Team lead got mad I didn't call back someone who didn't leave a VM while I'm on call
Posted by TryARebootFool@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 125 comments
I've participated in on call over two different companies over the past 6 years.
This call was at 3am where I woke up on the last ring before I could answer it. Not only that it came from a Texas area code and we are in a Noth state.
I get so many spam calls these days I don't call back numbers unless they leave a VM. This person did not. They instead sent messages to my team lead asking for a PW reset at 3am after I didn't answer.
If they would have left a VM I would have called back. I waited about 10 minutes to see if a VM came through or if they called back.. nothing.
What do you guys do? Over 6 years I've never had an issue because the employee has always created a ticket, left a VM or called back.
boli99@reddit
users should never ever be calling your personal phone, nor have any knowledge of the number
there are multiple services which can act as a go-between and handle things like escalation on non-answer - sounds like you need one.
VMs are the tool of the devil. folk leave a VM and then assume that its been heard and acted upon - which is a flawed assumption at best.
Strange_Compote_2951@reddit
My phone is set to do not disturb mode from 23:00 to 7:00
Loan-Pickle@reddit
Why are users calling your phone directly? They should be opening a ticket which in turns triggers something like Pager Duty. It will call you multiple times and automatically escalate if you don’t respond.
TryARebootFool@reddit (OP)
They call the Helpdesk which rolls over to an on call tech after hours.
Last company I worked for had 24 hour SD that would call L2 if it's a work stoppage that they couldn't figure out. Now I'm in a lot smaller company.
BlackV@reddit
So if you are on call then, yes 100% you should have called back
They should have left a voice mail though
424f42_424f42@reddit
No message. Assumed spam.
No email as well? So there's nothing going on.
blade740@reddit
I was thinking the same thing. If you're being paid to be on call, via phone, and your phone rings, you gotta answer it. Not that the user is entirely blameless here, they also should have followed protocol and left a voicemail rather than going up the ladder immediately.
But it sounds like OP took a gamble, that the out of state number that called at 3am and didn't leave a voicemail was spam and not a legitimate help desk call. And it backfired, not only was it a real user, but then they immediately contacted his supervisor so OP got chewed out for it.
It sucks, but on call always sucks. That's the job.
AlexisFR@reddit
Honestly sleeping during on call ours is also unprofessional.
Hi_Im_Ken_Adams@reddit
Password resets are one of the easiest things in the world to automate. Low-level tasks like that are precisely the things you should automate and not wake a person up at 3:00am in the morning to do.
ILikeFPS@reddit
Waking someone up at 3am for a password reset is the most entitled thing I've ever heard lmao I can't imagine this request would have come from anyone other than some form of management lmao
wazza_the_rockdog@reddit
Not always management, previous company the normal everyday user was the worst at abusing on-call for non on call worthy issues. Worst was a user who called at some stupidly early hour because they couldn't print colour at their nearest printer - they could still print b&w on that one, or walk upstairs to one that was able to print colour, but still decided to do an early morning call for that.
Viharabiliben@reddit
I would not allow password reset calls after hours. If you can’t figure out the self service password reset after hours, too bad. That only affects you, wait until the morning and talk to level one. I don’t care if you’re the Senior Executive Managing VP.
TryARebootFool@reddit (OP)
I automated the helpdesk ticket system last week for this scenario. If the user followed directions and submitted a ticket with the key words of the system they needed a pw reset in they would have been sent instructions.
Hi_Im_Ken_Adams@reddit
You probably have to idiot-proof the intake-form by forcing them to populate fields via drop-down values. Have the form make a call to Active Directory to pull their LDAP ID or whatever. Or have the form auto-populate the ID when they create it.
kjeserud@reddit
Doesn't matter how great your form is, if the user doesn't bother with it, but their system still allows for on call to be called directly. And when that failed, they still didn't create a ticket, but messaged the team lead instead. A failure of both training and from the user.
lotekjunky@reddit
the lesson here is never try
Jtrickz@reddit
Get techs out of that. Send the SD to voicemail and the voicemails come to an alert or email or something. Make it standard for after hours to leave your problem and contact information.
My org of 400 we had to do something similar as tier 3 on call was getting call like this once a week regularly
DJKaotica@reddit
Yeah I once slept through a call and it ended up being escalated to my backup, who just that week happened to be my direct boss, oops. I made sure my phone ringtone was at full volume going forward, and I was also able to edit the settings on our paging system to call me 5 separate times before it will give up and call my backup.
Carribean-Diver@reddit
This. End users shouldn't be phoning on call techs. There should be a tech agnostic process that kicks of an alert escalation process based on urgency. There are many available solutions for this.
OP's lead is upset about the unreturned call, but the real failure was management setting everyone up with a process that is doomed to failure.
blade740@reddit
Both can be true. Yes, it's a fact that this company's processes could be better designed so that things like this aren't an issue. But at the same time, given that this is the system that was in place and the expectation that was set, OP lapsed in their job expectations.
Like, it's a valid criticism to make, of course. But it doesn't get OP off the hook for not following up on the call.
End0rphinJunkie@reddit
Exactly this. Direct dialing a cell is definetly going to lead to missed alerts with how much spam is out there now. Management needs to put PagerDuty or Opsgenie in front of that process.
Allokit@reddit
This is the answer, and if your company has something where user have a direct dial to you when your on call, thats messed up. No client should ever have your personal number. This company is either too cheap, or too stupid to invest in an actual after hours solution and it will only get worse.
Head-Appointment-698@reddit
My company doesn’t do it because calling off an escalation list has always worked before. But ya they are just now getting pager duty set up after twenty years.
Broad-Celebration-@reddit
Yeah this is how my teams have always handled this. It goes down your escalation tree until somebody is able to respond to the alert. Very convenient and gives you some easily configured redundancy.
cruising_backroads@reddit
After, being a SysAdmin since the late 1980s... I have some rules:
1- off hours calls are for emergencies. A Password reset is not an emergency.
2- if you don't leave a voicemail, you didn't call. full stop
3- my phone doesn't ring for unknown numbers. The only number(s) that ring are the known phone numbers of the NOC and IT managers.
4- I'm not an after hours helpdesk. There had better be a legit production emergency. Not being able to deploy new code to QA is not an emergency.
I've many more rules... but that's the basic jist. I've never had a problem.
iama_bad_person@reddit
As a 24 hour business, password resets are 100% an emergency and definitely fall under our on call umbrella. That and internet being down at any of our sites. Other than that we don't help.
cruising_backroads@reddit
So you're saying a business critical process relays on a user's password? Ok.. wow.
sir_mrej@reddit
At a hospital when a doctor on third shift has to login and do their job, and they're a moron who can't remember their password, yes.
Source: I was helpdesk. Getting woken up at 3am. For passwords.
cruising_backroads@reddit
Hospitals should have 24/7 onsite staff. Not having that is just pointing out a failure in the healthcare system.
wazza_the_rockdog@reddit
A hospital is very much a 24x7 environment, and some staff won't work normal business hours for potentially weeks at a time - it's stupid for them to not have a 24x7 helpdesk.
I think any business that wants BAU work (like password resets) to be done 24x7 needs to have a normally staffed 24x7 helpdesk, not an on-call person.
mahsab@reddit
What bubble are you living in that you don't need any people in the processes?
techierealtor@reddit
#2 was part of our service desk policy for escalation. Chat doesn’t count, text doesn’t count, calling and hanging up doesn’t count. A call with a voicemail is the only approved way to escalate after hours. Not everyone can reach their phone or wake up in time to answer it.
If you called and didn’t leave a voicemail, my techs weee instructed to standby for 5 minutes and then go back to their life. We had full call recording from our call center too so I knew if you left a voicemail (both sides are held liable).
spin81@reddit
I used to call people for a living as a tier 2 support person and anyone who's ever been in a similar situation can tell you that this is 100% accurate. What I would do is first wait a minute or so and try again, because usually these customers would be waiting for me to call them. 4 out of 5 times I'd catch them on the second try.
VplDazzamac@reddit
Yeah this is normal. I have PagerDuty now, but in a previous role we had a 24x7 SD which called us for any outages or escalations. Standard rule was try 2-3 times before trying the backline guy.
logicalkitten@reddit
If they don’t put in a ticket, I will watch them burn. I’ll work on a resolution as soon as I know about an issue, but if there is no ticket I’m not reaching out to the affected user.
theRealFatTony@reddit
Also, call once, if no-one answers wait 10 mins and call a 2nd time, wait 10 mins and only after that if no-one has called back can you escalate
not_so_wierd@reddit
Personally, I -loove- password reset issues when I'm on call.
It's 5 minutes of work but I still get to log 3 hours worked at 200% pay. It's in the union contract.
If my boss has a problem with the cost, they need to talk with the department that made the call and make sure they only use the phone number for actual emergencies in the future.
Carribean-Diver@reddit
That's perfectly reasonable until some self-entitled mid-level twat whines to an arrogant and spineless executive that the reason they missed their arbitrary project deadline is because they had some major technical issue (too drunk to remember their password) at 2:00 in the morning and IT was no where to be found.
cobarbob@reddit
Then your manager goes and calls that behaviour out. If you’re a tech you do the tech as best you can. If you manager you stand up for your people. That’s why you get paid the big bucks. IT isn’t there to be everyone’s bitch
Carribean-Diver@reddit
Spoken with the true conviction of someone who hasn't worked in a high stakes ($$$$) politically charged corporate work environment.
In a perfect world, you're right. When you work in an environment that works like that, it's great. Unfortunately, most people don't work in a perfect world.
slocs1@reddit
We have a production, so that might not be true, but at least VM or 2-3 calls is what a user needs to do before they complain
Liquidennis@reddit
5 - your procrastination does not constitute my emergency. 😉
bobmlord1@reddit
One time someone got mad at me because I told them to print in the room on the other side of the hallway with a working printer.
miscdebris1123@reddit
I isn't know bobmlord1 was my alt account...
Ur-Best-Friend@reddit
You aren't know that? Unusual....
UpperAd5715@reddit
i have two printed out complaint mails that had some manager of my manager or higher in CC hanging on the wall behind me between a "no idling, turn off your engine" sign and a meme that implies that people who like microslop teams are having a stroke
ApolloMorph@reddit
you cant be responsible for a process that isnt documented period. if there is none you didnt miss anything. if its they leave a voicemail so be it, if its they keep calling so be it etc. there should be no question what is the responsibility of each party as it should be clearly documented. thats all that matters.
mahsab@reddit
They were on call and they didn't either respond or follow up.
redittr@reddit
Call the guy back during business hours when you think hes most likely to be asleep, and apologise for missing his call. Thatll get you in the good books with your boss.
Le_Vagabond@reddit
do you not have a specific on call work phone and / or number?
if that one rings, answer it. if it's your personal phone, feel free to ignore it.
TryARebootFool@reddit (OP)
Not a company phone. We use our personal phones with a softphone installed. We are assigned a number.
Users are instructed to call the helpdesk which after hours it routes to whoever is on call.
I just got a call at 1am for a similar issue. The thing is that call rang through the app properly and the user left a voicemail.
After looking into it more last night's user must have called me directly because there was no report of a missed call for that number to the helpdesk.
Le_Vagabond@reddit
point that out then, if they didn't call the on call number you never missed an on call call.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation
TheFumingatzor@reddit
3am passwort reset isn't an emergency, get fucked bruv.
tejanaqkilica@reddit
Ooooh, ohhhh a Voicemail. Now your post makes sense. All the times I was reading it as "They didn't leave a Virtual Machine".
Dang what a rough morning.
c1u5t3r@reddit
Same here ;-)
geekywarrior@reddit
Offer solutions: - Calling Helpdesk afterhours should first drop to an auto attendant that explains how the after hours support works. Pressing 1 allows them to leave a non urgent vm in the standard box. Pressing 2 pages an on call tech and the user needs to leave a voicemail if the on call tech does not answer right away.
same as above except pressing 2 makes user leave a voice mail in after hours box that gets emailed to the appropriate tech and then an alert is sent via text or similar.
if after hours is really important, a proper contract to a call service is made. Then the auto attendant can route to the call center who has 24x7 staffing to pick up the phone, take the message, then call the appropriate tech with the message. This enforces the voicemail left to tech and allows call center ability to call over and over. Also can filter out non emergencies.
GrapefruitOne1648@reddit
At 3am? Absofuckinglutely nothing. I don't care if the building is on fire. We have redundancies onsite and we have backups offsite.
A password reset is never an emergency and the user would get laughed at for thinking it was worth waking someone up for.
I'll respond to on-call before 9pm or after 7am if it's a work stoppage affecting an entire group of users, anything affecting just one can wait.
Your management needs to train your users, what they expect from you - 24hr availability - is asinine
RobbyBurgers@reddit
24 hour availability should absolutely be enforced if you are supporting a 24 hour operation/global operation. Believe it or not, production issues resulting in money being lost happens all of the time.
Its up to your IT leadership to define how that emergency line/on call agent should be used.
GrapefruitOne1648@reddit
If it's that important to the business they can staff a NOC.
It's absolutely inhumane to expect any one person to be available at all times.
RobbyBurgers@reddit
My man. We have an on call rotation. It's about once every 6 weeks and we get 2 days PTO for each time we are on call for the week (on top of regular PTO). It's not inhumane at all lol
LivingstonPerry@reddit
Oh voicemail, not virtual machine.
vogelke@reddit
You are 100% right. No voicemail, no callback. I don't want some spammer to know he got a working number.
godspeedfx@reddit
You waited 10 minutes to see if they left a VM when you could have checked if the number belonged to anyone in your directory in 1 minute. You're on call, why else would you be getting a call at that hour?
I'd be annoyed too if I was your team lead and had to deal with that, lol.
texcleveland@reddit
If they don’t leave a voicemail, it’s not important.
godspeedfx@reddit
Yeah, I operate the same way, but I also don't ignore context clues.. on call, 3am call.. it's not that complicated.
texcleveland@reddit
if they can’t be bothered to leave a message, I can’t be bothered to call them back. That’s context.
halodude423@reddit
Not sure why a personal # would be in my workplace directory....
godspeedfx@reddit
I mean if they are using it for work, it doesnt seem like a personal number..
halodude423@reddit
The # the person called on was a random texas external #, i'm on call a week a month and we use our personal cells along with a pager. Easily could get calls outside of that time from some external vendor Dr. trying to get a reset or MFA help.
godspeedfx@reddit
I mean I get it.. I just guess I'm not normal, haha. I would have called the number back and if it was spam, hang up and go back to sleep. I wouldn't be waiting up to see if a voicemail came through in the middle of the night XD
TryARebootFool@reddit (OP)
I checked, and the number didn’t match anyone in the directory. I appreciate the assumption, though. Maybe focus on your retention rate instead.
godspeedfx@reddit
I wasn't trying to be rude - I apologize if it came across that way, just working with the info you provided. If your team lead is worth his salt, he'll see this as a process failure and take steps to change the process so it doesn't happen again. It's not that serious if it's a one time thing.
TryARebootFool@reddit (OP)
All good, I get your point now. Appreciate the clarification.
vomitvolcano@reddit
Nah. No voicemail, no issue. If a user has an emergency that needs after hours support then they can leave a voicemail. Otherwise it's not important.
CKtravel@reddit
I was on call at the last company I've worked at and the policy has been to always call back a number if we missed a call.
CleverCarrot999@reddit
It shouldn’t be a direct phone call tbh. The help desk like voicemail should pick up and say “if you believe your issue qualifies for an after-hours callout, press 9 to mark it as urgent” or whatever. Then the system calls/texts you until you press whatever number to acknowledge it. And you can manually call into the help desk line and check the voicemail.
phillymjs@reddit
This. The MSP where I used to work had an answering service. They would take the client call, get the pertinent information, and then start working their way down the phone list until someone answered (the on-call guy for that week was always first on the list).
This was a much better system because the phone call is always answered immediately, plus it gives the tech a few minutes to fully wake up and sit down at their computer before calling back, rather than going from dead asleep to instantly dealing with a client.
JoeyJoeC@reddit
When I worked for an MSP, I got put on call 24/7 without extra pay. I was an idiot for accepting that. My boss got mad when I didnt have reception and couldn't answer the phone.
He even got mad at me when I didnt pick up the phone one morning during my commute into the office on the London Underground when I didnt have signal.
BlazneeX@reddit
Is everyone a bleeding idiot? Phones are not toxic. They don't explode with use.
You are on-call and are expected to follow up. Why would you not simply call back? It's fucking faster that waiting 10 minutes.
FlurryJK2@reddit
Because it's 3 am and they probably want to go back to sleep and not work on a dumb password reset
BlackV@reddit
They don't know it's "dumb password reset" unless they call back....
BlackV@reddit
Agree
Droghan@reddit
Nah man if the impacted user doesn't leave a voice mail or call back it must not be important. If it was important they would call back or leave a message.
With phone numbers being all over the States, numbers belonging to bot callers or wrong numbers I'm not playing phone tag at 3 am. Leave a voice message, VMs are not toxic.
BlazneeX@reddit
The user isn't getting paid for his time.
cantholdmedown4@reddit
Uhh they probably are yeah. Why else would they need a work pw reset?
Droghan@reddit
It's clear we are never going to agree on this, have a great night.
Inquisitive_idiot@reddit
Agreed
Inquisitive_idiot@reddit
Thanks for noticing, but I don’t understand where you’re coming from.
Phone calls/SMS are a massive fucking liability. You can take down an entire enterprise with some great phishing.
This user interaction did not fit the pattern across six years of call volume, and it would have been trivial for the end user to fit the correct pattern by simply calling back or leaving a voicemail.
This company is just asking for it by expecting a trusted resource reach out to a - by default - less trusted resource without any sort of proof of whether it was a legitimate call. At the minimum you’re leaking information to / wasting time with spammers/spammers, and beyond that, you’re really opening yourself up to all sorts of problems like tying up the line when someone legitimate calls up, social engineering, and more.
A good manager would have not only pushed back on this non-problem but also had their direct report’s back.
The employer has a poor system in place (or has one in place and doesn’t enforce it) and their leadership doesn’t stand up for their staff.
BlazneeX@reddit
Excuses. This can all be verified after you've established contact. Cope to not have to use a phone.
You don't even know their procedures.
Inquisitive_idiot@reddit
Once again, thanks for noticing. It is intentional aversion to using pstn when it is such a liability.
Yes, I don’t know their procedures, but neither do you.
If this were my direct report, I would have had their back and I would urge my employer to come up with a better policy or at least route calls from two and from the same number and require users to leave a voicemail.
Having random calls come in and not expecting the collar to leave, a voicemail is ridiculous.
Hell, having an open emergency line that already has a single person as a choke point respond to every unsolicited call is shortsighted.
TryARebootFool@reddit (OP)
It's an estimate. I'm not calling back a number that's not in our directory without a voicemail or follow up call.
I get enough spam calls as is.
cmndctrl@reddit
you goofed.
JONNy-G@reddit
Sounds like a policy issue if your team lead thinks it's okay for them to bypass the system like that.
My company had a system where you intentionally wouldn't answer the call (customers understood this) so that a pre-recorded message could play that walked the customer through the info we needed to get back to them (and their ticket that needed to be submitted first).
This solved the no voicemail issue, and when it did inevitably happen we were told it's fine to ignore.
It was a robust system, but it held up and I actually prefer that now as it gave us time to get to the phone/computer instead of having us freak out over missing a call at 3am...
jcpham@reddit
No voicemail = no callback
Why tf are users calling at 3am for password resets, seems dangerous. Like exactly the time to social engineer a half asleep person.
Ferretau@reddit
When I was doing on call - if the caller didn't leave a message then it wasn't a after hours call. As far as the calling numbers back unless you have been told to return calls and it's a work phone I wouldn't. Check your on call policy and see what it says. If it's not on there and this is the first time then I would explain the situation and outline what the process was you were following. If they expect you to be finger on the answer button at 3am then depending on how much you get paid for on call it may or may not be worth it.
foxfire1112@reddit
This is about training the users. There's no job on this planet that you should expect a call back if you dont leave a message or a follow up email.
Rand_alThor_@reddit
Are we in the 80s? Who needs to be called at 3 am to reset a password
planedrop@reddit
I've been on call 365 days a year for 8 years (this isn't an exaggeration), every single person in the company knows if it's an actual emergency they have to keep calling on repeat or I won't take it seriously. My phone auto ignores the first 2 calls during sleep anyway.
techierealtor@reddit
I let my techs, boss and call center through - everyone else is silent and made it really clear that if something isn’t wrong when you call, you will have hell to pay… tomorrow.
Our call center was advised to use a specific number to call so that we don’t have to whitelist a ton of numbers.
planedrop@reddit
To be fair I work in a small org so they have my cell number which is why I have it set to ignore the first 2 repeat calls. I figure if prod is down they will just keep calling and I've instructed them all to do so.
I feel you though, I've been woken up for minor issues before and it's infuriating.
Ssakaa@reddit
On one hand, I'm effectively 24/7 on call... on the other, I'm not directly "user facing" and the services I'm top of that call list for are very much IT folks facing. And they still go through a first line service desk that identifies if it's a "right now" or "tomorrow" problem before they start making calls off of that list. In three years, I've had calls maybe half a dozen times, and only one of those was blatantly "You mean to tell me all of these unrelated systems are down, and you didn't call the networking team yet?"
PrincipleExciting457@reddit
Looks like I’m in the minority here. I have the same habits during my personal time. when I’m on call I answer my phone full stop though. It’s my responsibility to make sure I’m taking care of things.
If you were in my org, this would indeed reflect badly on you.
scrumclunt@reddit
Boy am I glad I don't work for your org. I'm never taking an unknown number at 3am unless I'm expecting it and/or it's mission critical. No VM no call back, simple as.
Nagroth@reddit
Random numbers are not legitimate calls. Full Stop.
I will put my direct supervisor (and his boss, etc.) into my phone in a group that will bypass DnD. If anyone else is paging me out it had damn well better be coming from a single, centralized outbound number. Which I also have in that same "work" group.
RobbyBurgers@reddit
I'm sorry but I'm glad I dont work in your organization. Holy fuck. There are numerous reason why people can miss emergency phone calls.
Superb_Raccoon@reddit
Consider this: no VM means it could have been a wrong #, SPAM call, a pollster, or an accidental dial.
Do they want to deal with that next?
They need a positive confirmation of the problem, not a random call from who knows who? Email, text,I'm, SOMETHING.
TheVideogaming101@reddit
Reading these comments made me realize oncall for sysadmins at my company is NOT normal lol
gurilagarden@reddit
I love these posts. Always filled with a hundred different suggestions that will lead you to unemployment. How about you do the job as required by the person that directly influences your employment. That's what I'd do. If I'm on call, and expected to take calls, I'd return calls I missed. If it's spam, you'll know immediately. If it's not spam, you then do your job, and keep the team lead off your ass. I don't know, seems like common sense to me. Don't like it, brush up your resume. Good luck in this economy.
_araqiel@reddit
If someone called me for a pastor reset at 3 AM when I was on call, I would tell them to go fuck themselves.
dmsmikhail@reddit
welcome to small-medium business.
enjoy the other duties as assigned.
CthulhuBathwater@reddit
Luckily for us, service desk takes the call, logs a ticket and we har an automated system depending on severity that calls us. Will call us ever 5 minutes until we accept the ticket.
If for some reason a user calls us directly, I'd take the call or call back. I work in a 24/7 operation, which is it's own beast.
SWZerbe100@reddit
We make it clear to all our users to leave a message, if you don’t leave a message when you don’t reach anyone then it isn’t important.
reubendevries@reddit
Password reset at 3AM? I’d be livid if I was your manager, that you’re forcing me to pay overtime to my on call person for a non emergency, this has better be a P1 incident, if it wasn’t heads would be rolling and it shouldn’t be anyone on call, whose heads should be rolling.
RobbyBurgers@reddit
You have to establish simple policies for your end users when calling the after hours emergency line.
An easy one start with is...leave a voicemail if nobody answers and a tech will call you back in "x" amount of minutes.
techierealtor@reddit
Agreed, ours was call, vm, wait 10, repeat twice and escalate to me. It was very very rare I slept through the first call when escalated - which only happened a few times.
tuxnine@reddit
Not leaving a voice mail and expecting you to know who called and the reason for the call is the equivalent of someone sending you a blank email from a personal email address and expecting the same.
jp88005@reddit
I worked on call for a helpdesk position. There was a call, like yours... I just didn't answer in time. The person calling thought they were more important than they actually were and decided they wanted to make an example out of me.
They waited until business hours to contact not my boss... but directly to the IT Director. Not his assistant, straight to Director.
Two things happened after they answered. The Director straight up asked if it was an emergency, why didn't they call back?
I couldn't call back, the call was routed through the trunk system, all I saw was the main number.
The second thing was changing the outgoing voicemail announcement. It now told the caller to leave a message with a callback number.
The employee that tried to grind an axe... didn't last long after that because they kept ruffling feathers and couldn't work well with others.
Thank you for probably the only positive thing I could have said about that Director.
Allokit@reddit
Give me your Team Leads personal phone number. I'm going to call him at 3am and leave a message about how fucking stupid this is.
AtriusC@reddit
Tbh it depends on what your company's after hours policy is.
Do you charge additionally for after hours or only take on requests that are of critical importance?
Personally I wouldn't be picking up the phone at that time but that's also because unless it's production critical which is almost never is, it's something that can typically wait regular business hours.
I wouldn't have waited for the voicemail, like someone said, if you really wanted to find out, check their number against whatever directory you have of all your users (ITGlue, ConnectWise, etc)
Most of these directories can be accessed via your phone even if it's not great, so it won't warrant getting out of bed to turn on your computer.
My company charges for after hours especially if it's a user request vs entire production server not running so assuming the call comes in and I confirm it's a user, I ask "Is this something that can wait until tomorrow morning or is this something that needs to be taken care of now?"
Typically you'll have your SLA for after hours, even if it's like a few hours, you can tell them "Currently I'm not by my computer, it'll be an hour before I get back." even if you're by your computer, which may discourage them from pursuing the request further.
Assuming they're okay with this, my next question is "Understood. Please note that this is an after hours fee and I will need to contact (Decision Maker) to approve this request. If I cannot get ahold of them, I cannot complete this request due to you not having the authorization to accept the after hours fee"
Usually by then they'll let up or we continue and it's pretty straight forward after that.
zantehood@reddit
Well if it was critical they should have called back me thinks.
Also VM usually means Virtual Machine 😃
texcleveland@reddit
context is critical
TryARebootFool@reddit (OP)
Now I'm questioning my career choices after my rant because I let that slip 😂
PalmettoZ71@reddit
I would say your fine. If its a emergency they need to call back or leave VM. If caller was identified thst would be one thing
Unreasonable_jury@reddit
Our after-hours system only has a voicemail. Half the time the message is spam anyways.
EvilEyeV@reddit
I never answer the phone and always wait to see if there is a voicemail. It's there for a reason. It filters the garbage from people who are having problems doing their work. Of you don't leave a VM, it clearly isn't important.