oncall

On-call refers to a working arrangement where a person must be available outside standard working hours to respond to emergencies or incidents. It is common in information technology, software development, infrastructure operations, telecommunications, and healthcare. People on call may receive alerts via paging systems, mobile apps, or SMS.

Scheduling is typically done as a rotation or fixed shift, lasting from one week to a month. The period defines responsibilities, escalation paths, and response times. When an incident occurs, the on-call person assesses impact, contains the issue, and decides whether to resolve it or escalate.

Responsibilities commonly include triage, diagnosis, remediation, change implementation, and post-incident documentation. Effective handovers at shift changes are important. Tools include monitoring systems, incident management platforms, paging apps, chat tools, and runbooks.

Compensation for on-call work varies by organization and jurisdiction; common arrangements include extra pay, time off in lieu, or premium allowances. On-call duties can affect work-life balance and sleep. Organizations seek to mitigate burnout with limits on consecutive on-call days, thorough runbooks, and clear escalation boundaries.

Variations exist across industries: IT and software teams emphasize outage response and service uptime, while healthcare prioritizes patient safety and rapid clinical alerts. The term is often written as on-call or on call, and related concepts include pager duty and incident response rotations.