I am a veterinarian at a small veterinary clinic. It's just 2 vets, and the other one is the owner. She is a very nice person, but sometimes a bit out of touch. I work 4 ten hour shifts per week, and she is in the clinic 2 days per week.
Our hospital also does boarding. We had an incident recently where a cat had a medical issue on the weekend when a vet wasn't around. The manager approached me and said “Dr. Owner wants you to split on call with her – so you would be available every other Sunday and holiday in case anything happens.”
I was shocked, as my contract says no on call. I immediately blurted out, “how much is she going to pay me to be on call?” The manager said, “well she didn't say anything about that.”
I then told him, “I frequently have plans on Sundays. I go on long hikes, I may be with friends or family, I may be drinking, I may be out on a boat. You are asking me to give up every other Sunday and holidays, so that I have to stay local and available, ready to come in at any time. This means I cannot make plans, cannot go to a movie, can't do anything where I wouldn't be able to reach the clinic within a short time. I am already burnt out, I get far below industry standard for vacation, I already work on my days off, and you are asking me to give up more of my time for no compensation? I also already work every other Saturday, so if I'm on call on Sunday, then I would be working 7 days in a row (fri-th). If she wants me to do this, she needs to come up with an offer that would be fair for me. And honestly I just don't want to do it unless I'm offered more PTO because I would need be able to have an equitable number of days off.”
Manager relayed my message to the owner, and she just said “nevermind.” So yeah. No on call for me.
As I type this, I realize I need to renegotiate my contract. The amount of money I make is totally fair given what I produce, but I would rather sacrifice some of my salary for PTO.
Added info for background:
My overall compensation package is pretty fair. My salary + benefits = 25% of my production. That being said, I only get 4 days of PTO per year. I have asked for more, but was turned down. I would be willing to drop another part of my compensation (so that my total doesn't exceed 25%), but I don't think she wants me taking off more time per year because then she has to cover or pay a relief vet. I also frequently work on my days off, as for reasons I will not discuss, she is unable to make phone calls. So sometimes I will have to call urgent cases on my days off. Sometimes she also asks me to call her cases if the results are complicated. For example, I have been out sick with Covid for the last 8 days, and have been asked to work remotely every day (for no compensation, as I maxed out my 4 sick days already). As you can imagine, 4 days is nothing and I have been so burned out for the last 3 years.