Beginning last Monday (Oct. 27) I began my week to be on call in case something goes wrong with all our fancy techy stuff here at work. Basically if something goes wrong in the dead of night, I'm the guy you call.
It was the on-call week from hell, on top of my regular 40 hours. I spent Tuesday evening monitoring an application deployment, ensuring nothing went wrong. Wednesday night was spent fixing a problem that, to quote the guy who has been here for like 10 years, "has never happened." Thursday night was spent monitoring more shit that failed.
But here's the best part.
My sister goes into labor Saturday evening. My nephew, and the first grandchild of my parents, is born around 5:30 AM Sunday morning. I get the call to come to the hospital, and then I immediately get a call about stuff going wrong with work stuff. It wasn't until about 11:00 when I was finally able to leave and go see my nephew. Not only was I delayed in celebrating the new life in my family, but I missed other family members who I could have spent time with celebrating my sister's new child. And to top it all off, Sunday night also saw more errors I had to deal with.
All in all, I spent about an extra 16-17 hours on top of my regular hours dealing with stuff during the night. So what will I always remember about my nephew being born? That I was working, missing family and being late to the hospital over some insurance company's nightly batch processes that ensure they get their money without issue. Absolutely, 100% fuck that.
If anything is going to be a motivator for me to FIRE, it's this. Never again.
I welcome to the family my nephew Simon. He is the chillest newborn ever.
EDIT: Just wanted to add that I'm an exempt employee and I do not get paid overtime.
