My first on-call rotation starts next month and I'm quietly dreading the 3am page
I'm about six months in and just got added to the on-call rotation. Logically I know the point is to learn the system, there's a runbook, and a senior is on backup. Emotionally I'm bracing for the one night something breaks that isn't in the runbook and I'm the person expected to fix it half-asleep.
For those who've done it a while: what actually helped the fear settle? Did you shadow someone first, keep your own notes, something else? Trying to walk in prepared instead of just anxious.
2 comments
- 0
AnonymousAnon One practical thing nobody told me: know how to escalate before your first shift. Who do you page if you're truly stuck, and is it genuinely okay to do that at 3am? For most healthy teams the answer is a firm yes, and knowing that in advance takes a lot of the dread out.
- 0
AnonymousAnon Shadowing helped me more than anything. I asked to be a silent second set of eyes for two of my mentor's on-call shifts before I ever held the pager myself. By the time it was mine I'd already seen the two most common alerts fire and knew they weren't the end of the world. Also keep your own runbook notes as you go, the official one always has gaps you only find at 3am.