How do you guys………..

 There are times when my job has me on 24/7 standby duty, and when something goes wrong, I am that 'go to' guy.  Effectively, in that timeframe, I'm the 'command leader' of my team, and I'm the most experienced person, I'm who has to make the tough decisions. 

Now, there's times when I'm away on assignment somewhere, and I might be working a 20-hour day or three to get a system up and operational.  There's some times when I've got a weekend, and a comp day or two... so totally off-duty, but even then, I get text messages and phone calls from my team, or from field crews all over the US and Canada... and I answer the calls and texts.

Why?  Because these are people who I work with frequently, they work hard for me, and I depend on them to keep my systems running, and they're stuck in a situation they don't know how to solve.  I could say 'no', and that would be sending them a clear message that their plight means nothing to me.  I'm not a guy to abandon my team.

My wife knows it.  Back when I was self-employed, I took assistance calls all the time, albeit, that was on a land-line (it was the days of the 'bag phone') which was dedicated to my business.  When it rang, my wife would answer, and have them wait, she would go get me.  If it rang in the middle of the night, she'd wake me up, and I'd go answer... and it was that response level that got me significant contract values.

I've also had jobs where off-duty calls were a totally different situation.  I have friends who are very religious, and as a result, they do not answer calls on certain days... and I totally understand 'turning the ringer off'... but my occupation doesn't grant me that 'leisure'.   You will find that very few of the 'no off-duty calls' types don't work in livestock or field agriculture-  Mother nature makes all the workplace rules... cows don't get to choose when the calf has to come out, and when the field will only be dry from Saturday 3pm 'till sunday noon, that's when you'll be working it.

Some peoples' occupational circumstances work one way, some works other ways.  It isn't until you've had an occupation under BOTH, that you understand

So, if your wife gets annoyed, it is clearly because she doesn't understand, nor value what being responsive to your occupation's challenges brings to the dinner table.  You won't likely be able to 'fix' that, until she finds herself in a circumstance other than an office building or school.

Dan ,that may work south of the 49th but NO nurses on this side have had ANY measurable  raises since before  amerchinvirus came to town. I know 5 here and ALL are burned out, TERRIBLE working conditions, and well, POed  about the 1% 'raise' and the REQUIREMENT to work back to back  shifts. Of course the politicians got SUBSTANTIAL raises and perks....

Now IF we'd get 50,000 nurses to come to Canada..that would BEGIN to make a 'dent' in the backlogs in ERs, the death while waiting at ERs, etc.