oncall support

[eternalnomad]

OK You are right, I misread that you said weekly rate.

I don't see that whether I would compromise my personal life for 4 pounds an hour or not is the right question. The question that you first have to answer is whould you, or anyone, be prepared to compromise 100% of their personal life at all? I suspect that most people would say no. That is why 24/7 support is provided by a rota of n people where n does not equal 1.

Fortunately, I don't do a job that requires 24/7 support, but I know some who do, and they don't get anything like 4.00 ph for it, often the payment is no more than "keeping their job" (obviously they do get paid extra for the 'on call' time).

tim

under normal circumstances I would not do (nor ever have done) such work myself (I value my personal life too highly) but due to the fact that the injun support team are not yet ready I am going to do it to help the client

It will be on a rota basis where N=2 and I hope it wont goon longer than a few weeks (andI know it wont go beyond 16th June cos I wont be there anymore)

[ratewhore]

I used to get £4/hr on-call when i did that type of role but that was a few years back. Then, hourly rate from the moment the phone rang. Minimum billable time - one hour. Soon adds up...

More important question is of course, do you really want to do it? If you're not bothered then price yourself high as then, either way, you're a winner.

[eternalnomad]

More important question is of course, do you really want to do it? If you're not bothered then price yourself high as then, either way, you're a winner.

no I dont to be honest but I dont want to be seen as holding the client to ransom.

If I see no serious attempt to make the injuns get themselves in a position to support this stuff then I will start hitting them hard with the hours.

[Angela_D]

What agreement did you come to in the end ?

[quickweb]

You seriously only charge £4 per hour for this sort of thing?

We worked out the rough amount of time needed to achieve certain, repeatable tasks, per month. It wasn't 24x7 but could run 8am-7:30pm, and maybe some emails, setting up things on weekends.

This normally resulted in something like 2 full chargeable days per week on a use it or lose it basis. If it went over I swallowed the difference, if they didn't call me, I did better.

[lukemg]

Fortunately, I don't do a job that requires 24/7 support, but I know some who do, and they don't get anything like 4.00 ph for it, often the payment is no more than "keeping their job" (obviously they do get paid extra for the 'on call' time).

tim

Sounds a bit permie menatality tim, I know people in this position as well. This guy is a contractor, and in a very strong position to dictate terms, keeping his job isn't the deciding factor.
Don't underestimate the grief of doing this cover, people I know who have done it really hated it, make sure you are compensated to balance this. I would be looking for approx 2 days pay per week of cover + minimum 2 hours charge per call out + any additional hours or parts of. Plus, if the call is after 10pm I would be looking for time off in lieu the following work day (i.e. late start)