On call

[BabylonElf]

AIBU To refuse to go on the "on call" rota if/when I return to work?

On call would be once a week and one wknd in 4 from Friday 5.30pm to Monday 9am.

If I get a call out, I have to travel 30 miles to the lab, pack up lifesaving blood products, wait for a courier to collect them and then drive 30 miles home. All for £30 a call out.

I did it previously and was happy to be on call until I was 34 weeks pregnant with dc3.

I'm due to return to work end of January. DS is still EBF (and weaning) but I breastfeed him minimum of 4 times in 24 hours.

DH is a self employed plumber and is on call for plumbing emergencies 24/7.
He is also main breadwinner.

The likelihood of us both being called out at the same time is very slim, I realise that, but my DCs come first and in the event that we did both get called out in the middle of the night or otherwise, I wouldn't be happy having to drag them on a 60 mile round trip. There's no way they could go with DH either.

I happened to mention this to a colleague today at a mutual friends birthday party, and she just looked daggers at me

It's a massive bone of contention with her anyway as she is the person who gets called when anything goes wrong, but AIBU to refuse to do this?

It depends if it's voluntary or something you are contracted to do.

I do on call once every 8 weeks. I hate it but i do it as it is part of my job. If you are contractually obliged to do it then you will have little choice. If you can choose to do it or not then it is up to you but i am guessing it won't make you popular with your colleagues.

It's in our contracts but not something we're paid for IYSWIM?

I only get paid if I get called out, a callout is a minimum of 2.5 hours (usually 4) and i get an extra £30 - if I don't get called out, I get paid nothing, yet I'm not allowed to travel more than an hour away from the lab for the duration of the on call period.

She looked daggers at you because someone's got to cover so you not wanting to do it, means she will have to do more. Possibly at the expense of her family. If it's part of the job, you'll have to do it.

Is it not something you are contractually obliged to do? Surely you refusing to do it would make things harder for your colleagues (in as much as they would have to do it more)

I only get travel allowance if i am called out, no call out fee but i do it as it is part of my job. If i am called out i could be out for hours. I think you are being very unreasonable tbh.

You could ask.

Ask them to pay you for being 'on call' - DH has to do it and because he is, technically, available to them at any time during the on call period he has to stay sober, be contactable, be within a short distance of the workplace - it's all an inconvenience and therefore they are paid for doing an on call shift whether they are called out or not. If they are called out it attracts extra pay.

You either want the job or you don't. You don't get to cherry pick the bits you want and let some other poor bugger pick up your slack. Yabu

I'm on maternity leave at the moment, so I was a bit when I got the daggers.

I will ask the HR department for their view before I arrange my return. If I were to ask, or even mention to, my boss, she would get very arsey :(

She was very arsey over me being taken off the rota at 34 weeks pregnant, even though I worked until 39 weeks. I had to ask HR to do another risk assessment and then bring up lone working protocols. I told my boss I felt very vulnerable in a deserted lab in the middle of the night on my own.

She told me I wasn't the first woman to have had a baby

My colleague whom I saw today has no DH or DCs, but that is irrelevant. Having no family doesn't mean she should be covering everyone else's workload.

If you can no longer fulfil the role you are required to do, then you will have to leave your job. There is a reason it's in the contract. You say you don't get paid for it, but if you get a salary then you do get paid for it.

You can't expect to pick and choose the bits of the job you want to do. You either do the whole job or not at all. Otherwise your colleagues will be forced to pick up your slack, and I can't believe you would actually consider doing that.

you should do your share if its part of your job. why should it be dumped on everyone else

Tbh it's not about being paid to be on call, it's the actual logistical constraints of being called out if DH is also on a callout.

I get what you're saying about cherry picking the best bits, it really isn't like that, though I appreciate it seems like it is.

I am salaried, but as I pointed out to boss and HR, if you divide my monthly or even annual salary by the hours I work and a,m on call, then I am on well below the minimum wage :(

It doesn't just seem like it is, that's how it actually is, whether you mean it to be that way or not.

The consequences for your colleagues will be the same, even if you don't intend it to come across as you are expecting special treatment just because you're having a baby, that is what you are doing.

It's things like this that make employers understandably wary of taking on women who are likely to want children.

I used to work in theatres, with an on-call rota.

We got around £2 per hour stand-by, then 1.5x pay for hours worked, 2x on Sunday. We also got Mileage paid (or if we'd been working for too long and it was unsafe to drive, rarely, a taxi).

Oh come on. You managed it when you had 2 children! It is no more logistically constraining with 3

Sounds like a bit of an excuse.

Yabvu

Why should others have to do more on call because you don't want to?

Yes, I think sadly YWBU. The question is, how often is it really, truly, likely to happen that you and your DH are both called out at once? If it is likely to be very infrequent, either you would have to take the DCs with you or alternatively is there a friend who you could drop them with? If you're talking a once a year emergency, that's very different to a once a month situation.

Second question - is the lab (ie the 30 mile trip) where you normally work? Because I guess in that case maybe the real problem is living so far from work - is there any chance you could move nearer if your DH works all over the place? (Depends I guess whether you rent or own)

I don't want to put upon other colleagues, however they have managed the rota perfectly well since I was 34 weeks pregnant, and could continue to, though I do get the point.

This is a deciding factor in whether I return to the job or not tbh.

What has your contingency plan been in the past just in case both you and DH are called out at the same time?

I managed it when I had 2 children as DH was a SAHD. He went back to full time self employment when I went on ML with dc3.

"they have managed the rota perfectly well since I was 34 weeks pregnant, and could continue to"

but, they'll each be on call more often - which will affect their lives.

Maybe the answer is that the job isn't suitable any more?

however they have managed the rota perfectly well since I was 34 weeks pregnant, and could continue to, though I do get the point

Your attitude is astounding! They coped because they were forced to, and because it was temporary, not because it was fair!

It's never been an issue previously as DH was a SAHD. He has only taken up doing 24/7 emergency call outs since I started ML.