Welcome • User Guide
ToS • Privacy • Canary
Donate • Bugs • License

©2025 Poal.co

141

I work on-call. Even if it is supposed to be someone else's day I get called more often than not. I don't complain and I get the job done. That is what the point is. I don't like it but I sleep like crap anyway so if it wakes me up I may as well go get to work.

Before I was able to be remote I had the same issue for decades. I was in-office 5+ days a week (it depended on the work needing done) AND I was 24/7 on-call. Nothing like running hundred hour weeks to burn you out.

However, I just function like this now. I don't like it. It impacts the rest of my life (but less now since I am not 24/7 all of the time). Since I am remote, I can hour-shift without having to worry about a commute and being too tired to safely drive. Believe it or not, I am pretty damn safe messing will tens of millions of dollars of infrastructure tired than I am behind the wheel after a shitty night of on-call work.

Bonus? I can take a break for a bit, have someone cover me and get a power nap in and get back to functional-ish for the rest of the day. That is a LOT harder when you have a commute to think about or could have some shit come up at the end of the day and your already 12 hour day turns into an 18 hour day (and you still need an hour to drive home).

Archive: https://archive.today/xU46f

From the post:

>In the last 3 years I've attended 77 meetings that began between 1am and 6am, roughly once every two weeks, followed by my usual 7am start, Monday to Saturday. I'm working remotely from Australia for a US firm (Intel) who does not have a local office here. I'm not complaining. I work weird hours, but I don't think I work too many. I'm writing this post because there are some misconceptions and assumptions about the lives of remote workers, and I thought I'd share my own details as an anecdote, along with some tips for others in a similar situation (US job from Asia).

I work on-call. Even if it is supposed to be someone else's day I get called more often than not. I don't complain and I get the job done. That is what the point is. I don't like it but I sleep like crap anyway so if it wakes me up I may as well go get to work. Before I was able to be remote I had the same issue for decades. I was in-office 5+ days a week (it depended on the work needing done) AND I was 24/7 on-call. Nothing like running hundred hour weeks to burn you out. However, I just function like this now. I don't like it. It impacts the rest of my life (but less now since I am not 24/7 all of the time). Since I am remote, I can hour-shift without having to worry about a commute and being too tired to safely drive. Believe it or not, I am pretty damn safe messing will tens of millions of dollars of infrastructure tired than I am behind the wheel after a shitty night of on-call work. Bonus? I can take a break for a bit, have someone cover me and get a power nap in and get back to functional-ish for the rest of the day. That is a LOT harder when you have a commute to think about or could have some shit come up at the end of the day and your already 12 hour day turns into an 18 hour day (and you still need an hour to drive home). Archive: https://archive.today/xU46f From the post: >>In the last 3 years I've attended 77 meetings that began between 1am and 6am, roughly once every two weeks, followed by my usual 7am start, Monday to Saturday. I'm working remotely from Australia for a US firm (Intel) who does not have a local office here. I'm not complaining. I work weird hours, but I don't think I work too many. I'm writing this post because there are some misconceptions and assumptions about the lives of remote workers, and I thought I'd share my own details as an anecdote, along with some tips for others in a similar situation (US job from Asia).
You are currently inside a comment thread.
Click here to see all the comments (6).
[–] • 1 pt

I remember the lonely people. Once everyone got used to working remotely the lonely ones were the only ones who wanted to go back to the office. The rest of us were done with it.

One more thing driving return to office is company cutbacks. There is a lot of that lately. Firing is expensive and sometimes causes legal problems. It’s better if you can get people to quit on their own. They know a lot of people hate the office, and some even moved far from it and would have a long commute or live too far away. Forcing in‐office attendance trims off a few people. It’s also not as bad for morale if people quit because of a RTO mandate.

It explains why some of the office returns have been poorly planned without enough office space, parking, etc. They want the office to be miserable. They can fix the problems after they’re finished shedding employees.

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

I don't know about the "not as bad for morale" part. I am working at a company that wants all new hires (with limited exceptions) near a main office even thought they have closed most of the offices.

They also want anyone that already lives within an hour of a main office to commute at least a couple of days a month to the office... That no one else is in. Really, not kidding.

This has cost the company some of its best engineers and tech people in a way that is already obvious and causing HUGE pain in all of the product teams/engineering/hardware/etc...

Short sighted stupidity. All of those people that quit? Well, they went on to other companies that were happy to have them remote and they are paid better too. If the company tries to make me move near an office (the closest one is multiple states away) I will be more than happy to just get a new job. I already take a pay cut being remote. Unless they want to increase my pay by 500x, buy me a house and car, only make me be "on-site" a week a month then they can shove it.

The morale hit from losing most of the best people in the company over the last year-ish has been hard and everyone is pissed off and angry at management.