated. And if things like that happens more frequently, you would probably stop using these tools and look for something else.

That's why for businesses, the stakes are high. As I explained in my lastest blog post Downtime can lead to massive losses. Customers don't care if it's Sunday at 3 a.m. or a holiday — they expect your service to be accessible.

That's where on-call comes in. It's the safety net that makes sure customers don't face disruption and that the business can recover quickly from any issue. Sure, you may not get thanked directly, but everyone appreciates it when the lights stay on.

How to Make On-Call Less Painful

Since on-call is an essential part of keeping systems running, it can't be avoided. But the focus should be on making it as smooth and stress-free as possible. Here are a few things that can help:

1. Clear Processes: Ensure there's a well-documented, step-by-step playbook for common incidents. No one wants to scramble in the middle of the night, unsure of what to do next or who to contact. A well-prepared guide can make troubleshooting more efficient and less frustrating. With All Quiet, you can easyily enrich all alerts with enough data points so your on-call team members can easily understand what happened. Moreover, our escalations ensure that incidents are automatically escalated to the next level if help is needed.

2. Fair Rotations: On-call duties should be distributed evenly across the team, with predictable schedules. No one should feel like they're constantly on-call. A fair rotation system ensures everyone has time to recharge.

3. Reliable Tools: Invest in good monitoring, alerting and automization tools. This reduces the number of false alarms and allows issues to be resolved quickly. The right tools can make the difference between a minor inconvenience and a major disruption. All Quiet streamlines your whole incident reponse with uptime monitoring, on-call alerting and integrating with your favourite collaboration tools.

4. Acknowledgement and Compensation: On-call work often goes unnoticed unless there's a problem. Recognizing the effort of those on-call - e.g through public acknowledgment, incentives, or compensation — can boost morale and show that their contributions are valued. With our on-call report, you can easily keep track of the hours each team member spent on-call. This makes it easy to ensure fair and adequate compensation.

Conclusion: It's a Necessary Evil - But Doesn't Have to Be Miserable

Literally, No one's saying that on-call duty is a dream job. But it’s a necessary part of keeping modern (software) businesses running. The key is to make it manageable, fair, and as smooth as possible. With the right tools, on-call doesn't have to feel like a punishment. And every business needs its unsung heroes...

Start your free 30-day trial and make on-call great again.

Peer
CPO & Co-Founder of All Quiet