I agree with the sentiment, but on-call support is an unavoidable necessity given the critical nature of many systems that underpin modern society.

When we talk about on-call, we’re not referring to systems like Netflix streaming a major fight for 65 million users, but rather essential infrastructure like healthcare systems, nuclear power plants, military operations, financial markets, and the vast array of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems that monitor and control industrial processes.

These systems are crucial to our safety, economy, and everyday lives, and downtime or failure is not an option.

Before Apple, I worked at Microsoft in the Azure team, where I logged over 2,016 hours of on-call support each year. This involved six 24/7 on-call rotations, each lasting two weeks, with responsibilities alternating between primary and secondary support. While there were certainly tough moments and challenging issues during those rotations, they also provided valuable learning experiences and helped me develop problem-solving skills under pressure.

On-call support is a necessary evil.

I’ve always felt it should be split among a geographically distributed team where support hours follow the sun. It really sucks to be awake at 3am, alone, groggy and unsupported and responsible for saving the world.

If the company/product isn’t large enough to be distributed, is it really important that it have a 10 minute time-to-acknowledge?

I was once paged over thirty times in a span of 24 hours while working for a website that, in the grand scheme of things, could unilaterally improve life in the United States by shutting itself down.

Are you willing to discuss how MSFT compensated you for on call.

Then the people who have to work on call should be compensated accordingly. In my experience they are not.