Overnight retail shift experiences

[JayRx1981]

@Hirka_T_Bawa

So basically, for someone who works an overnight shift (look at 8pm to 8am, 7 days in a row), what are the unforeseen disadvantages I have to look at?

I’ve been working as a night shift pharmacist for several years now, doing 7 days on, then 7 off. In addition to all of the sleep stuff mentioned, be prepared to have to work around most places being closed for much of the time you are ordinarily awake. Doctor’s appointments, banking hours, government services all take on an additional challenge because you’re going to have to try to do them when you are naturally wanting to fall asleep or unwind, or wake up much earlier than you might otherwise want to get them done later in the day.

@nearwildheaven

And speaking as a pharmacist, if you think the overnight shift will be slow, think again. It’s a 24-hour store for a reason, and for the most part, you will STILL always have something to do.

This is definitely true, but, especially since you are doing 7 in a row, and you might not have tech help for most (if any) of your day, don’t let the always something to do thing drive you too crazy. Remember to take mental breaks, when you can, because you will need them, especially on days 6 and 7.

@Hirka_T_Bawa

Oh, I totally understand. I don’t expect to be playing video games for 12 hours, there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done. But the store in question has just recently gone 24 hours, and from talking to one other overnight in the district they don’t know why that person left since it was the easiest shift.

I figure I’ll end up doing most of the things I came in on my off days to do at my old job, monthly controlled inventories, outdates, recalls, autofills, etc. Honestly, I think the biggest challenge will be dealing with people with Do Not Fill Before dates coming in at 12:01am.

Oh, believe me, some of them won’t even wait that long. I’ve gotten people who will argue with me that 11pm is close enough to midnight, why do they have to wait, or those who will show up 30 minutes to midnight and expect the prescription to be ready exactly at 12:00am (it won’t) or even drop the prescription off much earlier before you got there and then complain that so-and-so told them this would be ready at midnight and they have an airplane flight to catch and what do you mean it’s gonna be another 30 minutes before you’ll have it done. My advice there is to pick a set of rules you can feel professionally comfortable with and don’t budge. Your regulars will adapt, and your problematic ones will generally go somewhere else, next time. At the same time, though, don’t let yourself get jaded by the clock-watchers as at least some of them might actually have good reason for doing so (ie their doctor requires them to wait until day 30/30 on an ATC opioid and would miss a dose or two if they didn’t come in at least at some point in the morning).

@Listycake

Just got home from an overnight shift at a major retail pharmacy. It’s reaaaally rough if the place is busy and you’re all by yourself. Haven’t been doing it long but I can’t say I’d recommend it.

Going to sleep now but can go into more detail later when I wake up

I view the busy/rough days as challenges designed to test how much I can accomplish, almost as a game. If I’m having a bad night/week, oh well, not my best run-through, I’ll try again tomorrow/next week.

@Urbanredneck

The good thing about working nights is there are fewer managers around.

Amen. Not that the store managers are bad people or a pain to work with, but I generally like to see as little of management as I can…and I’m technically management.

@Tom_Tildrum

You’ll be working an 84-hour week?

I don’t know how Hirka will be doing it, but one of the “perks” of night shift where I work is that we do flat 70 hour weeks, every 2 weeks, versus the 80 hours the day shifters work in that span of time. We just do ours 7 straight nights in a row (originally all as 10 hour shifts…sadly now they fluctuate between 9-12 hours depending on the night).

[Mr.Goob]

I did 3:30 to midnight for about 5 years. I’d go home and the problem of not being sleepy. (The civilization one more turn crack was my life…) So generally sleep from 4 to noon. That’s detail, the point is usable hours and what to do.

Work 8 hours
Do whatever 4 hours
Sleep 8
Whatever 4

A bad trap, just something to think about.

Another problem I had was looking at the clock in the afternoon thinking gotta leave in an hour, could cut half the lawn… screw it.

Plusses were as said above, less management and a much much more interesting mix of people. Coworkers and customers.

Loved when a wal-mart went 24 hours, hated that Denny’s was my only late night food option without driving way out of the way.

[Tiktaalik]

I guess it depends on your lifestyle. I worked the late night bar shift for several years and loved it. Granted I was single (or at least not married) the whole time and could take nights off when I needed to (other bartenders wanted the shift - the money was great).

Get home at 5 or 6 am, sleep for a while (noonish often), get up, go play golf or hit the beach or go to the gym (not busy in the early afternoon!), then possibly happy hour or go out to eat. Some evenings a quick nap if necessary - then back to work for another night of late night craziness.

I’m a little older now and work as a professional from 7am to 4pm (ish). It’s more normal - but I still miss the night shift with days off sometimes.

I guess I’m the outlier here.

Also, had a great quiet little neighborhood to sleep during the day.

[Listycake]

It looks like everyone pretty much said what I wanted to say while I was sleeping! The most challenging part for me so far has been managing the workload and not the actual graveyard hours. Hopefully your experience goes a lot smoother than mine if you take the position.

Also, just wanted to add that you can expect to be startled a lot. I can’t count how many times I’ve been completely focused on a task and when I look up, there’s a customer leaning over the counter staring at me. I actually made an audible yelp last night and almost fell off my step stool/ladder :smack:.

Btw, congrats on your new job!

[JayRx1981]

@Tiktaalik

I’m a little older now and work as a professional from 7am to 4pm (ish). It’s more normal - but I still miss the night shift with days off sometimes.

I guess I’m the outlier here.

Also, had a great quiet little neighborhood to sleep during the day.

Oh, I love working night shift. I have no plans on moving to days anytime soon. Like you said, though, it’s a lot easier when you’re single and younger.

@Listycake

It looks like everyone pretty much said what I wanted to say while I was sleeping! The most challenging part for me so far has been managing the workload and not the actual graveyard hours. Hopefully your experience goes a lot smoother than mine if you take the position.

Also, just wanted to add that you can expect to be startled a lot. I can’t count how many times I’ve been completely focused on a task and when I look up, there’s a customer leaning over the counter staring at me. I actually made an audible yelp last night and almost fell off my step stool/ladder :smack:.

Btw, congrats on your new job!

Heh, the startle thing is so true, especially in the 3am-6am window of time for me, where I can have an almost eerie quiet develop most days. I’ve made it a habit to force myself to look up/over at the windows every 30 seconds or so to mitigate that problem to some effect, because nothing is worse than startling in front of a patient when I’m in the midst of compounding liquid snot (aka amitriptyline 20mg/ml) and having it splatter all over the counter…and having to start again.

Oh, another perk about working nights is fewer doctor calls (both incoming and outbound), since, well, most of them get very, VERY angry if you wake them at 3am.

And yeah, congrats Hirka. Soon you too will be a fiendish creature of the night!

[Saint_Cad]

I know some people take melatonin to help out with the sleep cycle.

[Honey]

I worked 11-7 for 4 years at Skidmore College doing custodial work. I usually got home about 8am, cooked dinner, had a couple of glasses of wine, and read or watched TV until Noon. I slept from Noon to 8pm or so, then got up and had breakfast, and got ready for work. The worst part is having to explain to someone who comes to the door, why you’re drinking wine at 10 in the morning. :o

I am lucky that I can sleep at any time of day, so I really did get a solid 8 hours of sleep a “night”.

The hardest part is in the Winter during a snowstorm. It sucks to crawl out of a nice warm bed, and have to shovel out the car in the dark and head to work. Knowing everyone else is all cozy and warm makes it tougher.

[Rachellelogram]

I worked nights at a computer lab for a summer job in college. It was fine because I was single, young, and wouldn’t have had much of a social life anyway (most of my friends went back home for summer break). I’d never work graveyards now, though. I have a fiance who works days, and we’d never see each other. Plus I’m just getting too old for that shit. I’m 30 and I’ve paid my dues. I work 8am-4pm and you can pry my days out of my cold, dead fingers.

Also, if a neighbor or passerby is making “normal” noise during the day (TV/music, mowing the lawn) that prevents you from sleeping, you really have no recourse. The sounds that might warrant a cop call at midnight aren’t actionable between 7am and 10pm or so.

[Urbanredneck]

You should learn what foods make you sleepy and what keeps you awake. For me a breakfast to fall asleep was basic eggs and toast with no spices other than salt. Carbs also make one sleepy.

I also avoid sugar, chocolate, or anything spicy.

Soon you’ll develop your own “winding down” pattern.

**Note - one of the good things is you will not have to take time off work if you need to go to the courthouse or do any other daytime business.

[usedtobe]

Hypnotics.

Just long enough to reset the circadian clock.

[Critical1]

Ear Plugs, and a very dark room.

[bengangmo]

I used to work 8pm till 4 am and also loved it.
Home by 5, sleep till noon or so then I’d be out in the yard all afternoon.

Wouldn’t mind going back to a similar schedule again - and being home as the kids came home from school.

[Hirka_T_Bawa]

Thank you all for your replies! I just finished the training with the three letter company I’m working at, and my first day alone in this coming Sunday, which is a normal day shift. I have my schedule through the end of March, and starting the first week of March they are putting me at overnights, it is a 7pm to 7am shift, one week on, one week off.

@Listycake

Just got home from an overnight shift at a major retail pharmacy. It’s reaaaally rough if the place is busy and you’re all by yourself. Haven’t been doing it long but I can’t say I’d recommend it.

Going to sleep now but can go into more detail later when I wake up

Listycake, you’re licensed now? Congrats! Last I saw you on Diablo you were still on rotations. Hope you are enjoying selling drugs on the corner!

@Tom_Tildrum

You’ll be working an 84-hour week?

Yes, working a full pay period in one week, so it is an 84 hour week. But, for every week you work you have a whole week off… Which of course means if you take a week’s vacation, you get three weeks off… So it has its advantages. (If I stay with overnights that is)

@JayRx1981

I’ve been working as a night shift pharmacist for several years now, doing 7 days on, then 7 off. In addition to all of the sleep stuff mentioned, be prepared to have to work around most places being closed for much of the time you are ordinarily awake. Doctor’s appointments, banking hours, government services all take on an additional challenge because you’re going to have to try to do them when you are naturally wanting to fall asleep or unwind, or wake up much earlier than you might otherwise want to get them done later in the day.

True, but figure I can do most things I need in the middle of the week I’m off, when I’m more used to the schedule… Though, this all depends on how fast and easy it is for me to transition back to a semi-normal schedule on my off week, and back again on my work week…

This is definitely true, but, especially since you are doing 7 in a row, and you might not have tech help for most (if any) of your day, don’t let the always something to do thing drive you too crazy. Remember to take mental breaks, when you can, because you will need them, especially on days 6 and 7.

The company I just left, when I did weekends I was by myself without tech help, so I’m used to it in that case. I will have to take those mental breaks though, working a week in a row is tough, but I’ve done longer then 7 days when I was a floater in my past job

Oh, believe me, some of them won’t even wait that long. I’ve gotten people who will argue with me that 11pm is close enough to midnight, why do they have to wait, or those who will show up 30 minutes to midnight and expect the prescription to be ready exactly at 12:00am (it won’t) or even drop the prescription off much earlier before you got there and then complain that so-and-so told them this would be ready at midnight and they have an airplane flight to catch and what do you mean it’s gonna be another 30 minutes before you’ll have it done. My advice there is to pick a set of rules you can feel professionally comfortable with and don’t budge. Your regulars will adapt, and your problematic ones will generally go somewhere else, next time. At the same time, though, don’t let yourself get jaded by the clock-watchers as at least some of them might actually have good reason for doing so (ie their doctor requires them to wait until day 30/30 on an ATC opioid and would miss a dose or two if they didn’t come in at least at some point in the morning).

I won’t break any laws, but I’ll have to figure out what I’m comfortable with regarding overnights… I’ve heard a couple ways overnight pharmacists deal with it… I will say, I’m glad I’m getting into overnights after my state has a PDMP, will take a little guess work out of those iffy scripts. I think I’ll probably check what the overnight pharmacist doing the other week does, so at least the store will have consistency.

Amen. Not that the store managers are bad people or a pain to work with, but I generally like to see as little of management as I can…and I’m technically management.

I left my last job because of my boss. I had no problems with company before she took the position, then everything went down hill… I agree, less interaction with management is the best, and the store manager isn’t a problem (mainly because we know they have no actual say over us).

@Honey

The hardest part is in the Winter during a snowstorm. It sucks to crawl out of a nice warm bed, and have to shovel out the car in the dark and head to work. Knowing everyone else is all cozy and warm makes it tougher.

I live in the south, so going out in a snowstorm isn’t a problem… The problem is being stuck at the store when the next shift should relieve me. Last year during the “snowpocalypse”, at the 24 hour store across from my former employer, the shift to relieve the overnight never came in. At the point I left, he was on duty for over 20 hours.

[Hirka_T_Bawa]

My wife and I have been talking about this a bunch, and so far, it might be a good thing for me. I’m naturally a night person (heck, it’s 2am here, after waking up at 6am for work, and I’m wide awake), and I’ll actually have more time to spend with the children. If I do day shifts, I’ll leave before they wake, and come home after they sleep. As overnight, I’ll come home right in time for breakfast, and wake up for dinner, and leave right before their current bed time.

Though, this is of course all theoretical so far. I’ll have to wait till I actually do a week in march to see how it really effects me.

[Listycake]

@Hirka_T_Bawa

Listycake, you’re licensed now? Congrats! Last I saw you on Diablo you were still on rotations. Hope you are enjoying selling drugs on the corner!

Yep, I can’t believe I’ve been licensed for almost 4 months now! Time really flies

[Charley]

I haven’t been around this topic professionally for a couple of years, but when I looked at it last, there was some substantial occupational psychology research that seems to suggest permanent night shits are a really bad idea in the long run. There may be some real health risks associated with it. If you’re going to consider this, I’d do some research if I were you - you may well decide it’s still for you, but I’d look into a bit before you go for it.

[Siam_Sam]

I worked in a convenience store right in West Texas for a while right after high school. Did my share of graveyard shifts and saw some weird shit. One of the funniest that I remember is seeing a bunch of police wandering around the neighborhood in the wee hours, then one cop came in and asked if I’d seen anyone running by wearing handcuffs. No, I hadn’t. But it seems they had handcuffed some perp and stuck him in the back of a patrol car, then even though his hands were cuffed behind him, he still managed to reach over and open the door. I guess this was back when you could still open those doors from inside. At least, cop shows now seem to indicate you can’t do that anymore. Dunno if they ever caught him again.

[Ludovic]

@Charley

night shits are a really bad idea in the long run.

Especially if it’s dark and the toilet seat is up