,
11 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
Every time the topic of on-call comes up, certain arguments get wheeled out too. "This will make tech less diverse!" is one I take particular exception to.
Right now, you effectively have one profession (ops) subsidizing the diversity goals of another (dev), at very high cost to their own health and personal lives.
Is that the world you want? The demands of highly available systems don't go away when you abdicate your share.
Is that the world you want? The demands of highly available systems don't go away when you abdicate your share.
What I am saying is not, "let's make everyone as miserable as ops has been this past decade!"
What I am saying is, this degree of misery is *not ok for anybody*, and things can be so much better for EVERYONE if we adopt a proper model of software ownership.
What I am saying is, this degree of misery is *not ok for anybody*, and things can be so much better for EVERYONE if we adopt a proper model of software ownership.
There is a virtuous feedback loop that kicks in when the people making the changes are empowered to understand -- and swiftly fix -- the problems they ship.
Teams who adopt this philosophy from the start, simply don't experience on call as a major life impacting event. ~Ever.
Teams who adopt this philosophy from the start, simply don't experience on call as a major life impacting event. ~Ever.
Many of you are struggling under the burden of years upon years of compounding disastrous feedback loops, where the people fighting fires and the people making changes barely talked.
I'm sorry. This is going to take years of empathetic, human-centered leadership to dig out of.
I'm sorry. This is going to take years of empathetic, human-centered leadership to dig out of.
On call rotations are a human system, and they require sensitivity and deeply human solutions.
I am not saying every new parent should carry a pager. Lord no. I have made exceptions and accommodations for this and every other human frailty, as every eng manager should.
I am not saying every new parent should carry a pager. Lord no. I have made exceptions and accommodations for this and every other human frailty, as every eng manager should.
But I keep bringing this up because the path we are on is unsustainable, and not compatible with either distributed systems at scale or human thriving.
And to make it better, software engineers have to do their part. Step into the ring and start supporting their services.
And to make it better, software engineers have to do their part. Step into the ring and start supporting their services.
You're gonna need tooling that effectively bridges the ops-dev divide, which is why (as I have said again and again) we started honeycomb. To make systems legible to software engineers, thru instrumentation.
(Doing this well is a serious hiring advantage, btw.)
(Doing this well is a serious hiring advantage, btw.)
People always moan that software engineers will quit if you put them on call. This has not been my experience.
I think most engineers find ownership deeply satisfying, and are aching to be asked to step up and help fix a deeply broken system.
I think most engineers find ownership deeply satisfying, and are aching to be asked to step up and help fix a deeply broken system.
If you don't find ownership gratifying, there are plenty of ways you can write code for a living that aren't for highly available services.
Think of yourself like a pilot or an emergency room doctor. Some choices are incompatible for some length of time. That's OK.
Think of yourself like a pilot or an emergency room doctor. Some choices are incompatible for some length of time. That's OK.
There is room at the ownership table for anxious people who can't sleep thru the night when on call, new parents, etc.
On call is about supporting prod and about pulling your weight over the long run. Those are the only rules. Beyond that, be creative. ☺️🐝
On call is about supporting prod and about pulling your weight over the long run. Those are the only rules. Beyond that, be creative. ☺️🐝
