Always On captures the amount of work occurring beyond a standard workday. (More on that below.) This metric serves as an indicator of overtime and burnout risk, taking note of Jira activity, PR activity, source code, meetings, and chat messaging that happen outside of an 8-hour workday: early mornings, late nights, weekends, holidays, or OOO time.
How do you define an 8-hour workday? To support personal work styles, Uplevel measures an individual’s Always On based on their unique 8-hour workday, accounting for nontraditional hours or split schedules. We calculate a person's 8-hour workday based on that day's work activity, not based on a set calendar of 9am-5pm or any pre-established window. Any time worked during weekends or OOO days is counted with a heavier weight than weekday time.
Uplevel categorizes Always On in three levels based on the average number of overtime minutes per day:
“Above Normal” and “High” signal potential burnout risk, especially when sustained over a long period of time. “Normal” is the goal for healthy work-life balance so your developers have time to recharge and sustainably continue to deliver great work.
For ideas on how to reduce Always On and provide a better work-life balance for your teams, read more here: Reducing 24/7 work schedules
What if ICs prefer to work in the early morning or late at night?
Always On considers ICs unique work schedule, which can be different every day. Our goal is to identify work activity that occurs after someone has worked for 8 hours in a day, or any work activity that occurs on weekends, holidays, or OOO days. There is no preference or default for a 9am-5pm or other traditional work schedule. That said, any work activity happening between 11pm-6am is considered "Always On."
What if ICs don't work "enough"?
Always On—and Uplevel, in general—is not concerned with "low" productivity or any semblance of a light workload. The metric of Always On is meant to highlight maxed-out bandwidth or the higher burnout risk that comes with long hours. Engineers and their teams only see a classification of Normal, Above Normal, or High Always On.
What if ICs work a split schedule or take a long midday break?
If someone works for a 4-hour period, then logs on again for a 6-hour period later that day, we will count 8 of those hours as a standard workday and represent the remaining 2 within Always On.
What if ICs work in a different timezone than my team?
We will identify each ICs active hours in your time zone and consider work that extends beyond 8 hours that day.
Will ICs get docked for responding to a message over the weekend?
If an IC has a brief chat conversation but do not engage in any other work activity, this will not count towards Always On. Chat messages that occur near Git or Jira activity will count as work.