On call engineers fixing on call bugs is one of the simplest and most straightforward way out of the hole.
You then also have a direct cost of being “on call” accounted for and on the sprint board.
You then also have a direct cost of being “on call” accounted for and on the sprint board.
In 2 of the 3 companies I've worked that have on-call, the On Call rotation has been a "the totality of your duties are being on call for [X] duration". There are no features to push, there is Op X and tickets of varying priority levels.
This is helpful when the incidents are less 'something to revert'... and more something to do or completely remove. If CICD relies on things on the internet for example, deploying caches to remove a laundry list of potential snags.
On call is a bit bipolar as a result. Either comfortably wandering around looking for something worth working on, or knowing what it is - dashing to put out flames! It's not sustainable so we all take turns.
I believe a poster above was correct with their intuition. I feel there's a broken/missing feedback loop. Regular incidents happen, but they shouldn't be constant. The goal should be to eradicate them, accepting a downward trend