Is it any wonder that companies are outsourcing their IT support to India? Not only is our night shift their normal work hours, I am sure companies are sick of the “I’m an IT geek so the company should bend over backwards to kiss my ass” attitude.
Here’s a bit of advice. Bosses don’t care that you’re sleepy or your feet are sore or your vagina hurts. They want you to show up and do your job. If you can’t do it, call in sick. If you call in sick a lot, expect to be replaced by someone who doesn’t. Or find a 9-5 job.
Former 3rd shift worker (and occasionally crew leader) here.
We got 5 sick days a year. Yes, I used a few of them because I hadn’t gotten any sleep (not necessarily because I was out goofing off; sometimes sleep JUST DOESN’T HAPPEN). Sometimes I took a “mental health day” because I was just plain sick of the job. Either way, I would just call and say that I was calling in sick. Period. I figure as long as I don’t go over my allotted 5 days, it’s nobody’s business what my particular malady was that day.
And yes, there were also plenty of nights when I just toughed it out, and hoped that the night’s work involved either a chair or something really mindless. The gaveyard shift can suck – and this coming from someone who requested it, for various reasons.
OTOH, we did have a guy who would sneak off to an office with a door and sleep in the dark. I finally managed to catch him at it one night, and the daytime boss worked him over good the next morning.
Well, that’s a pile of steaming dung. Has it occurred to you that perpetually working nights and trying to sleep days can really screw up a person’s sleep cycle? Has it occurred to you that there are some things that can only be done during the day, and sometimes those things need to be done, further screwing up the sleep cycle?
Lying in bed tossing and turning trying to sleep with your room blacked out for 6 hours before giving up is not “planning your day badly”, it’s a freaking health condition.
<hijack=thought-provoking> Study links night shifts with colon cancer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nurses who work regular night shifts have a higher risk of colon cancer, a study found, suggesting a relationship between the amount of sunlight exposure and the cancer.
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The researchers studied 78,586 women taking part in a long-running program called the Nurses’ Health Study. The nurses who worked night shifts at least three times a month for 15 years or more had a 35 percent greater risk of colon or rectal cancer.
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I used to work a job that was 4 days, 4 evenings, 4 nights, 2 off.
I never missed work, called in sick, took a nap, made an excuse. Mess up your sleep cycle?? Duh, not much! I worked the job. That’s why they are called jobs. That’s why you either deal with it or get a different job.
Yes, insomnia is malingering. :rolleyes: So you were lucky enough not to get it. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s rather common among graveyard workers, or that for many jobs (including mine), going to work with no sleep is downright dangerous.
My ex (who was military at the time) once found himself unable to sleep, at ALL, for three days. He went to sick call and the doctor told him that he was the sickest person he saw that morning, and pulled him off duty for several days until he was sleeping normally again. Sometimes a lack of sleep is truly health- and life-threatening. It’s not just “being tired.”
That being said, I’d definitely take the videocamera to work. Just make sure that nobody can ever do the same to YOU. But I’m learning up close and personal just how nasty the IT world can be, watching Mr. Butrscotch getting royally reamed by his new SERIOUS major asshole boss, so CYA is definitely the order of the day. (Which he’s doing, although not re sleeping on the job – yet; he goes on rotating shifts next week, so we’ll see then!)
For the record - I worked the 11pm to 7am shift at a Steam Plant for months. Why? It paid $0.38 an hour more than day work. If you sleep on the job, you’re gone. If you don’t like it, there are other jobs to be had. As I worked my way through college I also worked evening and graveyard in Labs. (Running urine tests at 4 am is NOT fun.) But I needed the job. I am fully aware of the dangers of not sleeping enough, and I changed my sleep-wake schedule accordingly. My dad worked shift work for 30 years. It’s hard, but it can be done, and be done well.
If you truly have insomnia, I suggest getting a prescription for Ambien. Or getting a day job.
And if you just can’t pull yourself into the office to work, and you don’t to say you’re sick and take sick leave, then take vacation time. That’s why you have leave.
I’m sorry…this is not true. My sick time is part of the benifits given to me by my employer for chosing to work for them. They are not, under any circumstance, a privilege.
lol… that’s true… how could you possibly call that a privilege? I don’t take it as a privilege to get sick! I DO take it as one to have a vacation however.
You WILL get sick… it’s a given. This is not a privilege…
Having sick days is simply planning for the enevitable!
I know why it would be considered a privilege though… It’s because people abuse their sick days… calling in sick when they are not… this is what gives sick days the critical eye…
My husband does not get sick leave to take anytime he wants. He has to supply a written doctor’s excuse if he is out for 8 hours at a time. I was wrong to feel it was a privilege from my employer.
If a person is too sleepy to work, do you really want them coming in? Or out on the roads DRIVING? Isn’t falling asleep at the wheel a major cause of accidents?
I couldn’t hack to night shift, 1900 to 0730. I gave it a month’s try, though and when patient load wasn’t crazy, we were given an hour’s lunch and steered toward an empty bed and encouraged to sleep. Everyone understood how hard it is to adjust to a nightshift and how a sleep-deprived RN could have dangerous lapses in judgement and reaction time. Too tired is an excellent reason to call in sick—hung over is not, but your supervisor is just going to trust in the person s/he hired.
I work 12 hour nights (4 on 4 off), have done for years. My biggest problem is when my any of my 4 nights work include the weekend. It’s sometimes kinda hard to get any quality sleep on a Saturday or Sunday when the entire street seem to be either mowing their lawns or performing amazingly noisy feats of D.I.Y.
hmmm… truely a potential problem… it happens sooner or later to all third shifters… women are often attracted to the power and sleeping habits that a thirdshifter commands… :rolleyes: