In the past I've mostly worked at small companies and have never officially been on call. I've fixed the odd out of hours issue here and there without there being a proper arrangement.
The systems I work on (trading / betting software) are such that by the time you're through testing it's very rare to hit a game breaking issue because there's a very large incentive to not like, lose the bank.
Dependencies in the critical path are kept to a minimum, etc.
Usually problems are more 'soft', like an API being turned off or changed or something.
The thing I've always worried about is that to my knowledge there's no ACK for outbound mail.
The potential impact of one email I send not being received is absolutely enormous to the extent that certain mails I'd pay a decent amount of money to ensure delivery, probably more than an actual postage stamp.
It feels to me, though this could well be a socio-economic bubble thing, that people are just scrambling everywhere. Hyperfocused on something; anything.
Maybe it's their career; maybe it's their cause; whatever. But the innocence of just living, existing; hanging out in this beautiful world we call home; seems to be fading for many.
Happiness must be now, not future, otherwise future it will always be.
In the past I've mostly worked at small companies and have never officially been on call. I've fixed the odd out of hours issue here and there without there being a proper arrangement.
The systems I work on (trading / betting software) are such that by the time you're through testing it's very rare to hit a game breaking issue because there's a very large incentive to not like, lose the bank.
Dependencies in the critical path are kept to a minimum, etc.
Usually problems are more 'soft', like an API being turned off or changed or something.