The Challenge of Global On-Call
Managing on-call schedules is hard enough with a co-located team. Add multiple time zones, diverse religious practices, and varying regional holidays, and it becomes a complex puzzle that most organizations solve poorly—if at all.
The result? Burnout, resentment, and talented engineers leaving for companies that respect their time.
We believe there's a better way.
Why Traditional Rotation Doesn't Work
The classic "round-robin" approach to on-call seems fair on paper: everyone takes equal turns. But in practice, it ignores crucial factors:
Time Zone Blindness
A 2 AM alert for someone in San Francisco is a 10 AM alert for their colleague in London. Treating these as equivalent burdens is fundamentally unfair.
Religious Observance Gaps
- Shabbat (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) for Jewish team members
- Friday Jumu'ah prayers for Muslim team members
- Sunday worship for Christian team members
- Various Hindu and Buddhist observances throughout the year
Teams that ignore these create impossible choices for their members: your faith or your job.
Regional Holiday Ignorance
Your US-based scheduler might not know that Diwali is as significant as Christmas, or that Chinese New Year spans multiple days. These blind spots create inequity.
MonoDuty's Approach to Fair Scheduling
We built duty management into MonoDuty's free tier because we believe fairness shouldn't be a premium feature. Here's how our system promotes equity:
1. Religious Observance Respect
Our scheduling engine understands and respects major religious observances:
🕎 Jewish: Shabbat, High Holy Days, Passover
☪️ Muslim: Jumu'ah, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Ramadan
✝️ Christian: Sunday worship, Easter, Christmas
🕉️ Hindu: Diwali, Holi, major pujas
☸️ Buddhist: Vesak, Uposatha days
Team members can mark their observances, and the system automatically routes coverage to colleagues during these times.
2. Smart Time Zone Handling
We don't just convert times—we optimize for human impact:
- Business hours preference: Alerts routed to regions where it's working hours when possible
- Night differential tracking: The system tracks who's taking more night shifts and balances over time
- Follow-the-sun support: Natural handoffs between regions as the earth rotates
3. Regional Holiday Awareness
Our global holiday database includes:
- National holidays for 50+ countries
- Regional observances (state/province level)
- Cultural celebrations that may not be official holidays but matter to your team
4. Workload Balancing
True fairness isn't just about equal shifts—it's about equal burden:
- Incident-weighted rotation: If someone handles a 4-hour outage, that counts more than a quick acknowledgment
- Swap flexibility: Easy peer-to-peer swaps without manager approval bottlenecks
- Compensation time tracking: Automatic tracking for teams that offer comp time for after-hours work
Implementation Guide
Setting up fair scheduling in MonoDuty takes minutes:
Step 1: Team Setup
Create your team and invite members. Each person sets their:
- Primary time zone
- Working hours preference
- Religious/cultural observances (optional, private)
Step 2: Coverage Requirements
Define your service level:
- 24/7 coverage vs. business hours only
- Response time expectations
- Escalation paths
Step 3: Let the Algorithm Work
Our scheduling engine generates rotations that:
- Distribute night shifts equitably
- Respect declared observances
- Account for regional holidays
- Balance historical workload
Step 4: Review and Adjust
Transparency matters. The system shows:
- Who's carrying more burden
- Why specific assignments were made
- Projected fairness over time
Real-World Impact
Since launching our fair scheduling features, we've seen remarkable results from our users:
"For the first time in my career, I didn't have to choose between my on-call duties and Shabbat. MonoDuty just handled it." — Senior SRE at a Fortune 500 company
"Our team spans 4 continents. MonoDuty's time zone awareness reduced our after-hours incident burden by 60%." — Platform Engineering Lead
"The workload balancing showed us that one team member was handling 3x the incident volume. We had no idea until we had the data." — VP of Engineering
Why It's Free
Some might wonder: why include such sophisticated scheduling in the free tier?
Because fairness shouldn't have a price tag.
Every team deserves tools that respect their members' diverse backgrounds and needs. Making this a paid feature would mean only well-funded teams get equitable scheduling. That's not the world we want to build.
Getting Started
Ready to bring fairness to your on-call rotation?
- Sign up for MonoDuty (free tier includes all duty management features)
- Create your team and invite members
- Configure your coverage requirements
- Let fair scheduling begin
No credit card. No trial period. Just better on-call for everyone.
Questions about implementing fair scheduling for your team? Contact us — we're happy to help.