Building Healthy On-Call Culture
On-call duty is essential for reliable systems, but it shouldn't burn out your team. Learn how to build sustainable practices that keep both systems and people healthy.
62% of engineers report experiencing on-call burnout. The cost of replacing a burned-out engineer ($150K+) far exceeds the investment needed to build sustainable on-call practices. Yet many organizations still treat on-call as an afterthought.
Healthy on-call culture starts with realistic expectations. Nobody should be on-call more than one week per month. Alert noise should be minimal-every page should be actionable. And on-call work should be recognized and compensated fairly.
The best teams invest in reducing toil (automating repetitive tasks),improving documentation (so anyone can respond effectively), andbuilding psychological safety (where asking for help is encouraged, not stigmatized).
Remember: on-call should be a manageable responsibility, not a source of constant anxiety. If your team dreads their on-call shifts, that's a signal that something needs to change.