On-call should be sustainable. Burnout helps no one.
Rotation design:
- Minimum - people in rotation
- Follow-the-sun for global teams
- Primary and secondary on-call
- Clear escalation paths
On-call hygiene:
- Maximum pages per shift as a target
- Every page should be actionable
- Runbooks for common issues
- Handoff notes between shifts
Compensation:
- On-call pay or time off in lieu
- No shaming for escalating
Interview question: "How do you design a healthy on-call rotation?"
Enough people to avoid burnout. Clear runbooks. Actionable alerts only. Good handoffs.