On Counting Alerts

The text discusses the challenges and considerations surrounding on-call alert management, focusing on how tracking alert counts can impact stress, sleep, and work-life balance for engineering teams. Although the author acknowledges that the number of alerts can correlate with stress and sleep quality, they argue that context and support structures are crucial in determining the actual impact on individuals. An analysis of six months of PagerDuty alerts reveals significant variation in alert distribution among teams, highlighting that the volume of alerts alone is not an effective metric for decision-making. The author emphasizes the importance of qualitative assessments and proactive measures, such as improving on-call practices and creating robust systems, while also ensuring psychological safety and allowing for escalation when needed. Although alert counts can serve as a retrospective anchor to understand trends, they are seen as less effective in directing immediate corrective work compared to real-time feedback and communication within the team.