# What does being on call mean for a software developer?

> Being on call means you are the person who responds if a production system breaks during a set period, including nights and weekends. An alerting tool reaches you by push, call or message; you acknowledge, fix or escalate. Good on-call wakes people only for problems that need a human now.

URL: https://pagerless.dev/answers/what-is-on-call
Updated: 2026-10-22

Related terms: [escalation policy](https://pagerless.dev/glossary/escalation-policy), [acknowledgement](https://pagerless.dev/glossary/acknowledgement), [alert fatigue](https://pagerless.dev/glossary/alert-fatigue).

## Questions

### What does being on call mean for a software developer?

Being on call means you are the person who responds if a production system breaks during a set period, including nights and weekends. An alerting tool reaches you by push, call or message; you acknowledge, fix or escalate. Good on-call wakes people only for problems that need a human now.