Nightshifts; anyone else hate them as much as I do?!

Ellie2014

usually work two night shifts a week; every week! sleep pattern is non-existent; as is my social life, unfortunately 😂 also struggle with following a healthy diet as I'm usually too tired to cook! how does everyone else find them?

the evasion_kid

Hated them,lost a few years of my life doing them.found that I fell into the pattern of working later than normal coming home and not being able to sleep which led to sleeping in and by the time I got back up I was just waiting around to go back into work.

FionnK86

I personally prefer working at nights as there is less traffic on the way to and from work. Time spent commuting is like working for free

rottie 11

I have to do them every now and then but I don't mind them at all. Leaving at 9pm home for for 5. Sleep till maybe 2 and then you have the whole day off to do what you want.

Working days at the moment and I can't even go to the bank ffs

Mycroft H

Ellie2014 wrote: »

usually work two night shifts a week; every week! sleep pattern is non-existent; as is my social life, unfortunately 😂 also struggle with following a healthy diet as I'm usually too tired to cook! how does everyone else find them?

Just finished 48 hours over 4 night shifts. Tried getting up early so it'll kick my sleeping pattern back into a 'normal' cycle. Well one so I can be at least sociable. Feel like ****e today though.

I'll be waking at 4 in the morning for the rest of the week and won't be able to get back to sleep.

It's like being jet lagged twice a week. To hell with night shift work. We're not meant to work at night.

brightspark

Hate them too, took a job on days instead less money, but still prefer it.

Seemed easier to do them when I was younger.

corner of hells

I only work nights , have an ok roster , I love it most of the time.

jimgoose

As a youngfella way back in the day I did what was known in the trade as a compressed working week for a couple of years, that is 7pm to 7am Sunday evening to Wednesday morning, sometimes a fourth overtime shift as well. I found it fine - "decompressing" in and out of it was a small bit of a bore, but not much. Food wasn't an issue either, as the outfit in question ran full subsidised canteen facilities during the night as well.

Ellie2014

the evasion_kid wrote: »

Hated them,lost a few years of my life doing them.found that I fell into the pattern of working later than normal coming home and not being able to sleep which led to sleeping in and by the time I got back up I was just waiting around to go back into work.

that's exactly the way I am at the mo!; depressing really! Although a job is a job and I'm not complaining but it is tough going! least I'm not the only one..lol!

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Ellie2014 wrote: »

usually work two night shifts a week; every week! sleep pattern is non-existent; as is my social life, unfortunately 😂 also struggle with following a healthy diet as I'm usually too tired to cook! how does everyone else find them?

Aha hahahahahahah try 5 night shifts a week, Monday to Friday and come back to me about no social life, terrible health, sleep patterns, diet etc. No week days as you spend most of the day in bed and you're waiting to go into work and your weekend is shorter than anyone else's due to being asleep most of Saturday.

My job is horrendous.

biko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrkEDe6Ljqs

Mycroft H

The Honey Monster wrote: »

Aha hahahahahahah try 5 night shifts a week, Monday to Friday and come back to me about no social life, terrible health, sleep patterns, diet etc. No week days as you spend most of the day in bed and you're waiting to go into work and your weekend is shorter than anyone else's due to being asleep most of Saturday.

My job is horrendous.

Never got sick until I started nights. Doubt it's a coincidence really.

the evasion_kid

Ellie2014 wrote: »

that's exactly the way I am at the mo!; depressing really! Although a job is a job and I'm not complaining but it is tough going! least I'm not the only one..lol!

Yeah they really throw ya,its hard to do anything like hit the gym,eat right,socialise.it feels like your the only person awake in the world when your stuck in a job in the small hours.

jester77

I've never worked nights or weekends, don't think I would want to either. Can you not just change to a job with more sociable hours?

djflawless

Im working nights just over a year. Start 10 pm finish 6.30am.
Leave home for work at 8-8.30pm and get home 7.30-9.00am
It absolutely kills a person physically and mentally. Especially in the winter as hours you get to see daylight are very slim.
I was always a skinny person but weight loss also seems to be a problem for night work. Its extremely hard to have a decent diet.
Moneys not much more than min wage either.
But, its a job

Captain Chaos

FionnK86 wrote: »

I personally prefer working at nights as there is less traffic on the way to and from work. Time spent commuting is like working for free

I rather work nights too. I find I can survive on less sleep than working day shifts and I find it easy to swap between day and night cycles.

In general I find I can manage my day better working 8pm-8am than 8am-8pm. I can get more done like shopping and getting to banks and whatever else. Can't do any of that on 12 hour day shifts.

anvilfour

I only found out all the horrible things it does to your body after I stopped working the night shift at a hotel...!

Mr. CooL ICE

I've worked some jobs in the past that involved night shifts, but never night shift only. The toughest thing by far is adjusting your body clock when switching between day and night cycles.

One job was a week of days -> week of nights, repeat. That was tough. By the time you full adjusted your sleep, you were changing again. Another was a month of days -> month of nights. 2-3 horrible shifts into each change and it was fine.

byronbay2

I used to work nights and found it grand: 3 X 8pm-to-8am shifts per week (mon-wed for 4 weeks and then thur-sat for 4 weeks) with another on overtime if I wanted. Slept no problem during the day (no children at the time) and had plenty of time off to get jobs done and play golf. Plenty of money with the 40% shift allowance.

The one caveat is that I worked permanent nights, whereas a lot of people now seem to work days followed by nights and vice versa. No way on earth would I do that (unless I was REALLY desperate, I suppose) - seems like such an unhealthy way to live. Obviously, having children might put a spanner in the day-sleeping works as well!

The Backwards Man

I've worked unsocial and varied shifts all my life. Any time I had a 9-5 job, I had to do something else along with it or I would have went mad. To me, the thought of knowing exactly when and where I will be working in two weeks, two months, two years time is terrifyingly mind numbing, can't think of anything worse.

jimgoose

byronbay2 wrote: »

...The one caveat is that I worked permanent nights, whereas a lot of people now seem to work days followed by nights and vice versa. No way on earth would I do that (unless I was REALLY desperate, I suppose) - seems like such an unhealthy way to live. Obviously, having children might put a spanner in the day-sleeping works as well!

Agreed. You can get used to being a vampire for part of the week, even use it productively. But this switching back-and-forth would really annoy me.

Turtyturd

Was never in a job where I had to do a night shift. First job I had alternated between a 7-3 shift, and a 3-11 shift and I found this to be a pain in the hole.

My brother used to do nights in his job and loved it because it meant he didn't have to deal with customers all day.

Aimeee

Used to love nights in my youth. Got piles of work done as far less going on than daytime shifts. (No other discipline working nights at the time). That was pre kids & i was a lot younger then. I really don't think I could do them now. Hubby used to do a week on week off, definitely the older you get the harder they are.

pidgeoneyes

I did 4 cycle for about 3 and a half years, 3 cycle for about 4 years. Over the last few months it really started to kill me, to the point where I was a liabilty in the car after a night shift! I said feck that, I've had enough! So I went back to college in September. I won't ever go back to nights!

Ellie2014

So a quick bite to eat and freshen up; I'm back to work! My duty is 4:30pm - 9:30am! Phew! Hope everyone has a good evening! Will check in later!

Herb Powell

Never had to work any, and I don't envy anyone who does them. From what I've been told/read, it doesn't seem worth it at all.

jamesbere

I do 3 night shifts a week, 11-9. Don't mind it too much as it's better then what I used to have which was Wednesday to Saturday all nights. The ones I do now are Tuesday to Thursday.

pickarooney

Ellie2014 wrote: »

So a quick bite to eat and freshen up; I'm back to work! My duty is 4:30pm - 9:30am! Phew! Hope everyone has a good evening! Will check in later!

17 hours?
Best of luck!

_Kaiser_

Did mainly nights for a few years in my 20s.. very quickly you find yourself just going from work to bed and back again and spending the first day you're off asleep to catch-up.
Social life is non-existent unless you work with a good crowd, in which case ye all end up going out together.

Money was better than the day shift and the traffic/commute was easier but no way would I do it again.

Whatsisname

Did it for a few weeks in a factory when i was younger, soul destroying isnt the word for it.

Squall Leonhart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUcKeKt8C1k

Always thought this song kinda got it right, they somehow managed to capture the wooziness and mood.

"fluorescent flat caffeine lights", "I see the night through a headache grey" ..

Shanotheslayer

The Honey Monster wrote: »

Aha hahahahahahah try 5 night shifts a week, Monday to Friday and come back to me about no social life, terrible health, sleep patterns, diet etc. No week days as you spend most of the day in bed and you're waiting to go into work and your weekend is shorter than anyone else's due to being asleep most of Saturday.

My job is horrendous.

I've been there, it's a nightmare. Did it for a month basically, and then thankfully found a new job!

Penn

Great in the winter, hateful in the summer.

Depends a lot on the job too. Used to work in a factory but for the most part you were just there in case sh*t went wrong, with the occasional quality testing etc. Spent most night shifts (because no one was around) reading, listening to music, internetting and occasionally watching dvds on a portable dvd player.

Sleeping during the day in the summer was the worst though. It was bright, even with blind + curtain. It was warm, so you had to have a window open. But more tractors etc on the road, so window open meant more noise. More noise meant earplugs, which aren't that comfortable to sleep in. And it was just always a horrible feeling.

Sleeping during the day in winter never bothered me.

Penn

Not so much nightshift but when I worked in a hotel, I used to do mornings, but they needed me to cover a few nights as well. In 3 days I did:

7pm-1am Sunday night
7am-1pm Monday morning
7pm-1am Monday night
7am-1pm Tuesday morning
5.30pm-12am Tuesday night

Then on Wednesday morning I had to go register for college and get my student ID photo taken. I looked like a f*cking zombie on my student card for 5 years.

Probably not legal to do that, but it was about 6 weeks into my first job and I was 17 so didn't question it, just did it.

JigglyMcJabs

I used to love working nights. I did a stint as night shift in a hotel, 10 nights on 4 nights off.

For insurance/health and safety, there had to be 2 staff plus the manager on the premises. We'd do maybe an hour of cleaning, then cook up some steaks in the kitchen, kick back in the restaurant and talk ****e for the rest of the shift drinking tea.

An hour before the morning shift manager was due, we'd get back to doing a bit of cleaning, make sure there was a smell of pledge in the air when she turned up.

Then off to the early house until about 11am, drunkenly walk out into the sunshine and home to bed. The night work/ early house combo meant that you'd be drunk after 2 pints, so it was cheap too.

Galwayguy35

Worked all nights for 7 years before changing to a day job, couldn't sleep when I got home and was tired as a horse getting up.

They want me to go back on nights but I'd hate to have to do them again.

ivytwine

Squall Leonhart wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUcKeKt8C1k

Always thought this song kinda got it right, they somehow managed to capture the wooziness and mood.

"fluorescent flat caffeine lights", "I see the night through a headache grey" ..

Haha I listened to that song when working nights and burst into tears

I think I decided at that point nights were not for me!

DEFTLEFTHAND

When I was 19 I spent a few weeks that summer sitting in a hut with another fella guarding an industrial complex. No training or anything, all the job really entailed was looking at monitors and opening the gate at certain times to let Lorries in and out.

Any hint of trouble we'd just call the guards, the only real issue we had was certain people trying to steal scrap metal.

Hours were long though 7pm to 7am, but pay wasn't bad.

Kiwi in IE

I work nights at the moment too. I jobshare a full time nightshift position, so only have to do 7 a month, but it takes me about 2 days to fully get over each block of 2 or 3. There's no way I could do nights full time.

Dr. Bre

I like a shift especially at night 😉

outsidein98

Worked every second month days and nights for seven years. 60 hours on alternative weeks including Friday to Monday and 24 the next. It was killing. Never again.

I knew people who worked nights on that shift permanently literally fo 20 years. They adapted to it. But switching back and forth between days and nights is the road to an early grave.

You were always tired and people never understood, waking you for stupid reasons. If you tried to stay awake after finishing a cycle you could end up hallucinating. On guy lay down for a rest for a few minutes woke up seventeen hours later. Another got the bus into town and woke up back where he started. People have died while driving after night shifts. It's like being drunk.
Never again for me.

miezekatze

I know several people who prefer working nights or late shifts, but I very much prefer 9-5ish working hours myself. I worked nights and late shifts when I was younger and always found it hard to stay awake/productive. It was handy for getting stuff done during the day though.

smurfjed

Try working 20 days a month on 24 hour call, must be at work within an hour and ready to do up to a 16 hour duty.

Just as well that i get 150 days off a year at home to recover

Yakkyda

Done night security a few years back, thurs-sun, 7-7. Was fine at first as there was two of us on(lad was friend) and the the construction site was absolutely secure, covered by cameras in the control room and literally 2 mins from the garda station(handy, considering our training was "if you see anything dodgy, radio control, they'll call the guards, there's a radio off ye go")

We just slept and played xboxat first but a it progressed we had to do patrols due to machinery etc overnight on site so no sleep. Really ****'s up your body clock, social life etc. Even on days of its hard to feel right. Night premium was good as was the wages in general but would be even harder to do now(was 20,now 31) but I'd take it if I was offered tbh! Is tough going for the majority of folk.

_Brian

Night shift is a balls.

I spent 13 years of nights, 3&4 12 hour shifts on alternative weeks. First few years were ok but it got harder and harder to sleep during days.

Was having a lot of chest infections and general sickness which all cleared up when I stopped the shift work.

I still get the insomnia fairly regularly though. That never went away.

eoins23456

Worked night shifts during the summer in an ice-cream parlor last summer. 3-4 shifts of 10pm - 7am which wasn't too bad. all the free pizza and ice-cream so was a great bonus !

ivytwine

_Brian wrote: »

Night shift is a balls.

I spent 13 years of nights, 3&4 12 hour shifts on alternative weeks. First few years were ok but it got harder and harder to sleep during days.

Was having a lot of chest infections and general sickness which all cleared up when I stopped the shift work.

I still get the insomnia fairly regularly though. That never went away.

Yeah I only did night shifts for a very short time and still my sleep is fecked. Used to sleep like a log before, now I find it much harder to fall asleep.

waraf

I did shift work for a few years when I was younger. Shift pattern was a month of days / month of nights. It definitely starts to take a toll on your health after 2 years+. Wouldn't go back to it even if they doubled my salary.

I worked one overnight shift one night a week as a student for a couple of years. It was the kind of job where you had to be there to deal with a situation if it occurred, but it was mostly quiet and you could snooze between alerts etc. I didn't mind it because it was quiet and I could study and usually get a couple of hours sleep, get home at 7.30 am and sleep until 1 and then I'd be sorted again for the week.

There were a few nights that were relentless, and I remember one night when the brown stuff didnt stop hitting the fan and I was working from 7 pm on Friday night right through to 12 noon Saturday. I was walking home that day, and I wound up crossing the road and being missed by a bus by centimetres, it brushed my clothes. My judgement was screwed with tiredness, but there were people in that office getting in their cars to drive home that morning.

Some of the shifts required of hospital doctors are terrifying, I couldn't cross the road but they're expected to deal with peoples lives.

Rym Shanley

Did nightshifts for four years.

Tough at first then I adapted.

The trick is to stay up for a few hours when you get home and then go to bed. Get up just before you need to leave to go to work - just have shower, breakfast and then go.

I now work 9am - 5.30pm. I don't go to bed the moment I get in the door so why do it on nights?

The Sidewards Man

I love the grave yard shift, everything much quieter and less pace. Make away more time on the road too.