I'm a lineholder now, but have been on reserve most of my career at United unless I was on furlough. I've done both widebody and narrowbody reserve. I've also commuted most of my career.

It's not as bad as people here make it out to be.
I've never been rolled on my days off.
I've rarely sat airport standby, which I would prefer over short call since I've had to commute to short call.
There are a lot of worse things in life than reserve at United.