It is a worrying trend I have noticed in AU - a lot of ops do not respond to standbys. It REALLY irks me. As I have said many a time before, I dont just SM, I am capable in almost any position within the theatre (about the only pos I have not been in is Producer) and I know both sides of the cans. There are certain things I always do which I notice does not happen in many places:
Confirm s/b's
Confirm completion of long que sequences.
Perform "Off Cans" and "On Cans" messages
There was a show I was on as SM, where the lighting op was replaced by a cast member for 15 minutes or so so that he could run to the dome position and spot a sequence. We timed it, and for him to make it in time, the actor had to run to the bio box, they had to change right away, and he had to crawl as fast as he could to FOH1 dome position. We worked it out so that I could cue them visually, but twice, a cue was missed because I did not get a "LX Off cans for 10, going to visual" as I would have expected because he was not in the habbit of performing off cans notices. They were damn important cues too. In the end I think we grabbed the dome cans and gave them to the actor, who placed them on as they ran to the bio box, quick lead change and then he jacked himself in at the dome position.
This LX op played tetris if you were wondering, and the sound op read cookbooks.