It’s a small rant. Not worthy of serious profanity.
It’s like this. I’ve always been a Night Owl. Ever since I was a kid. Sure, if I forced myself, I could get up early, but it was always an effort. I have managed to accomodate my late hours by taking night/evening jobs, and scheduling any appointments or classes in the evening as much as possible. Hey - different strokes for different folks. It’s MY life, MY schedule. If I want to stay up to 3 to 5 am working on a project, how is it anyone else’s business? I don’t keep anyone around me up with my hours. (i.e. by playing loud music at 3 in the morning, etc.)
Yet some people keep on asking “When are you going to get more regular hours?” (Never. When are you going to get more late hours?) Or, “You sleep too much” (No, I sleep about 8 hours, or less. If I go to bed at 3 am, I’ll get up at 11 am. How is that ‘sleeping too much’?") I had one friend who would just call me early anyway. She’d say “Well, I thought you would be up by now.” Basically, she implied that since she was up, any “normal” person would be up. Therefore, she’d call and wake me up…because apparently I had no business being asleep at that hour. I have had half a mind to call her at 3 am, and say “Hey - I am up, why are you asleep?”
I have been pretty good about not answering phone calls early, etc. And to be honest, I don’t get bothered as much as I used to. But I still detect this underlying attitude that it’s not “normal” to sleep late, and that anyone who sleeps late is lazy. Hey - I have a night job. Someone has to have these night jobs, right? When do these annoying morning people think people like me should sleep? And why do they think it’s their business to begin with?
Well, there. My small rant. No profanity at all, was there?
I completely agree. I used to work as a circulation mgr for the paper. Workday started at 2>3am, done @10AM. People who KNEW my schedule would have no prob calling me at 2PM, even tho that is right in the middle of my sleeptime. “Oh,
you’re STILL asleep?”. It is about the same as calling someone with a normal schd @ 4AM.
If people calling in the morning is a problem, get an answering machine with volume control, then turn off the ringers on all of your phones and turn the answering machine down to minimum volume when you go to bed. That way, people won’t awaken you with phone calls in the morning.
And as for people thinking you’re a slob or lazy because you work night shift… fuck 'em. I certainly don’t have any problem with anyone sleeping in until all hours of the afternoon - it’s something I do when I can get away with it, being a teenager.
I’ve been a night owl for what feels like forever, but there is still an attitude of my being a “freak” or that I’m sleeping too much/not enough. I don’t get home from school until 11 pm, and I am usually up to 1 or 2 am doing homework, transcribing notes, and yes, making the occasional stop here. Sleeping to 9 or 10 am is not being lazy or getting too much sleep–that is a normal, 8 hour sleep session.
What gets my goat, though, are these fucking telemarketers that call my house at 7 or 8 in the morning–the ones that are on the East Coast, and calling the West Coast. These sheep-loving, booger-chewing, low-brow, butt-picking, bicycle-seat-sniffing, “I’m such a loser because in this job market I can’t find a better job than dialing a phone” assholes have the balls to act indignant when I kindly remind them that they have called at a very inappropriate time and have woken me up–resulting in the fact that I will never buy their product. Thing is, I turn off the ringer to my phone (I don’t have an answering machine), so I end up having to block out every call I get, meaning I miss other calls. Anyone else I know that tries to call me at an inappropriate hour, will of course, not reach me either. It’s the price they pay to try and call me at 7 in the morning.
Believe me, I know exactly what you are talking about. I work third shift and I get home at 7am. People call me at 11am and expect me to be up. (I wouldn’t be up at 11am if I went to bed at midnight! I love sleeping!)
The thing that bothers me is that when you explain to people that you work a night job, they seem to think you must be either really broke and need the money or you have more than one job. I just work better at night! Most stores, restaurants, places for entertainment are not open after midnight (around here anyway) so why not work then? That leaves you available to frequent these places whenever you want!
The people in my office who work second shift are always complaining that they can’t get to one place or another before they close or that they have to tape all their favorite soap operas and sitcoms since they work when they are on. Yet, these same people are mystified that I actually prefer to work third shift!
I’ve been working graveyard for about 3 years. I don’t like the hours, but the money is too good to give up. I start my workweek on Sunday, which for all intents and purposes, is Saturday night.
Well meaning freinds and family members always invite me to events they have scheduled for noon on Sunday. They seem either annoyed or hurt that I will not attend. They can’t seem to get their minds around the fact that I’m lucky if I can stay awake past 10 A.M.
‘Oh, why don’t you just grab a quick nap and join us?’ A little vein on my forehead throbs when I hear this question. Like they would ever, EVER, consider joining me for an event at 3 A.M. on Monday night/Tuesday morning. And the real kicker is they can’t see that Sunday noon IS 3 A.M. to me. AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!
I disagree in that this topic does merit at least a little profanity…
I worked nights for many years and would often have the phone ringing at 8am. Do it once to me and it was a mistake, do it again and there was no promise I wouldn’t tear someone a new asshole. Only my mom could get away with calling and asking why I was still sleeping at 9am.
My ex ran up some bills right after we were separated. When she purposely defaulted on the payments the bill collecters started calling me at 8 am. This would be soon after I had gotten to bed. They kept it up for quite a few days even after I told them my schedule and when they could call. One lady kept calling until I told her I knew her name, where she worked and that she could expect to see me at her own fucking door at six am if she kept this up. The next time she called it was 4pm.
I called my ex too at about 6am, I had left her with a lot of money and she could have paid her bills. I told her that if she didn’t get her shit together I was going to come and sieze the items she had purchased. She paid up in a couple of days and I got to sleep.
My my. Obviously the best time to post a topic such as this is in the middle of the night!
I actually work second shift - 3 pm to 11 pm. (I’d love the 11-7 night shift, but those jobs are always full. Night shift is super-easy where I work.) When I get home from work, I cannot get to sleep before 2 am. I need time to wind down - usually I stay up much later than 2. Hey - I like to watch the news, catch up with email, etc., and work on any projects I have going. So I stay up. I also have been known to shop at the 24 hour grocery store on the way home from work. There is a lot you can do after midnight!
Another example of thoughtless morning people: At work I was scheduled to go to a mandatory refresher course. You had to go. It was at 8 am - and was an hour’s drive away, which meant I’d have to leave at 7 am. After getting home from work past 11 pm the night before. No chance of anything close to 8 hours sleep there! The class was scheduled to be an all day thing - maybe we’d get out at 3 PM, or later. (We ended up getting out early, but no one had scheduled it that way.) The thing that really pissed me off was that my work still expected me to show up for work that night, and do my usual 3-11 pm shift! I didn’t - I called as soon as I saw the schedule and told them that it was going to be one or the other. They didn’t gripe about it (they didn’t have a leg to stand on - you cannot force someone to work almost 16 hours in one day, after all.) But the idea that they just put it on the schedule and hoped I’d go along with it! Oh my gosh. I don’t understand some people! Oh, and the co-worker I drove into this class with was on night shift. Which meant that she had JUST GOT OFF WORK and was still scheduled to show up for this class. (I have a feeling if she had called in and said she couldn’t do it, they wouldn’t have MADE her, but she went along with it…)
I am guessing that some people just don’t think. If they get up at 7 am, the rest of the world should also. I am really amazed at my work, though. They need people to work all shifts. So when they schedule these damned classes, you’d think they’d try to accomodate people from all shifts. But they don’t. Screw them.
Yosimite Babe, I work 3rd and know all about that kind of shit.
However, having already ranted about people who call when I’m sleeping, I’ll now rant about the people in my life who won’t call me at all. “Well, I was afraid to call. I was afraid you’d be sleeping.” This, in spite of the fact that I’ve told all my friends and family that it’s okay to call my house between 6 pm and 9 pm. Over and over again. And again. Don’t they frickin’ listen??? I’ve missed out on being informed of good new and bad because they won’t call me. Geez!
Heh, try living in house where you’re the only ‘night owl’, while everyone else in the house is an ‘early morning’ person. Not a fun situation.
I try to sleep and wake up at the “normal” hours (sleep at 10pm, wake up 7am) but everytime I do this, I end up just laying there in bed wide awake for at least 4 hours and waking up feeling nauseous and miserable.
I’m lying in bed, thinking it’s normal to wait hours and hours to fall asleep, and then I get up at 7, and fall asleep in all my classes.
Nationwide societally-enforced sleep cycles are bullshit. I fall asleep at two and I wake up at ten (if my cat doesn’t keep me awake), that’s the way it is, I can’t change it, I’ve tried, I’m sorry, that’s how it is, end of discussion, period, thank you, NEXT!
I don’t care if I’m up at 07:00. They’re getting a new asshole. The only execption is My girlfriends mother. She KNOWS I am up, she does not ASSUME I am up.
seven o’clock…Jesus H. Christ!!
I used to be a night owl, then I had to get a ‘real’ job.
I worked 2nd shift (4pm-12:30am) one summer in high school. My attitude is pretty much like everyone else’s - screw anyone who calls me while I’m sleeping. I still get the occasional 9 o’clock Sunday morning call, and really wish I could just give the caller a solid slap in the face.
Incidentally, the 2nd shift consistently had better production and quality numbers.
I love the nighttime. I go to work now about 4:30 pm. I usually wake up around 2 or 3. But, like you all, I don’t sleep all that much.
I proposed this elsewhere, but it deserves to come back here. I suggest we start a class-action lawsuit against every company that discriminates against night people by glorifying working early. If I ever get to run a company, it’s going to be a night person’s company:
“Well, it’s great that you got here at 6 this morning, but do you think you’ll still be alert for our 11 pm meeting?”
Yay, people who understand! I work overnights (10p-8a) and I can’t stand it when people call in the middle of the day! Everyone I know has gotten good about waiting until the evening to call, but my roommate’s family is another story! They always seem to call around 2 pm when they know she is still at work and that I am sleeping! And don’t even get me started on the telemarketers! When will people realize that not everyone chooses to be awake when the sun is up?!
Lynn, your husband’s schedule is literally killing him. Chronobiologists have proven that jumping schedules around like that lowers productivity and shortens lifespans.
Y-babe and all, I started explaining to family and friends that my night-personhood was not only a biological difference, it was a cultural one. If they asked why I slept through the best part of the day, I asked why they slept through the best part of the night. I have been able to put off some morning meetings by mumbling vaguely about discrimination and the nifty possibility of class-actions suits.
Morning people assume that they are vituous and we are evil. The reality is that night people sleep less (by need and by necessity), that forcing us to conform to morning people’s schedules is physically damaging, and that society is geared toward them.
Fight back! Schedule late meetings, late classes, late everything! When we take over (and we will) mowing your lawn before noon will be a capital offense.
Yes, there is sort of a self-righteousness about morning people.
I think we should feel self-righteous because we can stay up late, dammit! What about that? Why don’t we night people sigh and look condescending when some morning person says “Oh, I can’t attend that night class, oh, I can’t stay up to see that program - I start to droop at 10 pm.” Why don’t we treat them like they are “lazy” because they can’t stay awake past 11? Lazy bastards!
Not a fun situation.