Did you have a job where you had to be available 24/7?

[forinborin]

Oh wise mumsnetters,

I have a job offer (well, temp, for a few months only), and one of the requirements is a fully flexible schedule within 24 hours due to the international nature of the business.
As in, I was warned that there would be work calls happening at 5 am and at 10-11 pm, could be on the same day, and not scheduled far in advance, weekends sometimes included if deadlines are threatened. Otherwise they are prepared to be flexible on the schedule (so I can take off a couple hours off during the day if I am up to date with everything).

I really need the job and the income now (the day rate is quite good), but have some reservations about the working hours. I have previous experience of working with colleagues in different time zones, but never to this extreme.

Wanted to ask for your experience if you had worked like this - is it feasible? What works, what doesn't? Any tips on structuring the work day? Two young ( KS1) children here, single parent.

My job is a bit like this. We don’t have start or finish time, we work in hours and not days. I like it as the flexibility works both ways. Whilst I may be needed at 10pm for a call, I may not be needed between 3-5pm. I do gave the ability to say nothing’s, if I’m busy or can’t do something. My company is very family friendly, but does expect you to be able to do things like that at short notice sometimes.

My other half lived like this for a while. It was fine until my SC were a bit older and I felt like I was never able to factor him in to our plans if you see what I mean. As an example, it could be he'd been up for a 6.30am client meeting with an international client and he'd be asked to chair a meeting with a client in China at midnight that night because the project necessitated it so didn't come home after work.

Now we're all working remotely this would have been a lot easier.

Do you have any flexibility with child care or support? There will be some days where things crop up and you'll feel like you're doing a rubbish job with whichever side (job/kids) you're not focusing on that day. If you can give yourself a break and not a mental bashing that will help!

It sounds like they'll try to support you to make it work. Congratulations on the offer.

@Racoonworld

My job is a bit like this. We don’t have start or finish time, we work in hours and not days. I like it as the flexibility works both ways. Whilst I may be needed at 10pm for a call, I may not be needed between 3-5pm. I do gave the ability to say nothing’s, if I’m busy or can’t do something. My company is very family friendly, but does expect you to be able to do things like that at short notice sometimes.

Thank you for the answer! Yes, I can also appreciate the flexibility. I am just a little bit concerned that it will blend the work life and the home life completely.

@Jobsharenightmare
Thank you for sharing the experience. Unfortunately no childcare or support here - the school itself opens on the 8th, but the before / after school clubs won't yet. Will need to put some arrangements in place - presumably only a nanny would realistically work in this case - and also not quite sure how to set the working hours for her. And you are right, I probably need to be a bit easier on myself too.

You need to be able to say no if you really can’t do it. We use our calendars a lot, and block out times so that when people schedule meetings they know when we’re free. You have to be quite disciplined to be able to keep a good home life and not let work take over.

I’d say that if you’re the type of person who wants a proper finish time and then to switch off and not take any work home then the job probably isn’t for you. We’ve had many people start and leave quite quickly because they didn’t get in well with it. But the ones who do stay, stay for many years because it has its benefits if you enjoy that kind of working. There isn’t a right or wrong it’s just how you prefer to work.

My dh does, however it is on a rota basis, it has improved recently as previously it was every other week, but now it is 4 weekly and there are 2 colleagues who work on call together, as his counterpart is in US they have agreed to be primary contact during certain hours to enable sleep, however it is entirely possible that he could have to jump on at any time day or night as this is an international company, eg if they have an emergency but colleague already on another issue.

He gets no extra pay or TIL for these extra hours and he is still on for his full day in the day. He wfh permanently though.

I’d say that if you’re the type of person who wants a proper finish time and then to switch off and not take any work home then the job probably isn’t for you
I am that kind of person (more or less), during the in-office days I preferred to stay late, rather than to bring work home to finish. This project is limited in time (definitely will wrap up before summer), it is just something to tide me over now.
I am just thinking whether I need to start changing my working habits now - the pandemic definitely made the home/work blend a new norm.

My job is sometimes like this (I work with people globally) in that I often agree to meetings at sort of any time, but I'm in control and if something does not work for me I can say no/reschedule it. I havent ever had to do things between 10pm and 6am, it's really not necessary as even with a 12h time difference you can do things at 7am/7pm or 8am/8pm or 9am/9pm etc

I benefit from the flexibility at other times, can work from home and am well paid though so it suits me.

I do also have days where I do not do any work unless its absolutely essential.it would have to be a real crisis for me to agree to a meeting on a weekend- it's happened once in a decade.

How would childcare work though? If you're on a 6am call and your child wakes up and wants breakfast, how do you keep them from interrupting you? What if you need to take a call during the school run? I could see it with older children maybe.

It depends on the age of your DCs and home setup, and how much you get and enjoy flexibility throughout the day to counteract this.

One of my former jobs was like this and it was stressful, because with younger kids I'd wake them up by accident and couldn't trust them to read or watch TV for an hour call early, and then the late calls were nice for a while as I'd leave early and eat dinner at home with the family, but then I realised that I was getting no real down time at home.

For my next job I've chosen something with some flexibility but fewer international links.

I worked for a utility company and was on call for the control room about once a week on a rota basis. You could be lucky enough to get a quiet weekday evening and not be called to come in but you could also be rostered to do Christmas day and be asked to be on site within 30 minutes).
The pay was good though. Your regular rate for the time of day, an allowance just for being on standby, an additional allowance if you got called in, your overtime rate from the moment you got the call until you had completed your job and were back at home plus TOIL if you had less than 8 hours until the start of your next day shift.

I only gave it up when I started a family.

I have found my day has morphed into this since WFH. I work with global partners and they know where I am all the time now.

I walk the kids to school (when it’s open) and have a smart phone with me for emergency stuff but I block out my shared calendar for anytime where I really can’t be available. If you think you can do the same for important non-work stuff then go for it if it’s short term. You do need to be able to juggle meetings with bedtimes and getting dinner ready etc. but it’s not impossible if the core times when you really can’t help are ring fenced for you.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

My job is sometimes like this (I work with people globally) in that I often agree to meetings at sort of any time, but I'm in control and if something does not work for me I can say no/reschedule it. I havent ever had to do things between 10pm and 6am, it's really not necessary as even with a 12h time difference you can do things at 7am/7pm or 8am/8pm or 9am/9pm etc

I benefit from the flexibility at other times, can work from home and am well paid though so it suits me.

Thank you. I don't think I will be able to have a lot of control re the meeting timing here, as it is the role where I will need to fill in the existing gaps to bring the current international project to the final stage... with key senior stakeholders in China, India, Aus+NZ, east and west coast of the US.

@dreamingbohemian

How would childcare work though? If you're on a 6am call and your child wakes up and wants breakfast, how do you keep them from interrupting you? What if you need to take a call during the school run? I could see it with older children maybe.

Yes, that's what stops me now, and I need to accept or reject before the end of today. Maybe a live-in nanny for short term could be a solution (but not sure how financially feasible this is).

I'd hate a job like that, but I guess it depends how much money is left once a nanny is paid for.

@OverTheRubicon

It depends on the age of your DCs and home setup, and how much you get and enjoy flexibility throughout the day to counteract this.

One of my former jobs was like this and it was stressful, because with younger kids I'd wake them up by accident and couldn't trust them to read or watch TV for an hour call early, and then the late calls were nice for a while as I'd leave early and eat dinner at home with the family, but then I realised that I was getting no real down time at home.

For my next job I've chosen something with some flexibility but fewer international links.

Thank you. This is not the ideal job for me - I am not the greatest and natural-born time manager at all, I am just trying to decide on the basic feasibility of it for the short time until something better / more standard hours comes around.

The above suggestions of blocking personal time off in the work calendar are very helpful, thanks!

I walk the kids to school (when it’s open) and have a smart phone with me for emergency stuff but I block out my shared calendar for anytime where I really can’t be available. If you think you can do the same for important non-work stuff then go for it if it’s short term. You do need to be able to juggle meetings with bedtimes and getting dinner ready etc. but it’s not impossible if the core times when you really can’t help are ring fenced for you.
This is very helpful, thank you.

@rookiemere

I'd hate a job like that, but I guess it depends how much money is left once a nanny is paid for.

This I don't even know, because I am not sure yet how / where to look for a nanny with such schedule, and not pay a fortune for it. I had one a couple of years before, but it was easier - office hours + commute time + overtime if agreed before or in an emergency.

If it's just taking phone calls and possibly doing a bit of paperwork I wouldn't have any problem with this. I have had jobs where I have had to be available 24/7 to go to work and do the thing I do for a day job. Now that is a PITA especially when you are only getting paid £50 for it.

Yes, I was a resident estate manager on call and site 24/7, wouldn’t do it now that I have children. I could get called for important things or silly things that definitely weren’t my job like walking the landowners dogs or getting them biscuits from town.

I've used to have to be available for calls at any point in the day/night - there were only 2 of us globally who could provide support for a product (and one of us was always out of the country). Fortunately as we weren't paid for being on call, there was an understanding that we did our best but sometimes would be somewhere noisy - I did a support call from a tent at a beer festival once.
Now I work with people all round the world and am expected to be very flexible, but can put limits on it - so my day starts with the far east meetings, but I'll only get up stupidly early for an important customer not internal meetings. Equally I routinely do 7pm meetings, but any later than that is only for customers and by arrangement.

I block my calendar for anything important (like swimming in normal times, and to get out at lunchtime at the moment) and I appreciate the flexibility in return - I'm permanently home based but do normally travel as well.

I'm in the police and a trained hostage negotiator so if I'm on call I guess it's the same principle. Never heard of this though! Do you have kids?