[Hidden-tech] What to charge for emergency support ?

[Frank S. Aronson]

Florence I.T. wrote:
how often will you get an employee to be oncall 24/7 for no extra 
compensation?

Actually, most of the time!  I used to work for a number of large 
corporations (Merrill Lynch, the late and not so great Fleet Bank and 
Lincoln National - the latter two as a consultant) and the employees 
were required to be on an on-call rotation and to respond in the middle 
of the night for no extra compensation.  As an employee, we were on the 
payroll and were assumed to be at the beck and call of the corporation.  
As a consultant, at least, we could charge for our services, but it was 
always at the same rate.  I did know one part time employee for Merrill 
Lynch who had /tried/ to argue that she should be paid for carrying the 
pager, but that argument fell upon deaf ears.

That being said, I believe that a worker (employee or consultant) should 
be fairly remunerated for this responsibility.  If the company is 
amenable, then maybe a courtesy fee for carrying the pager would not be 
out of the question, but only if you are on the front line.  If there is 
someone else who gets the call first, then I think it's not equitable to 
be paid for the "electronic tethering."  And I heartily agree that you 
/should/ be paid more for the midnight calls and that 150% threshold 
sounds about right.

Good luck!

Frank Aronson

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> Edbride-PR wrote:
>
>> Charge for wearing beeper? I don't think so, anymore than you'd 
>> charge for
>> keeping a cellphone nearby. You're charging for your time, the beeper 
>> just
>> makes it easier for the client to find you.
>>
>>  
>>
> This approach is fine if you don't put too much weight on IF you can 
> respond. I offer similiar currently (No guaranteed off hours support, 
> but if you catch me and I come in, it's 150% normal rates). And that's 
> not higher only because I value the good relationships I have with 
> existing clients. Expecting a highly skilled professional to respond 
> to you immediately 24 hours a day is a LOT to ask, and should be 
> expensive that's all I can say. We did this for a client a few years 
> ago, I forget what the charge was but I was essentially in the same 
> boat, it ended up being a good bit. It was also different work: 
> network support. The bottom line sounds similiar in some ways: are 
> they losing money if the system is down? How much per hour? (how many 
> employees are left standing around, how many orders not fullfilled, 
> etc etc.. )
> Dell charges about $400 a pc for the year for same day response. 
> that's just a pc. I'm sorry I can't give you actual numbers but I felt 
> compelled to urge you to charge well for yourself if you provide a 
> valuable, skilled and reliable service (unlike the hire a tech some 
> large corporation sends out on one of their warranties).
> at the very very least charge well over your standard rate for work 
> performed off hours.I think of it as being the employee, how often 
> will you get an employee to be oncall 24/7 for no extra compensation? 
> i wouldn't feel right sticking that on an employee without some good 
> compensation. Just my 2 cents, good luck I'm sure others will have 
> feedback.
>
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