Do you have kids? hobbies? friends? Do you like to go fishing on weekends? Do you like to go out on a date on weeknights? Do you like going to visit family on Christmas and Thanksgiving and leaving your laptop at home? It's great explaining to your 11 year old that you can't go to their recital because your on call isn't it?
It boggles my mind that you suggest people lose skills by not using them often enough... these on call rotations aren't skills.
What's weird, is that we default to look at the goodness or badness of something purely on "skills" and "money".
Yes.. yes.. we've all read the SRE book and understand Googles approach to flexibility - but... it doesn't have to be that way.
Ask yourself.. what's next? What are you looking to do after 25 years of being on call? Will you still enjoy it?
I'll never have those nights and weekends back that I spent being on call for products and services that don't exist anymore. Sure, I made some money - but it didn't have to be at such a great cost.
It boggles my mind that you suggest people lose skills by not using them often enough... these on call rotations aren't skills.
What's weird, is that we default to look at the goodness or badness of something purely on "skills" and "money".
Yes.. yes.. we've all read the SRE book and understand Googles approach to flexibility - but... it doesn't have to be that way.
Ask yourself.. what's next? What are you looking to do after 25 years of being on call? Will you still enjoy it?
I'll never have those nights and weekends back that I spent being on call for products and services that don't exist anymore. Sure, I made some money - but it didn't have to be at such a great cost.