SRE/DevOps On-Call Workload & Recovery Assessment

Welcome to the On-Call Workload & Recovery Assessment. This survey explores your experiences with on-call work, including alert volume, interruptions, recovery practices, and potential improvements. Your responses will be kept confidential and reported only in aggregate. There are no right or wrong answers — we are interested in your honest opinions and experiences. Participation is voluntary and you may stop at any time. Estimated time: 6–8 minutes.

When was your most recent on-call rotation?

• Within the last week
• Within the last 2 weeks
• Within the last month
• Within the last 3 months
• More than 3 months ago
• I have never been on-call

How often are you currently scheduled for primary on-call duty?

• Every week
• Every 2 weeks
• Monthly
• Every 6–8 weeks
• Quarterly or less
• Ad hoc / back-up only
• Other

Approximately how many total hours did your most recent on-call rotation cover?

• Less than 8 hours
• 8–24 hours
• 25–48 hours
• 49–72 hours
• 73–120 hours (3–5 days)
• 121–168 hours (5–7 days)
• More than 168 hours (over a week)

Approximately how many distinct alerts or pages did you receive during that rotation?

• 0
• 1–3
• 4–7
• 8–15
• 16–30
• 31–50
• More than 50

How many of those alerts woke you from sleep?

• 0
• 1
• 2–3
• 4–5
• 6–10
• More than 10

Overall, how demanding was your most recent on-call rotation?

During your most recent rotation, how frequently did alerts interrupt your deep work or coding sessions?

During your most recent rotation, how frequently did alerts interrupt meetings or collaborative work?

During your most recent rotation, how frequently did alerts interrupt your personal or family time (outside work hours)?

How disruptive were alert-driven context switches to your overall productivity during your most recent rotation?

During work hours, how long does it typically take you to regain full focus after handling a non-trivial alert?

• Under 2 minutes
• 3–5 minutes
• 6–10 minutes
• 11–20 minutes
• 21–30 minutes
• More than 30 minutes

Which of the following practices, if any, do you use to regain focus after handling alerts? Select all that apply.

• Take a short break
• Write notes/to-do list before switching tasks
• Time-block a recovery window
• Silence non-essential notifications
• Post-incident recap with team
• Pomodoro or similar timed-work cadence
• Meditation or breathing exercises
• Caffeine
• Switch to a different task temporarily
• None of the above
• Other (please specify)

Overall, how effective are your current recovery practices at helping you regain focus after on-call interruptions?

How satisfied are you with your current alerting and paging tools overall?

Please rank the following potential improvements by how much they would improve your on-call experience (1 = highest impact).

1. Better alert routing / noise reduction
2. Clearer runbooks / playbooks
3. More automation / self-healing systems
4. Smarter scheduling / coverage distribution
5. Focus / quiet-hours protection
6. Faster incident tooling / UI
7. Improved compensation and incentives

To what extent, if at all, would additional compensation improve your overall experience with on-call work?

If additional compensation were offered for on-call work, which forms would you find most valuable? Select up to 3.

• Fixed monetary stipend per rotation
• Per-incident payment
• Hourly pay for on-call hours
• Additional paid time off
• Flexible work hours / schedule adjustments
• Professional development budget
• Recognition or awards
• Other (please specify)

If monetary compensation were provided, what would you consider a reasonable additional payment per on-call rotation?

• Less than $50
• $50–$100
• $101–$200
• $201–$350
• $351–$500
• $501–$750
• $751–$1,000
• More than $1,000
• Not sure / prefer not to say

What single change would most improve on-call workload or recovery for your team?

Based on your responses throughout this survey, please share any additional thoughts about your on-call experience, workload, or recovery practices.

What best describes your primary role?

• SRE / Site Reliability Engineer
• Platform / Infrastructure Engineer
• Backend Engineer
• Frontend Engineer
• Full-stack Engineer
• Data / ML Engineer
• QA / Testing Engineer
• Engineering Manager / Tech Lead
• DevOps Engineer
• Other (please specify)

How many years of professional experience do you have?

• Less than 1
• 1–2
• 3–5
• 6–10
• 11–15
• 16–20
• More than 20

Approximately how many employees work at your organization?

• 1–10
• 11–50
• 51–200
• 201–1,000
• 1,001–5,000
• 5,001–10,000
• More than 10,000

Thank you for completing this survey — your responses have been recorded and will be used to improve on-call practices. Your input is greatly appreciated!