Thoughts on Shift Work
I wrote this for a different place, but thought it well put here, too. It's something I've never really sat down and thought about, till now.
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I found 12 hour shifts easiest to deal with. Generally the ones I dealt with were the 4 on, 4 off, 3 on, 3 off (flip to opposing 12 hours). So you'd spend 2 weeks on "days" (7am to 7pm) and then 2 weeks on "nights" (7pm to 7am). As mentioned elsewhere, the first couple of the swap were the 'hardest' while you re-adjust. You'd make more mistakes, visit Timmy's more often, and just generally be a bit more 'loggy' than usual. Then you'd pick it up. I found the key to helping here was to stay 'on shift', even if you weren't working. So when I was on nights, even on my days off, I kept the same sort of schedule as if I was working.
Yes, this sort of thing is pretty hard on your social life. Especially if you keep to the hours on your off days. It always seemed that no matter what days I had off, they weren't the 'right' ones. Trying to change a shift on this sort of schedule is a bloody nightmare. No one really to 'trade' with. Best you can hope for is one of the guys on the 'off' day being ok with subbing in for you.
I have also worked rotating 8 hour shifts. This job was a rarity in that it was M-F, and just the times flipped around. 2 weeks of days (7am - 3pm), 2 weeks of afternoons (3pm - 11pm) and 2 weeks of nights (11pm to 7am).
I found this was actually harder, and much more annoying. For the longest time (I worked this job for 3 years) I couldn't figure out why my afternoon shifts were so hard to get through. I would be sleepy and 'slow' all shift for at least the first week. Then it came to me. When on Days and Nights, I would sleep during afternoons. So I was sleeping a month on afternoons and then trying to force sleep at a different time. I 'solved' this by changing up my sleeping habits to "3 hours after I got home from work". That gave me enough time to get home, eat, shower and wind down a bit. Once I started keeping to that new sleeping schedule, that job got a lot better as my afternoon work picked up to the standard of my day and night work.
I found this was even more miserable on your social life, btw. For 2 weeks of every 6, you cease to exist to everyone, and the rest of the time you are either sleeping in prep for work, or too tired to do anything.
I usually took my sleeping quite seriously. I always kept in mind that I was driving a 1-4 ton forklift around (usually) that if I was sleepy could easily kill someone with. I had a few close calls that drove that home.
Working shift work in retail is a different monster. During some layoffs or slow times, you'd be surprised at how easy it is to find work in retail as a register jockey if you are willing to work nights.
Those only generally tend to be 8 hour shifts, but are pretty easy to get used to. The place I'd work had me work Sun-Thurs, 10pm to 6am. Since there was no rotating, after the first couple shifts I was able to get my circadian rhythm into that idea, and it wasn't a very big deal. The issue I often found was boredom really set in. In a small store, there's not much to do. You can bring books, but you burn through them pretty quick. You are left to wander the store and hope customers come in. Boredom here is really bad, as when you get bored, it's quite easy to fall asleep. So while I had no problem adjusting to sleeping when I wasn't on shift, I often resorted to caffeine (a poor choice, I realize) since I always FELT tired on shift.
The other two shifts were always busier (customer wise) than the night shift, so I took to begging my co-workers to leave work for me to do. Even if it was just busy-work, it helped keep me occupied and awake. Those shifts got 'easier' after that.
~~~
I found 12 hour shifts easiest to deal with. Generally the ones I dealt with were the 4 on, 4 off, 3 on, 3 off (flip to opposing 12 hours). So you'd spend 2 weeks on "days" (7am to 7pm) and then 2 weeks on "nights" (7pm to 7am). As mentioned elsewhere, the first couple of the swap were the 'hardest' while you re-adjust. You'd make more mistakes, visit Timmy's more often, and just generally be a bit more 'loggy' than usual. Then you'd pick it up. I found the key to helping here was to stay 'on shift', even if you weren't working. So when I was on nights, even on my days off, I kept the same sort of schedule as if I was working.
Yes, this sort of thing is pretty hard on your social life. Especially if you keep to the hours on your off days. It always seemed that no matter what days I had off, they weren't the 'right' ones. Trying to change a shift on this sort of schedule is a bloody nightmare. No one really to 'trade' with. Best you can hope for is one of the guys on the 'off' day being ok with subbing in for you.
I have also worked rotating 8 hour shifts. This job was a rarity in that it was M-F, and just the times flipped around. 2 weeks of days (7am - 3pm), 2 weeks of afternoons (3pm - 11pm) and 2 weeks of nights (11pm to 7am).
I found this was actually harder, and much more annoying. For the longest time (I worked this job for 3 years) I couldn't figure out why my afternoon shifts were so hard to get through. I would be sleepy and 'slow' all shift for at least the first week. Then it came to me. When on Days and Nights, I would sleep during afternoons. So I was sleeping a month on afternoons and then trying to force sleep at a different time. I 'solved' this by changing up my sleeping habits to "3 hours after I got home from work". That gave me enough time to get home, eat, shower and wind down a bit. Once I started keeping to that new sleeping schedule, that job got a lot better as my afternoon work picked up to the standard of my day and night work.
I found this was even more miserable on your social life, btw. For 2 weeks of every 6, you cease to exist to everyone, and the rest of the time you are either sleeping in prep for work, or too tired to do anything.
I usually took my sleeping quite seriously. I always kept in mind that I was driving a 1-4 ton forklift around (usually) that if I was sleepy could easily kill someone with. I had a few close calls that drove that home.
Working shift work in retail is a different monster. During some layoffs or slow times, you'd be surprised at how easy it is to find work in retail as a register jockey if you are willing to work nights.
Those only generally tend to be 8 hour shifts, but are pretty easy to get used to. The place I'd work had me work Sun-Thurs, 10pm to 6am. Since there was no rotating, after the first couple shifts I was able to get my circadian rhythm into that idea, and it wasn't a very big deal. The issue I often found was boredom really set in. In a small store, there's not much to do. You can bring books, but you burn through them pretty quick. You are left to wander the store and hope customers come in. Boredom here is really bad, as when you get bored, it's quite easy to fall asleep. So while I had no problem adjusting to sleeping when I wasn't on shift, I often resorted to caffeine (a poor choice, I realize) since I always FELT tired on shift.
The other two shifts were always busier (customer wise) than the night shift, so I took to begging my co-workers to leave work for me to do. Even if it was just busy-work, it helped keep me occupied and awake. Those shifts got 'easier' after that.