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

Ellie2014 · 18-11-2015 04:05PM #1

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

the evasion_kid · 18-11-2015 04:08PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:09PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:10PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:12PM

Ellie2014 wrote: »

usually work two night shifts a week; every week! sleep pattern is non-existent; as is my social life, unfortunately ðŸ˜‚ 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 · 18-11-2015 04:13PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:13PM

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

jimgoose · 18-11-2015 04:14PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:14PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:17PM

Ellie2014 wrote: »

usually work two night shifts a week; every week! sleep pattern is non-existent; as is my social life, unfortunately ðŸ˜‚ 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 · 18-11-2015 04:19PM

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

Mycroft H · 18-11-2015 04:21PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:21PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:22PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:22PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:25PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:27PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:29PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:30PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:33PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:35PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:37PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:41PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:41PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:47PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:50PM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:54PM

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 · 18-11-2015 05:02PM

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_ · 18-11-2015 05:10PM

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 · 18-11-2015 05:14PM

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

Squall Leonhart · 18-11-2015 05:19PM

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" ..

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

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