My first job was parking cars in a 24-hour garage. Only monthly parkers could park their own, all the transient cars had to be parked by attendants. I started out on the day shift, moved to the graveyard shift, and later became the swing shift “manager.”
Graveyard shift I was alone from Midnight until 6:30 am, and it was both great and not so much. When I was taking college classes during the day, it was great because I could do all my homework during my shift, because there was so little to do (we had to stay open because we had contracts with hotels for their customers to park). On the other hand, after a few months of this I began feeling very isolated with long hours spent with no-one to talk to.
Swing shift was better on that score, there were other people around from 4 to 8 pm or so. But it sure made a social life difficult, I couldn’t join other people for movies or dinner out or things like that.
Much later, in my office job, I tried out working 10-hour shifts in order to get a 3rd day off during the week. It was a bad idea. I had to get up really early, so I spent most of the day off sleeping, it was not a good tradeoff.
I turned down more than one pharmacy job because this was how they operated. You can’t have a life when you don’t know when you’ll leave work. I didn’t mind working a 12-hour plus day if I knew in advance that I would be doing this, and getting paid for it too (yeah, some people in these jobs are salaried).
Closed-door pharmacies that do IV infusion and/or service nursing homes are almost always this way.
At the start of my firefighting career, for about 15 years I worked 24 hour shifts, 7am to 7am. One day on, a day off, a day on, five days off. Over an 8 week cycle, it averaged to 42 hours a week. One week you work Monday and Wednesday. The following week you work Tuesday and Thursday. Repeat forever. One of the weeks in the cycle you had Monday through Friday off.
If there was a holiday in that mix, too bad, you worked it. I could plan my schedule out decades in advance if I wanted to. In fact, one of our four groups didn’t work Christmas day for 14 years or so. Several of the members of that group were quite senior in the department, and bid to thay group because of the holiday schedule. I didn’t have that group, and worked at least every third Christmas. Such is life.
Things could be awful if it was a busy shift, my record was 17 calls in 24 hours. I was not at my finest at shift change.
The five days off was great. You could take a short vacation every week if you so chose. For the first seven years of my daughter’s existence I was lucky enough to be Mr. Mom on my days off. It was great to have that time when she was little.
I left that schedule when I made chief, then went to a Monday through Friday 0730-1530 schedule. That was a very difficult transition after the previous decade and a half.
When I was doing shift work where you could swap shifts, the rule was that if you swapped a holiday with someone, you got all the shift loading when you worked (obviously) AND (not so obviously) you got one of the other workers’ rostered days off as well. I was young, and single, and living in a different state to my family. I swapped all the “big” holidays with people with kids and families. I would have swapped anyway, but was really happy to have extra pay (I think Christmas was double-time-and-a-half) and extra day(s) off.
When I was at a state institution, the psych nurses worked 12 hour shifts, 2 days on, 2 days off. Which is a 42 hour week. And their contract gave them 9 weeks a year of leave and time in lieu. Which was pretty sweet: you could work the farm 2 days a week plus whatever. The only complaint was that any uncovered days (overtime, 50% loading) went to the senior staff, who didn’t want it, instead of the junior staff, who could of used the money. At the time, my official hours included 4 hours Saturday morning, but I was very rarely scheduled on.
I’ve done the long-hours, short week, and loved it – but I loved the job at the time, and it was flexible. So I’d wake up in the morning, and think “What do I want to do today? I know, I’d like to go to work” 310-12, 24-6, typically around 44 hours over 6 days, including one full day off mid week, and Saturday normally a half day. I had no kids or family.
I’ve also worked casual, 2~8 hour days, 7 days a week. I won’t go back to 7 day weeks if I can help it. It just overwhelms you after a while. I’ve heard that driving a tractor for 7 day weeks at harvest or planting has the same effect on farmers, but at least they know it comes to an end.
And I worked a 24 hour week, normal office hours, at the end of my degree. That was sweet too – apart from the horrible moment each morning when I got to work and put my tie on. Going from that to a full time job, I found that working full time takes a big chunk out of your life. Even though I got more money, it was like being poorer. Because the extra money I earned didn’t add up to extra time: working a 24 hour week is like being rich.
One of my early jobs started at 5:30am. I came in early to start the boilers, bring the machines up to operating readiness, so that the production crew could walk right in and start real production. Better to have one person get all that going than wait for the entire crew to get up to speed. Loved that job! I got off at 1:30 in the afternoon and had an entire day after work it seemed like. Every day was some work in the morning and the entire afternoon off. Of course I had to shut myself down about sundown.
Spent about 30 years in middle management 8am-5pm on salary. I could leave to take care of things anytime I wanted to but also had to come in and take care of business on weekends and other times as needed. Can’t say if that was a better shift or not.
Currently working 3 ten hour graveyards and one 10 hour day shift. I like working alone at night. No bosses, no office politics, I see my manager for about 20 minutes one morning a week. Great shift.
My wife works two 12 hour shifts 7am-7pm, then 24 hours off, two 12 hour nights 7pm-7am followed by four days off. An eight day week on a rotating schedule. Lots of extra days during vacation season filling in. Sometimes we don’t see a lot of each other but we get a lot of vacation and other PTO, and are bringing in bank.
I worked a swing shift (3:30 pm to midnight) in a warehouse, years ago.
The good was that I wasn’t dealing with morning or afternoon rush-hour commutes. I also typically got up about 9:00 am or so, with no panic about “I overslept and will be late for work!” I could get a lot done (buying groceries, for example) during the day before work, without worrying about trying to do necessary shopping etc. before the stores close.
The bad was that it really cut into my social and family life. “Sorry, I cannot meet you for a drink on a weekday evening,” I said more than once to a young lady; and “Sorry, guys, I won’t be there for Monday Night Football at the sports bar.” In addition, my Dad and sister were 9-to-5ers, so the only time I could catch up with them in person was weekends. Sunday dinners with them ended far too early (to me) because they had to get up early for work on Monday. It eventually occurred to me that I was living in an entirely different time zone than friends and family.
It was a good experience, and I’m glad I had it. I learned a lot, and enjoyed working with the guys on our crew–they were great guys to work with. But given my druthers, I’d rather not repeat it.
Ditto here. Started loading trailers, then 3am to 7 running a single man hot* sort. Then 6-10pm boxline sorter. When I finally promoted to driver it was the first sort of “9-5” job I’d ever had, even though I could be out as late as 11pm during the holidays.
Also worked as ambulance driver/EMT. All kinds of hours. Part of college I worked as a school bus driver. Early morning, then afternoon, but could attend** classes in between.
After UPS, I worked offshore rigs in the North Sea. !2 hours/day, 7 days/week, no holidays or breaks - 6 months on, 6 months off.
Finally got my degree 10 years after high school and was looking forward to working normal day shifts like the rest of the world. Now 34 years later I’ve been approved for part time and will work only Monday thru Wednesday for (presumably) the remainder of my career. My field is so short handed they’re willing to let us work part time if the other option is retiring.
*Hot Sort – weird scheduling caused a single truck to arrive at 4am outside of normal shifts. One guy (me) powers up the whole belt/sort network, then backs up the tractor trailer to the dock, unloads, runs to sort aisle and sorts, then zooms over to boxline to load into the delivery trucks. Then powers everything down and goes home.
**Local community college was closer to my last route than the bus terminal. Supervisors agreed to let me take the school bus to the college, rather than drive 20 miles back to the garage. I discovered an odd thing – you can park a school bus anywhere on a college lot without buying a parking permit. Security always assumes it has a valid reason to be there.
4th shift lab tech. 12h shifts on weekends and holidays, six to six; the most days we could work in a row was 3.
We also covered the first two weeks of August; one year my shift had to take 6 nights (3+1+3) in one of those weeks and by the end of it we were all so dead that when the regular workers came back, both 4th-shift leads went to the Factory Manager to request that such a thing never happen again. From then on, if the 4th shift covered more than 3 days in a row (August, Christmas), we’d shift after each 3-day.
That covered 72% of our yearly working hours. The guys from Production got the rest by being called to reinforce the 3-shifts workers as needed; us lab techs worked a central shift one day a week and got the rest from reinforcements (mainly covering for sick leave). There was a company policy about trading shifts; in general, so long as both workers agreed, both were trained in each other’s position and some additional guidelines were followed, we didn’t need permission from our supervisors, we just informed them in advance so they wouldn’t be surprised to find “the wrong person” there.
The 4th shift consisted of 4 people at nights, 5 on days (the 5th one being the EHS guy in charge of the water plants). One shift lead (and reactor guy in the big line), one lab tech, one guy who ran the small line by himself and the second guy in the big line. When the factory went through its periodic production slumps we did a lot of maintenance, a lot of cleaning and the occasional heart-bursting “farmer’s breakfast” using the wood from old broken pallets for a bonfire. The old pallets were also used for fireman training; fireman training took place once a year and included a less-heart-bursting lunch of grilled-on-the-fires meat because hey, if you’re going to shut down the factory and build fires you may as well use them.
It was generally quiet, we normally managed to all have lunch at the same time so those of us who worked alone would at least have a conversation with a person other than the factory cat (who wasn’t allowed into the lab anyway, so she and I didn’t talk a lot). Being ‘free’ when the stores and the offices and everything else was open was handy; one of my shiftmates was a college student (he counted as part-time, didn’t work the additional 28% hours). The only actual drawback was that I have a relative who in three years couldn’t get it through her skull that I wasn’t available on Saturday afternoons because I was either at work or getting ready to go to work.
Store cashier for the past five years. I’m willing to work anytime the store is open. The store is owned by Jewish men, so we’re off on Shabbos and all major Jewish holidays (like Rosh Hashanah) but are open the rest of the time.
I will work any hours we are open, and I don’t mind a bit. The holidays get a bit crazy, but I’m use to it.
I worked the same schedule as a 911 dispatcher and absolutely loved it. Before we went to it, we worked a myriad of days and hours. Throughout the year, we only had eight weekends off and my body never got used to sleeping at various hours. I never minded working weekends, but family stuff was always on the weekends, so having every other weekend off was really nice for that. My favorite part was having weekdays off. I could go to the doctor, bank, stores and miss the crowds…all without having to take a day off.
When I moved to management, they told me I could make my own hours, but I discovered that the powers to be frown on working 5a to 1p and working Saturdays so you can take a weekday off. “Making your own hours” really meant work most of your hours between 9 & 5 like normal people and don’t come in on the weekends…you make the rest of us look bad.
I was a radio guy while in the Army and I got to participate in a different number of shifts. I spent one week doing 12 on 12 off which was interesting. For the most part, once the gear is all set up then it’s not very grueling work but you still have to be on your toes. 12 hours on and 12 off meant that you didn’t get much time to do anything else - we were at a site that was offbase, so we would go back to the base, eat dinner, watch a little TV maybe or read, then hit the sack. I’ve also done 24 hour shifts but it’s typical to get the next 24 hours off (not really if you’re on shift when Desert Storm starts like I was, though…). Shift work gets screwy because the sergeant making the schedules had to have separate ones for weekday and weekend so sometimes a soldier would get 24 on for Thursday, 24 off for Friday, then 24 on for Saturday and nobody is happy to see that. I know that I’ve also done 8 hour shifts as telephone operator.
When I first got into IT I had a 6 - 3 shift. That was nice because I’d be ahead of the traffic and get out at a reasonable time. Then it shifted to 7 - 4, which was also decent, and then 8 -5. Now I’m out of IT and just a dumb user so I don’t have to get in at a particular time.
Small town sports reporter in my twenties. Wander in from 1-2 pm, work on a story, cover a game later in the day, write the story, work the phones and hit the bar. That wasn’t bad for a young single guy.
I worked 10pm - 6am at Safeway running the night crew for half a dozen years. Surprisingly easy to switch to nights, but very difficult to switch back. I left that job over 10 years ago and I’m still more awake at night than during the day.
Currently I work 730am - 6pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I never work more than 2 consecutive days, I have full weekends, and I have a day off in the middle of the week to get shit done.
My oddest schedule was working as an assistant to a disabled person. Shifts were: Friday 6pm-Mon 10pm; Mon 10pm-Weds 10pm; Weds 10pm-Fri 6pm, sleep in, but on call all night. The great part was, I only did one of each of those shifts in 4 weeks, and that worked out as full time. Also, on most public holidays I was on double time, and for Christmas and New Year’s day, I was on triple time. For 24 hours.
Sometimes I’d have to wake up multiple times a night, so the weekend shift could be seriously exhausting (especially once when the person who was supposed to be taking the next shift just didn’t show, so I was there for another night), I’d go home and just sleep for a day after.
I’ve also done security where it was all bitty contracts. Sometimes we’d finish 3am Friday night at some nightclub, then 10am Saturday at the football, finish there at 7pm and be at another nightclub at 8pm until the small hours, but then there’d be nothing until next Friday.
Or a week straight of 6pm-6am site security for some event setup.
Or nothing for weeks.
Oh, and the boss would rarely give more than 2 days notice of a shift, and sometimes would just text out the evening’s shift that afternoon. He basically treated everyone like they were on call at all times.
I used to work in the family business and 7-7 was standard, working 24+ hours occurred every few months and, at times, 48-72 hours straight in the office would occur. My record was 76 hours straight.
After I left (for the 2nd time), I worked at a place that was a ghost town @ 5:02pm. Was completely bizarre in my experience.
I worked for a year in a semi-trailer manufacturing plant on second shift. The hours were 5:30PM - 4:00AM M-F and we had to be back at noon on Friday for 5 hours of mandatory overtime.
I have spent hardly any of the two decades or so of my working life doing anything close to a regular shift. Most of that time I’ve spent working as a journalist on the second shift. I quite like not having to get up until around noon. It certainly limits chances for socializing, but I’m a pretty solitary guy. As for days off, I have had practically every combination you’re likely to see, and even a few you aren’t likely to see. My favorite set of days off is Friday-Saturday. You have a traditional weekday off for taking care of, you know, trips to the doctor or the DMV or whatever, and you have a traditional weekend day to feel sort of normal. You can still go out carousing on Saturday night because you’re getting up so late anyway. And Sundays are usually pretty chill days at work because the bosses aren’t around. My schedule recently moved to a standard Saturday-Sunday weekend for the first time in ages. It’s fucking weird, I tell ya!
