Night Shifts

Lomu

Recently ive been thinking of joining the guards. The only thing that i wouldnt like doing is the night shifts. I know its probably like anything once you get used to it.
So how do members find working nights?
And also how long is there between changeovers, say if you were working one night to the next shift you were working on.

TheNog

Lomu wrote: »

Recently ive been thinking of joining the guards. The only thing that i wouldnt like doing is the night shifts. I know its probably like anything once you get used to it.
So how do members find working nights?
And also how long is there between changeovers, say if you were working one night to the next shift you were working on.

Personally I like the night shifts but I suppose it all depends on how you work it. If you just wanted to drive all night it is boring but if you doing checkpoints, patrolling and even just sitting up and watching traffic the night flies by. THe weekend nights are usually non stop.

Nights do take a bit of getting used to alright but over time you can do it.

The changeovers are the hardest of all. Finish a night shift at 6am and you are back to work 2pm that day. You have to factor in travel time to and from home. It is a similar changeover from the Late shift (2pm-10pm), finish at 10pm and back in at 6am the next day.

Lomu

TheNog wrote: »

The changeovers are the hardest of all. Finish a night shift at 6am and you are back to work 2pm that day. You have to factor in travel time to and from home. It is a similar changeover from the Late shift (2pm-10pm), finish at 10pm and back in at 6am the next day.

Is that constant where you work a night and then are back on at 2pm.

How is your time off calculated?

Ive heard somewhere aswell if you work a week of nights you get the next week off. Do all stations do this and do you have the option or is it offered to you by your supervisor?

the locust

Lomu wrote: »

Is that constant where you work a night and then are back on at 2pm.

How is your time off calculated?

Ive heard somewhere aswell if you work a week of nights you get the next week off. Do all stations do this and do you have the option or is it offered to you by your supervisor?

We all work a set roster in a 3 system relief between four units - early, late and a week of nights. Working the city roster i.e. in Dublin you'd work a week of nights, finishing on Sunday/Mon morning, then you're back in at two wednesday afternoon. You'd do a week of nights every four weeks (roster)

But like the man said its not the nights that are the worst, its the late to early shifts that kill you - finish at 10pm and start at 6am.... urgh!

TheNog

There are two rosters - the city rostera and the country roster. I work in a country station so can only speak for it but not the city roster. I will try to post the country for ye below:

M T W T F S S
Week 1 n n l l e e r
Week 2 r r n n l l e/l
Week 3 e e r r n n n
Week 4 l l e e r r r

n = nights - 10pm-6am
l = lates 2pm-10pm
e = early 6am - 2pm
r = rest day

This is the roster I work to and there is no one week on, one week off in the country. Also to mention that you may have court on your rest day which you can claim as overtime or as TOIL (calculated as time and half).

There are occasions where you will be required to work OT such as when interviewing a suspect. An extreme example of this was when I arrested 2 suspects (another 2 were also arrested) when I was working a late shift. All 4 were arrested at 9.45pm (15 minutes before we finished), interviewed and released at 4am, put the head down for 2 hrs and back to work at 6am.

As I said that was extreme but recently I finished a night shift at 6am and was back in the station to attend court at 10am and start working my shift at 2pm the same day until 10pm. Now those days are more common and are tireing.

TheNog

the locust wrote: »

But like the man said its not the nights that are the worst, its the late to early shifts that kill you - finish at 10pm and start at 6am.... urgh!

I'm on the change now from lates to early and am still up. Can never sleep for them. Will sleep tomorrow though!!!!!!!!!

metman

I like working nights and would rather work a weekend night shift than weekend day shift any time.

Nights you get less rubbish calls (shoplifters and nuisance kids) and more decent jobs (suspects on, fights, sexual assaults, drugs). I find night shifts tend to go in quicker than day shifts as we're usually busier, and you're not sat in traffic which is a bonus. It's also easier to target the criminal fraternity at night, as anyone hanging around/driving around at silly o'clock is fair game for being stopped.

Fortunately we don't have to do the horrendous changeovers mentioned, and we're entitled to an 11 break of duty (though this isn't always honoured) which minimises the 'zombie factor'.

Satan Polaroid

metman wrote: »

Fortunately we don't have to do the horrendous changeovers mentioned, and we're entitled to an 11 break of duty (though this isn't always honoured) which minimises the 'zombie factor'.

But then less rest days I assume?

metman

Satan Polaroid wrote: »

But then less rest days I assume?

Longer shifts, but more rest days.

My division is on a 6 on 4 off shift pattern; so 2 earlies, 2 lates, 2 nights and then 4 days off.

E = 0600 -1600
L = 1600 - 0200
N = 2200- 0600

Its a really good shift pattern and popular with the troops.

I was previously on a 12 hour shift pattern where we worked a mix of 5 on, 5 off, 4 on 4 off, 5 on 4 off, 4 on 5 off.

Again, a good shift pattern with either 2 days, followed by 3 nights or 3 days and 2 nights.

D = 0700 - 1900
N = 1900 - 0700

timmywex

It must be said aswell that when your old and not bothered with night shifts, if you have a family or whatever, you mught be lucky to get a chance to move to a non 24 hour station, they only work untill about midnight/1am and go till 4am on the weekends, you usually only have to do that once a month, also it tend s to be more relaxed about start/finish times, your not releiving anyone sometimes.

From expiriemce, my dad works in a non 24 hour station, once a month, he has a late saturday night, 4pm-4am, then only has 4 hours on sunday, in the moning sometimes, once again, not too fussy about 9am start, ~11 maybe, some sundays its a case of just "being on call":O

But to get there you'll have to do bigger stations first, also detective units and the ilk dont always work nights either...

Jay112

Were on the city roster, and on the week of nights at the moment, it takes a night or two to get used to the system, coming back off the nights are tough though.
I dont think you ever really get used to adjusting from days to nights, just have to deal with it

Satan Polaroid

metman wrote: »

Longer shifts, but more rest days.

My division is on a 6 on 4 off shift pattern; so 2 earlies, 2 lates, 2 nights and then 4 days off.

E = 0600 -1600
L = 1600 - 0200
N = 2200- 0600

Its a really good shift pattern and popular with the troops.

I was previously on a 12 hour shift pattern where we worked a mix of 5 on, 5 off, 4 on 4 off, 5 on 4 off, 4 on 5 off.

Again, a good shift pattern with either 2 days, followed by 3 nights or 3 days and 2 nights.

D = 0700 - 1900
N = 1900 - 0700

That sounds like bliss! Is that based on a 4 week roster?

I'm off the regular at the moment, so the worst change over I have is finishing at 4am and back in at 2pm, which is piece of piss compared to some to the regular.

Eru

DMR regular hours are hell, plain and simple hell. You get the long weekend whic is nice and the week of nights while long is a bit of a break from changeovers. I like working nights but I find as the week goes by your sleeping longer until you spend pretty much all of the monday and tuesday off in bed or drinking black coffee trying to get the brain working.

Dear god, 12 hour shifts, please.

FGR

Metman's roster sounds like the business.

We work a unique roster in our station. The station is not open 24hrs but the patrol car is.

Goes like this -

N = 7pm - 3am -or- 11pm - 7am. Two of the unit are obliged to do the 11-7 while the remainder will be on beats doing 7-3

L = 3pm - 11pm

E = 7am - 3pm

So..here goes.

NNNNLE RRR LLEL,E/L,EE RR NNNLLEE RRR

It's a good roster in that you get two long weekends; and the midweek isn't as desperate as it is in the city roster. The one downside is too many quick changeovers.

TheNog

ForegoneReality wrote: »

Metman's roster sounds like the business.

We work a unique roster in our station. The station is not open 24hrs but the patrol car is.

Goes like this -

N = 7pm - 3am -or- 11pm - 7am. Two of the unit are obliged to do the 11-7 while the remainder will be on beats doing 7-3

L = 3pm - 11pm

E = 7am - 3pm

Ye have 2 units working on the same shift??

ForegoneReality wrote: »

So..here goes.

NNNNLE RRR LLEL,E/L,EE RR NNNLLEE RRR

See your post where I have in bold. Is it right that ye go from a late to an early and back to a late again? I presume the early and late are not on the same day so you are not working a double on one day?

CLADA

TheNog wrote: »

Ye have 2 units working on the same shift??



See your post where I have in bold. Is it right that ye go from a late to an early and back to a late again? I presume the early and late are not on the same day so you are not working a double on one day?

The unit is split on Sundays

FGR

TheNog wrote: »

Ye have 2 units working on the same shift??

We cross over with the late unit. It's primarily there as our station is in a mainly residential area; so as to provide the illusion that we have plenty of members on the ground. Sadly enough it's quite common that one of the 7-3 crew will take up in the car as the driver who started at 3 would have been alone until then.

TheNog wrote: »

See your post where I have in bold. Is it right that ye go from a late to an early and back to a late again? I presume the early and late are not on the same day so you are not working a double on one day?

Again correct. We do a late Wed, late Thur, early Fri and back on a late Saturday before the split Sunday.

It's a pretty unique roster which was voted in by the station party back when the car was made 24hrs; long before my time! Benefit is plenty of time off but the downfall is a ridiculous amount of quick changeovers.