[Closed] Anyone else on-call? How many beers?

sex line?

If it's work - definitely none.

You're at work, or will be when you answer the phone, and in most cases having alcohol at work is frowned upon I think.

Although having said that, people do have a lunchtime drink at work don't they?

I just have to log-on and pretend to sound knowledgeable ...

I did the same in the lounge at BCN the other day. After a very nice long lunch. And a couple of Estrellas in the lounge as well.

However, it does depend on what you are having to be knowledgeable about....I can talk post-it notes in my sleep, obviously. And when half cut. 😉

After about 6 years of being on call pretty much every other week I stopped caring. I would drink as normal, go out on the town, take a chance.

I think thi only bit me once when I did have to go out to site to find out why a box wasn't responding. The wife wasn't pleased that she had to drive me out there. Saying that, neither was the guy in the data centre who was pulling cables out of all the wrong boxes when I told him to stop doing it.

I won't be at work, I'm at home but can be called anytime between now and Monday 9am and then from 5pm to 9am throughout the week.

Thing is.. I've seen my boss on call in the pub with me deflecting calls after 9 pints so it's not like a good example has been set (I'm impressionable).

It's not s3x line work but it might as well be considering the huge hole where my soul used to be..

It's not s3x line work but it might as well be considering the huge hole where my soul used to be.

Insurance? 😀

Close!

Network design nerd for .. um.. Financial services :-/

Meh, 2. Then your third will be really enjoyable 🙂

Or if you're watching calories, none.

Are you paid?

And tbh I use to be on call years ago, and would always get work to get me a taxi to come in - irrelevent of beers etc.

But, if the sites that you need to visit are no-alcohol sites then maybe...

Financial services

After what they've done to the country, I say get absolutely bladdered, log on and start wiping their filing system....

I was on call for years, started off quite diligent, but as my confidence about my service grew I pretty much drank when I wanted whilst on call.

Fill yer boots.

Hmmm.....

I have a story about this and the T-SQL command DROP Database seeming very similar to the command DETACH Database...

If you work with SQL Server you know the outcome is very different. 😳

That reminds me of a cartoon. BEB

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I am paid whilst on call (an absolute pittance) and then am privileged enough to get my normal hourly rate if I'm actually called, regardless of when that is .

I don't have to go anywhere but last time I was called it was at 11pm after 2 large glasses of wine just as I was going to bed... I remained on the call until 7am and then rejoined it at 11am. I've never felt so utterly b*llocked in all my life ..

(Oh and unfortunately I know literally nothing about databases anymore but suspect the first reference might be on relation to a massive c0ck up by a b**k? )

BEB - sounds like it wasn't that after all .. Just as well really!

i try and keep it low key but after 3 hours in a war room (if you know what that is then know where I worked) I used to hit the wine if I was sure it wasn't a database problem. if the ****ers were going to keep me on a conf call all night I was going to make sure I was enjoying it 🙂

Not working for lloyds are we?

I'm on call this week.

I'm lucky enough that I get paid a retainer, plus overtime rate and a night supplement if I get called out, so I don't push my luck, its no beer for one week in four 🙁

If I get called out its often all night, physical work outside starting with heavy cabling and getting covered in mud, then delicate splicing of optic fibres, so even ignoring the driving element, alcohol wouldn't really help! The hardest bit is the mind numbing hour or two of hanging about at 4am waiting for confirmation its fixed before we can go home!

My last callout, dirty cabling work already done when I got to this one 🙂
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Difficult one this... Nah not really, just dig out your contract and there's yours answer. How radical is that...

Spooky - fair enough really!

Patriot .. Contract eh? Hmmm.. Mine's very, very vague as are the "terms" of my on-call ..

I would never get drunk on-call but I reckon one or two would be ok..

I drink if whilst on call if I feel like it, just watch how much, drink slowly, enjoy. I don't have to drive either btw, just need to be able to do my work from the PC at home if required, remain compos mentis.

@Mantastic
🙂 I was but i valued my live to much and got the hell out.....miss it sometimes but at the end of the day rmy kids are only ever going to grow up once!

Contract? Heh! In all my years if being on call (and I still am now), I've never had a contractual agreement to do it. If I've had a few then so be it.

We had a telephony manager who would drink heavily every night. When a problem got to the point where he had to be called out to take a managerial decision he was hilarious. Dead aggressive, slurring, would drop off the call regularly to go and have a fag and then tell someone to eff off.

I hate being on call, the chance of me being called is small but it doesn't make it any easier. I avoid drinking and never sleep as well when I'm on call, I normally do 7 on 7 off on call but have just come off the back of 18 days on due to holiday. Thankfully some of the new guys will be trained up and competent enough to take over the on call work soon.

Nothing in contract about drinking HUH?! Then drink as much as you like FFS.

Personally, I wouldn't unless I had a drink problem...

I'm on call pretty much 24/7 365 but its very rare I have to go in, mostly talking people through doing something.
I have talked people through 415v panel stuff whilst on the outside of 2 bottles of wine, perhaps that's more a poor reflection of me drinking too much on a regular basis?

My wife often says "how do you manage to talk tech @ 3am 10 seconds after the phone rings"?
I guess 23 years of being on call trains your mind like that!

As above I'm nominally on call 24-7 with the day job (IT for a small company where there is no-one else to do it). No issues with having a few beers at the weekend when worst case scenario is logging in to bounce a server or to talk someone through setting up a printer.

I'm a retained firefighter during the week though - would really not consider drinking when on call for that.

Pfft - remember getting called out to the M62 around 15 years ago to sort out the lighting on the motorway that had failed - I was smashed on E's and whizz and the job was 60 miles from home. Sorted it and went back home to carry on my session with the Mrs at 3am.

As long as you don't have to drive anywhere, I'd drink whatever you feel comfortable with. Just ensure you can think straight, keep cool and not slur. The advice I had from my boss many moons ago when first going on call was whatever you do, don't slur 🙂

Thankfully not on call anymore. Longest stint non stop was 36h - by that point you may as well be drunk. I'd not have wanted to have started those types of calls pished....