On-call rotations are one of the most contentious topics in software engineering. Done poorly, they lead to burnout, attrition, and a culture of dread. Done well, they can be a source of learning and team resilience.
After talking to hundreds of engineering leaders, here's what separates the best on-call cultures from the worst.
The burnout spiral
Most on-call burnout follows a predictable pattern:
- Alert fatigue — Too many alerts, most of which are noise
- Investigation overhead — Each alert takes 30-60 minutes to triage
- Interrupted sleep — Multiple pages per night shift
- Knowledge silos — Only a few engineers can effectively investigate
- Attrition — Senior engineers leave, making the problem worse
This isn't just a morale issue — it's a business risk. Companies with poor on-call cultures have 2.5x higher attrition among senior engineers, according to a recent DORA report.
What the best teams do differently
1. Ruthlessly reduce alert noise
The best teams treat alert tuning as a first-class engineering priority. Every alert should be:
- Actionable — Someone needs to do something about it
- Urgent — It can't wait until business hours
- Non-duplicate — One alert per incident, not twenty
2. Automate the first 10 minutes
The most time-consuming part of an incident isn't the fix — it's the investigation. By the time an engineer has gathered enough context to understand what's happening, half the battle is over.
This is where AI-powered tools like Deeptrace shine. By automating the initial investigation, you can:
- Reduce the cognitive load on on-call engineers
- Provide instant context even for engineers unfamiliar with a service
- Catch patterns that humans might miss at 3 AM
3. Share the knowledge
Every incident should produce a brief, searchable postmortem. Not a 10-page document — just enough context that the next person who encounters a similar issue can resolve it faster.
4. Compensate fairly
On-call work is real work. The best companies compensate on-call rotations with:
- Additional PTO days
- On-call stipends
- Reduced sprint commitments during on-call weeks
The path forward
The goal isn't to eliminate on-call — it's to make it sustainable. With better tooling, better processes, and better culture, on-call can go from being the worst part of an engineer's job to a manageable, even rewarding, responsibility.
Deeptrace helps teams reduce on-call burden by automating incident investigation. Learn how.