Joining and Leaving the Rotation
How Do I Get Added to the Rotation?
When You Join a Team
Your manager will discuss on-call expectations with you if there is a need to add people to a rotation. All team members are not on a rotation. If we need additional team members or product coverage for a rotation, your manager will nominate team members for the rotation.
These are questions we consider when building out a Tier 2 On Call rotation:
- Do we have a minimum of 8 people in a rotation?
- Do we have 100% coverage for the product?
What happens:
- You and your manager agree you’re ready
- Your rotation leader adds you to Incident.io (our scheduling system)
- You’ll see your first shift appear in your calendar
- You go through the first shift preparation checklist
When You Switch Teams or Domains
If you’re moving to a different team or taking on a new service area, you may be added to a different rotation. This works similarly — your new manager/rotation leader handles the addition once you’re ready.
How Do I Get Removed from the Rotation?
If you’re leaving a team, no longer supporting a service, or have a legitimate reason to step back temporarily (extended leave, major project, etc.):
- Tell your manager and rotation leader
- They’ll start the offboarding process or coordinate a swap with a colleague
- You’ll receive your final shifts and then be removed or given a break from the schedule
- Hand off any active responsibilities to your replacement
How Often Will I Be On-Call?
The frequency depends on your region and team size. Here’s what we’re targeting for the DevOps Rails rotation.
Your rotation leaders conduct quarterly reviews to ensure fairness and prevent burnout. If someone is getting paged constantly, that’s valuable data for the team to use in tuning alerts and distributing workload.
If You’re Concerned About Fairness
If you notice:
- You’re being on-call significantly more or less than teammates
- Your region seems understaffed or overstaffed
- The rotation frequency doesn’t match what you were told
Speak up. Talk to your rotation leader or manager. We actively monitor this, but human error happens. Your feedback helps us catch problems early.
Related Pages
- Coverage and Scheduling — Understand your rotation frequency
- DevOps Rotation Leader — Contact your rotation leader for add/removal
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