shift work

I work shifts and even though I work the same amount of hours as the 9 to 5 brigade I feel I have more time off, dose anyone else feel like that? My shifts can be very long usually 12 hours and occasionally 13 so because of that I only go in to work 3/4 day or nights of the week.

The down side is having to work every second weekends and sometimes Christmas day on the other had I love being off during he week.

Mr.David

mariaalice wrote: »

IMy shifts can be very long usually 12 hours and occasionally 13

fap fap fap fap

Davidth88

I too worked shifts for 15 years , loved the time off

One weekend in 4 I used to finish at 8 on Friday morning , and not work until 8 Tuesday Morn..... great 4 day weekend !

intellectual dosser

I worked 4 on 4 off for two years (12 hours). There are some great advantages but in the long term I lost the run of myself. I basically spent 4 days doing work and sleep only, followed by 4 days on the booze with whomever my shift partners were. I ended up two stone heavier, and I wasn't exactly skinny to begin with.

I found it hard to develop a decent lifestyle because there was no consistency. If I were to do it again I'd like to think I could do it differently.

kfallon

Is AH now the 'Work/Life Balance' forum?

intellectual dosser

intellectual dosser wrote: »

I worked 4 on 4 off for two years (12 hours). There are some great advantages but in the long term I lost the run of myself. I basically spent 4 days doing work and sleep only, followed by 4 days on the booze with whomever my shift partners were. I ended up two stone heavier, and I wasn't exactly skinny to begin with.

I found it hard to develop a decent lifestyle because there was no consistency. If I were to do it again I'd like to think I could do it differently.

That actually a very good point, younger people with no responsibilities doing the sort of shift work we do can end up like that for example going to an early house when the run of long night shift was over, that change as people get older or settle down, plus its great when you have children I know couples who use very little child mining despite having full time jobs...they can do this because one of them works shifts.

Augmerson

I thought this thread would be about some dream job where you shift lovely girls all day long. I am disappoint.

Augmerson

Augmerson wrote: »

I thought this thread would be about some dream job where you shift lovely girls all day long. I am disappoint.

That happened occasionally as well although it was a bit frowned on to be actually doing it as you were working

jimthemental

I'm on different shift every week, I love the time off but it's absolutely wrecking my sleeping. I get every second friday off though which is nice.

seanmacc

I work 7 days out of 14 (On Mon, Tues Off Wed Thurs Fri on Sat, Sun ect.) on 10 hour shifts. The time off is brilliant. Having a Monday night off is great. Coppers does be heaving with gards and nurses on a Monday.

The other advantage is that to go away for a week I only have to take 3 days holidays.

fishy fishy

mariaalice wrote: »

That actually a very good point, younger people with no responsibilities doing the sort of shift work we do can end up like that for example going to an early house when the run of long night shift was over, that change as people get older or settle down, plus its great when you have children I know couples who use very little child mining despite having full time jobs...they can do this because one of them works shifts.

child mining is illegal and you should report it.

fishy fishy

fishy fishy wrote: »

child mining is illegal and you should report it.

Depends on what part of the world you live in!!

Larianne

I had two jobs that were shift work. Hated it. I got sick a lot as my body clock was messed around so much and my social life was affected.

Never again!!!!

Wacker The Attacker

mariaalice wrote: »

I work shifts and even though I work the same amount of hours as the 9 to 5 brigade I feel I have more time off, dose anyone else feel like that? My shifts can be very long usually 12 hours and occasionally 13 so because of that I only go in to work 3/4 day or nights of the week.

The down side is having to work every second weekends and sometimes Christmas day on the other had I love being off during he week.

Do you look sexy in your nurses outfit?

It can feel like you have more time off, but if you're on late shifts every day as opposed to some long days and other days off, you end up having less free time and sleeping through the morning.

What gets on my nerves is that other people don't seem to understand the concept of late shifts. The flatmate got a subtle little dig in there about me getting up at 11am. It's hardly lazy when you consider that I start work in the afternoon and don't get home until after 10.30pm. Not done with dinner until after 11 and then a few hours relaxing and it's already past 2 in the morning. If I got up at 7 or 8 like most people, I'd be exhausted by the time I got into work, but people don't seem to get that. The flatmate is always asking why I don't get up and do stuff. I told her it's the equivalent of her getting up at 3am, eating breakfast, going to the gym, going shopping, meeting friends and then doing an entire work day but she still didn't get it.

1ZRed

fishy fishy wrote: »

child mining is illegal and you should report it.

There goes my business venture.. all ready for the dragons den too!

DyldeBrill

Love shift work..I work 9-5 and then shift work sometimes during the week, mostly weekends! Busy man these days

bbam

I worked the same shift as OP for 13 years. My problem was I had an hour and a half drive each way if a 13 hour shift and couldn't sleep during day time much either.
I enjoyed ye free time but it affects your social life as your working so many weekends, people eventually forget to ring you to go out as you usually have to work anyway.
I left as it was affecting my health and didn't enjoy the risk of driving drunk with tiredness after shifts and no sleep during the day. So happy I quit now, it took about a year for my sleep to come back but the notion you have more free time is a myth. You have more time off when everyone is working and your working when everyone is off, including Christmas. Lots of shift workers just end up drinking with the lads off the shift, that way they see them 24*7*365.

The extra money is nice but not worth it AFAIK

fasttalkerchat

I used to work 4 13 hour days but they made me spread it over the 5 days
You end up staying on to 6pm anyway so it was much longer... now im in uni

Big Nasty

I am actually considering looking for shift work because of my health. I used to work in hospitality which meant you worked nights and weekends all the time but you had plenty of free time off during the day to go to the gym / get stuff done. Working 9-5 now the last four years and don't have the enthusiasm to go to the gym after work. The job I'm looking at would mean 3/4 12 hour shifts a week, sometimes day, sometimes night. You would have up to 4 days off at a time and only work every second weekend plus lots of spare time to go to the gym.

bbam

MCMLXXV wrote: »

I am actually considering looking for shift work because of my health. I used to work in hospitality which meant you worked nights and weekends all the time but you had plenty of free time off during the day to go to the gym / get stuff done. Working 9-5 now the last four years and don't have the enthusiasm to go to the gym after work. The job I'm looking at would mean 3/4 12 hour shifts a week, sometimes day, sometimes night. You would have up to 4 days off at a time and only work every second weekend plus lots of spare time to go to the gym.

Well I don't think it will be any better for your health, you'll just trade one problem for another.
It's so anti family in particular. I appreciate that isn't a concern for everyone but its a serious downside if you have small kiddies.

Boscoirl

Currently I am not on shift work, doing a straight 9-5.30, which is great for planing anything,

previously worked shift on 2 different jobs, the best was 8-6 mon to thurs, the 6-2 the following week, always had fri-sunday off( the only downside was the money was poor and the company are now gone.

but the other place i worked that was on shift was a nightmare, while tehre was no nights, you worked eiither 8-4, 9-5, 10-6 12.30-9 or 1.30-10 for the week, and every second weekend, you were given a six week roster, but it was a complete pain to organise anything, you spent more time trying to organise swaps

Big Nasty

bbam wrote: »

Well I don't think it will be any better for your health, you'll just trade one problem for another.
It's so anti family in particular. I appreciate that isn't a concern for everyone but its a serious downside if you have small kiddies.

Previously my hours were as follows:

Mon. 10-2 (admin)
Tues. Off
Wed. 2-Close
Thurs. 4-Close
Fri. 12-10
Sat. 4-Close
Sun. 11-6

I used to go to the gym Mon; Tues; Thurs & Sat. Now I work 9-5 and rarely exercise - I just don't have the interest in hitting the gym at 6.30pm and not getting home until 9pm after being on the go since 7am. I was a lot healthier and three stone lighter when I worked in hospitality.

bluecode

My last shift was great for the most part. 12 hours a day but you never worked weekends and every couple of weeks you had six days off in a row. If you worked it right you could nearly take a month off with your leave. The downside though were the night shifts. Didn't like that.

Like others I came across the mentality that I was lazy because I would sleep until three in the afternoon. In fact some days after a few weeks of night the accumulated tiredness meant I would wake up only an hour before work. It meant you felt like you never left the place. One colleague finished nights and decided to lie down for a bit. He woke up seventeen hours later. Another fell asleep in a car as he was driving home. Only the noise as he hit the edge markers woke him up. Another decided to go into Dublin city centre on the bus before going to bed. On the way back home he fell asleep and ended up travelling all the way back into town. Nights are no fun.

How parents cope I don't know although I knew one woman who went to her sister's to sleep.

The best shift most people think is four on four off if you have to work weekends.

Edit: Why the heck is everyone talking about going to the gym? I've never seen the inside of one and have intention of ever doing so.

spankysue

I worked 3 shifts for a couple of years and it was grand apart from nights, used to hate them, you can't feel normal when you're eating your lunch at 3am and the whole week used to feel like one long night to me.

Used to be so tired on that shift too 'cos I used to have to wait until my bf got up for work before I went to bed. The reason for this was because the few times I did go to bed straight after work, I used to get up when his alarm went off (after being in bed for an hour) and he'd have to steer me back to bed, nights really messed me up

angeline

I enjoy shift work for the variety and also like having days off during the week. The downside is it isn't great for your system, definitely makes my migraines more frequent and sleep can be disturbed too.

Mr. CooL ICE

I've worked a variety of jobs with rotating shiftwork. Generally they are a pain, but the ones where the shift rotations were long were not too bad.

My first shift job involved working weeks of 0800-1600, 1600-0000 and 0000-0800. That was a complete pain as there wasn't any pattern to it, and you usually found out which shift you were on the Friday before.

My 2nd was in Dell, Limerick where it was generally 0800-0400 and 0400-0000. You changed between the two each week. It doesn't seem too bad, but the shifts were stretched to 12 hours (0000-1200 and 1200-0000) depending on demand so having a 2 day weekend to completely switch really screwed with my health.

My last was all 12 hour shifts, 3-4 per week and with a month of days and a month of nights. Being on nights for 4 weeks was intimidating, but at least you only had to adjust your sleeping pattern every 4 weeks which wasn't too bad. The only bad thing was the antisocial aspect of having midweek nights off.

shedweller

I work 4 nights. 21:30 to 07:30 mon night to fri morning. It sucks but at least my weekends are always off. 4 on 4 off would be easier on the body but organising creche/school/family time would be difficult. There are lads doing 2 shift where i work but never 00:00-08:00 so they have the best of both worlds. Time in the mornings every second week to do stuff and early finishes every other week.

marnie d

I do 12 hour shifts, where I have either the wednesday and thursday on or off, it's either 0700 -1900 or 1000 - 2200 officially, but the hours are moved around a bit depending on what day it is and what's needed to be done.

I find it a pain in the ass, most of my holidays are used up from booking weekends off for some family occasion or other, and I hate being down for Christmas day, with no extra pay and very little chance of getting it off.

As mentioned before, it affects your social life as you're usually working and people stop inviting you out.

As for the days off, a good chunk of the first day is spent in bed, even if you're awake as you're so shattered. I'm talking here til 4 in the afternoon.

You can't sign up for a part-time evening course really as you will miss at least one class out of four unless you can manage a shift swap.

When on the lates, you feel like you literally are going from home to work to home again, it can be hard to wind down at times and be able to sleep, even though you know you need it for the next day.

In other words, if the economy was better and I had more of a choice of jobs out there, i would love a cushy 9 -5, with bank holidays and Christmas day off.