I’m unemployed just out of college, and have just been contacted by two companies to interview with positions. Pretty sweet, only both positions have odd shifts - one has a shift that rotates based on the week, and the other would simply be second or third shift. Does anyone here have any experience working on an odd shift? What’s it like? Do rotating shifts drive you crazy, and how hard is it to live with someone who sticks to normal shifts? Should I also be expecting higher pay from a rotating/night shift, or is it all the same?
Night shift usually provides better pay, because fewer people want to deal with an upside down schedule. Not a guarantee, though.
When I was college I worked for a 24-hour gas station during a summer break, and there was very little consistency in my schedule. Some days I worked first, some second, some third. There were a couple times I worked second one night, then had less than 8 hours to eat and sleep before I went back for first shift the next day. (I wound up trading one of those shifts to work second and third back to back, since it was frankly easier.) I never had much of a problem with the changing schedule, but it’s a hell of a lot easier to handle it when you’re younger.
I haven’t done a shift that rotates based on the week, but I’d say it’s quite doable. Night shift can be very relaxing if you’re a night owl, since you’re not having to fight your internal clock.
As for living with someone with an unusual shift…it can be a little stressful, but not too bad. Depending on who you’re living with (partner vs roommate), the staggered shifts can either be frustrating, because it’s tougher to spend time with each other, or freeing, because you have the place to yourself while they’re at work.
That’s just my personal experience, though. Some people are happier with set schedules, but I like a little variety in my routine.
If you opt for the permanent second/third shift, PLEASE do not make the mistake that almost everybody makes of trying to keep a regular bedtime during the week and changing over to day hours for the weekend. That just tends to fuck people up.
I might also add, just for sake of argument you end up with third shift, please do not go home, go right to bed like most people do. That tends to make you have the 3 am sleepies. What you need to do is simply shift the clock to nights. Get off work at 8 am, stay awake for 4 or so hours then go to bed, get up the normal amount of shit/shave/shower/commute time before your shift that you would do if it was an 8 am log in. The principal behind this is just as if you were to get home at 6 pm after work and immediately go to bed, then get up at 3 am to go to work at 8 am. You would be getting the sleepies in mid afternoon. Simple advice, but it works.
I’ve worked all shifts.
The worst was 2nd (4 to midnight). Graveyard was much better in terms of social life.
I worked a 3/12 quad. 3 days on 4 days off one week, 4 days on 3 days off the next. Worked out pretty well.
I liked straight 3/12s, especially day shifts.
This is interesting, thanks. I didn’t really think about it much, I have no intention of getting up “normally” on the weekend if I get a night shift. In all honesty, when left to my own devices, I seem to get up at 3-5pm on a weekend as-is. But I will definitely keep this in mind.
Rotating shifts are an absolute bear. I often worked a 3-11 PM shift which rotated to a 7AM -3PM shift without a day off in between. Uglier than a ripped up softball and impossible to adjust to. If given a preference, I’d go for straight either 2nd or 3rd shift. I’ve worked both long-term at previous jobs and while you may be a little out of touch with people in your life on the standard 9-5, at least your downtime is in a set pattern.
Bri2k
I agree with hating rotating shifts. I don’t know anyone who adjusted well to rotating.
I tend to work any time after noon, often not until 3pm. It works for me, as I am most productive after dark and tend to not want to go to bed until 2-4 am, which gets me up between 10am and noon and to work about 2 hours later. It is a little more difficult socially, since most social evening stuff happens between 6pm and 10pm. I have a flexible enough job that I can take a half day or just come in earlier than usual if there’s an event/gathering that I really want to attend. Like tonight. I’ll be leaving between 9-9:30 which is at least three hours earlier than usual.
I worked a rotating shift for a few years. I hated it. You could never develop a pattern of sleeping. I ended up sleeping strange amounts - one day I would fall asleep and wake up a couple hours later; another day I’d sleep for twelve hours. There were times I woke up, looked at my clock and saw it was 5:30 - and I had no idea if it was AM or PM.
I’ve worked a 2nd shift job for 7 years. 4PM to 2AM.
You should get more pay, how much depends on the employer. It fits my sleeping schedule very nicely, as I’ve always been a night owl.
The main disadvantage of this shift is socially. As of late, my social life it totally non existent, after working a long period of 6 or 7 day weeks. Having a social life on a normal 5 day week is tough, even meeting family. Heck, I don’t even see family I LIVE with except on the weekends, for a few hours at a time.
Is it worth it? Depends on how long you do it, your social life, etc
I’ve been a shift worker for about 35 years. I no longer do night shifts, due to family issues. Mostly I do evenings (2:00 - 10:30) with the occasional day shift (7:30 - 4:00). Late/earlies are hard because I do need down time when I get home from an evening shift. I simply can’t come home and just go straight to sleep, which means I get about three hours’ sleep between an evening shift and a day shift, if I’m lucky.
That said, I’d hate to have to stick to the 9 - 5, Monday - Friday routine. Working shifts means that I’m often home when the DHL man comes calling, as he did today, and I can go grocery shopping/bill paying when the crowds are smallers.
I get a 12.5% penalty for working evenings shifts. Night shift (which I don’t do) attracts 15% in my job, which I think is lousy, given the way night shift mucks up people’s bodies. I’m in Australia, however, so your situation re penalty rates may well be different.
I’ve worked evenings and I’ve worked nights. First time I worked evenings I was just out of college and would meet up with friends at 11 and close the bars every night and still get a good night’s sleep before work. I didn’t mind too much then.
Second time was married and since I’d leave the house half hour before she got home and she was asleep when I got home we got to see each other rarely. That sucked.
I’ve also worked midnights. Loved midnights, especially since it was four 10s. Shift didn’t bother me, although I often did switch my sleep schedule back and forth for off days.
I will warn you, some people just can’t sleep in the day. I know one guy who was on it for six months and could fight to get 1-2 hours a sleep on work days and then on his days off basically slept 12+ hour nights to catch up. He was a mess.
I don’t think you necessarily have to stay up 3 or 4 hours when you get home either. I used to be up for about an hour and then zip off to bed. An evening nap before work can be a big help too if you had trouble sleeping during the day.
Oh and turn off your phones. You would not believe how many calls you get during the day.
Rotating shifts can be dreadful. I’ve recently changed from 4 days on 07:00 - 15:30, 2 days off, 4 days on 14:00 - 22:30, 2 days off, 4 days on 22:00 - 08:00, 2 days off and I put on 2 stone. I’m now on 12 hour shifts - 4 on, 4 off - which seems rather better so far.
Rotating shifts are horrible. For a couple of months, I was doing an early early Monday start (2AM), then Tue, Wed, Thu were 6AM starts. I finally just had enough and decided to do a 2AM start each day, and life has been much better.
For what it’s worth, I work 4 tens a week. I love getting out of here at noon, and since I’d be going to work in the dark no matter when I stated, it doesn’t bother me to get in at 2AM.
Take it if it’s all you can get, but it sucks. Don’t do rotating shifts, you’ll be stuck in an existential sleep deprived hell. At least with the same days off you’ll only never know what time it is, not what day it is too.
I agree with everyone above regarding rotating shifts. Royal PITA.
On the other hand, when I was working those rotating shifts, I loved second shift. I’m a late sleeper, stay-up-late kind of guy (or I was back then) and it fit my internal clock perfectly. I could get off work, have a beer or two at the pub if I wanted (which were not very crowded, it being almost closing time), go home and read for a little bit and go to sleep. I would usually wake up with a bunch of time to do all the normal BS one must do (food shopping, banking, etc.) but I got to do it in the middle of the day instead of with everyone else who just got off work.
Plus, it didn’t really mess up my weekends. Stay out until closing time? Sure, no problem. Just another day at the office.
Now, I was single at the time; I imagine if one was married with a family it might cause some difficulties, but I absolutely loved second shift.
I’ve worked 2nd and graveyard. Second shift sucked for me. But some folks seem to like it.
Graves where OK. Sometimes liked it.
A rotating shift is better than no job at all, but otherwise, avoid it.Even young people have problems getting used to working different shifts every two or three days. And if it’s one of those schedules where you have a work period of OTHER than weekly, then you’re going to have to carry around a pocket calendar to schedule everything, because you’ll never know what day you’re working mid shift. Jobs that require the workers to work rotating shifts probably do so out necessity, they won’t hire quite enough people to get the shifts covered, and the people who make out the schedules will NOT work with you if you need to take a certain day off. They’ll tell you that the rotating shift is fair because everyone has to work some afternoons and nights, but it would be easier for the workers to just adjust to second or third shift and be done with it. Rotating shifts are unhealthy.
Working second or third shift consistently can be actually beneficial, though. First, some jobs will pay a shift differential for working second or third shift. Second, if you need to make an appointment, hey, just about everyone else is open MF 9-5, so you can get an appointment at almost any time, if you need to see the doctor or get your appliances repaired. You do have to say that you need to leave at 2 or 3, in order to get to your shift work.
It is hard to schedule a social life. You might not have Saturday and Sunday off, but two other days. And some people will NOT consider the fact that you work swing when they want to talk to you. For years my husband worked swing. His father (retired) always wanted to call him up and talk to him at about 7 AM. I finally got to the point where I’d tell the old SOB that Bill was asleep, that he’d been up til 2 AM, and just when did he expect Bill to be able to sleep? Bill wasn’t partying every night and then sleeping in. He was working and then relaxing for a few hours, like anyone else did. I finally told the old bastard not to call before 11 AM unless it was an emergency, and hung up on him when I heard his voice. That was the only way to get through to him.
Thanks for all the advice. Rotating shift sounds pretty terrible, but, well, I have to take what I can get.
In my opinion, shift works ranks like this in order of misery:
- Working an off-shift full time. Not too bad, I did it for years. Some people, including myself, even prefer this.
- Working different shifts on a week-to-week basis. I never did this myself but I think it would be better than the next alternative.
- Working different shifts on a day-to-day basis. Worst situation I ever worked.
I did this - 6 AM to 6 PM shift. The night shift side always looked like the walking dead to me - both when they arrived for work at 6 PM and when I relieved them at 6 AM.