Working Mid-Shift means you don't exist to the rest of the team.(Really Fucking Long)

The BBQ Pit
1

I can’t take this shit anymore. I work midshift as a network/telephony technician for a company here in Colorado Springs. I work as part of a 4 man “team” if you can call it that. The other 3 guys work during the day, one of those guys is my “boss”. I have worked this worst-of-the-worst shift for over 2 years straight. It has cost me my family (divorce), any semblence (sp?) of a regular sleep schedule, and quite a bit of my dignity I thinks.

You see, on paper, I am a part of this “team”, but in reality I am just the guy that works the shift that no one else wants to. I am left out of all decision making processes because they happen during the day.

Communication from the rest of the guys is non-existant, except for some cryptic emails asking me to take care of this or that when I don’t even know what this or that is. I have had no real training on this job since I started. I have had to teach myself EVERYTHING. This can be problematic when you are asked to do something that MUST be done, don’t know how to do it, and you need to guess at what is expected of you. When you guess the wrong thing you are in trouble. When you guess the right thing you do not hear about it. I hear from my boss, on avg, about once a month in an email about something. No shit. Once a month. From my boss.

The 3 other guys I work with have all recieved laptops, cell phones, and Pocket PC’s, paid for by the company, for them to keep. I have gotten a $30 wireless mouse for my desktop. Thats all I have gotten in my 2 years here. When there is a budget surplus they spend the entire thing on themselves without any consideration that I may want a little something now and then.

The company got rid of the nightime network ops help desk guy and I took over that job in addition to my regular job. No thanks or raise. The guy they got rid of made about $30K a year. You would think they would be able to throw 5K or so at me for picking it up.

Now, I don’t really complain about all this stuff. My job is pretty easy. Not alot is expected out of me, I work a steady shift (Sun-Thurs 11pm-7am) with all holidays off and 30days paid leave a year. Keep in mind here that not alot is expected of the day guys either. I am going to school fulltime in the days and evenings and do most of my homework at work. I probably spend 5 hours or more a night working on homework. I make about $37K a year for this. So I don’t complain to my boss about this shit because I know when I graduate in June I will be leaving this company ASAP.

But they crossed the line today. Pushed me past my limit. The straw broke the camels back.

In a nutshell my office, in which 4 of us sit, was a little small for 4 people. I had the smallest area in the room because I worked at night and wasn’t around people so I didn’t have to worry about invading peoples personal spaces. Well, they decided that the 2 senior guys were going to move into an adjacent office with a nice door and more privacy. Thats fine with me. I made clear, several different times, that I was going to move into one of the bigger desk areas once they moved out because I had about 15% of the room space and the rest of the guys split the rest between the three of them.

Heres where it gets ugly.

This weekend they remodeled the office for the 2 guys. Well, one of the guys decides that the office is too small for 2 people to share and doesn’t want to move in there. Keep in mind this all happened in during the day when I was not here. So my boss asks the 4th guy if he want’s to move in there with the other guy. He says yes. SO, my fucking boss decides to give the other guy, the one that decided not to move into the office, ALL 3 OF THE REMAINING DESK AREAS AND MOVES ME INTO THIS FUCKERS OLD SMALL DESK!!!

So this chowderhead has got, literally 80% of the desk and work space of the room to himself and I now have 20%. This has me fucking furious. We could have split the remaining room and both had 50% of the space, but instead my fuckstick boss gives him the entire fucking place and moves me into a desk that actually has less usable space than my old desk!! WTF?!?

I emailed my boss and told him he needs to come up with a different arrangement for this office because I do not have enough room to work. We will see what he says tomorrow.

This is the shit that I have dealt with since I got hired at this place. I like the job but am always thought of last, if at all, by the rest of my team. I have worked mids at another place and it was no where near this bad.

I hate working mids. I have done it for 4 years now. I have done my time. You are always an afterthought when you work this shift. There is no consideration for me. The other guys laugh when I talk about it to them. They think it is funny. I think this is very disrespectful to me to be treated this way.

I can’t wait until June when I finish school and can get the fuck out of here.

2

Ummm, is your name Milton?

Sorry, dude, sounds like you’ve put up with their shit for too long. At least you can console yourself with the knowledge that the job’s helped you get through school.

I worked a Nightshift for a year and a half as well, and always the day shift guys would leave every annoying task they didn’t want to do for us, and our team leaders wouldn’t do anything about it, because being a night shift team leader is just a stepping stone to being a day shift supervisor, so they wouldn’t make any requests for fear of pissing anyone off…

3

You’re absolutely right…your rant WAS “Really Fucking Long”.
But June is NOT that long away, so just chill-out until then dude. :smiley:

(Please don’t tell my kids I said ‘chill out dude’ 'cos they’ll be sooooo embarrassed. :stuck_out_tongue: )

4

I work 12 hour shifts, 5pm-5am, Sat-Mon. I also work every other Friday, 4pm-11pm, as a Database Engineer. I would probably fly into a murderous rage if I ever had to go back to a Mon-Fri type shift.

Don’t give in to the plotting and scheming of the daywalkers! Unless your boss starts hitting you with a cattle prod, roll with it. There are a lot worse ways to be making money then working IT off hours.

5

Preach it Brother!
Aside from the occupation, ( I am in Materials Management for a two year old hospital) You just described my life to a T. Except for one thing. Not only have I sacrificed my life for 2&1/2 years of 11-7:30 nightshift work, but I am expected to fill in on weekends when necessary as well. On Day shift.

I don’t even get a fucking desk, I have to use the main warehouse day guys computer, and I hate his fucking Vikings screen saver and how he sets up the desktop. The only thing I have that I can call my own in the whole department is a mailbox, (usually filled with the cryptic notes from days.) and a decrepit clipboard, and I only have that because I wrote my name on it with a Sharpie. Every time something comes up missing in the department it must have been ME that took it, as I am here alone at night. I got a nasty note from my Boss once telling me to stop stealing a cow-orkers Orange soda. NEWSFLASH! I hate Orange Soda and didn’t take the little Dwarf’s Stupid Fucking ORANGE SODA! (Said Cow-orker is about five foot even.)

They finally broke down and got me an assistant, but he hates the job and is quitting in 60 days. Besides, he was a co-worker, not an assistant, so I have no supervisory authority over him so when he screws up, I really can’t do anything about it, except tell on him.

All the company parties, events etc are scheduled during the day, or on friday nights, as our “holiday” party was. I will be working while the rest of the department is at a bar having fun. They did schedule a “gathering” at the hospital for those working during the party. It’s at 6pm. I am asleep at 6pm. It’s the equivalent of me having a party at four in the morning and wondering why none of my friends ever show up.

I had applied for a supervisory position within the department, but it went to someone from outside. All the jobs like that go to people from the outside. So here I am, the Ghost Employee, who is only seen once a month at department meetings, and then I have to stay two extra hours just so I don’t get lied about behind my back.

The only real benefits to this shift are,

A. I get an extra buck an hour. I need all the extra bucks I can get.

B. I do not really have to deal with all the scheming and plotting and backstabbing and brown-nosing that the Day-walkers do.

C. I am pretty much my own boss in matters of breaks, work pace etc.

Fuckers.

6

I suppose everything is a matter of perspective. To me, the job described in the OP sounds wonderful. You don’t have to deal with co-workers, you don’t have a lot of work, you’re paid fairly well and you have a ton of vacation time.

I realize the personal recognition/space allocation situation stinks for you. For me, I’d probably be tickled pink to have that job; things like that don’t bother me much.

Besides, I don’t get a lot of feedback from my boss now, except when something is wrong. If things are going right, I don’t hear about it.

I hope the situation gets resolved to your satisfaction.

7

Here’s the email I sent my boss this morning about the situation:

Here is his response:

I wanna tear this fucking cocksuckers head off right about now. I have seniority over 2 out of the other 3 guys.

I dont really know what to do about this situation. Seriously, it is really hard to bite my tongue on this because I have bitten it so many other times in the past. I don’t want to jeopardize my job with only 5 months of school left, but it’s getting to be more than I can bear. I know you are thinking “Just stick it out man, look at the prize at the end of the tunnel, you’re almost there” but I have been using THOSE excuses to calm me down for a year now.

This is sucking the fucking soul out of me.

8

BTW, I would just get myself fired and collect unemployment for the next 5 months till I finish school but I carry my daughter on my insurance and my ex-wife is unemployed.

Don’t want a 3 year old with no health insurance. :frowning:

9

And my boss talks about “privacy”. I say “Privacy from what you fuck nugget?, I work ALONE on the FUCKING MIDSHIFT”.

10

Hang in there. You’ve lasted this long, another five months won’t be much longer.

I would start looking for another job now…it will give you another “light” at the end of the tunnel.

11

I think you can express frustration to your boss without getting yourself fired. And for your own peace of mind, I think you should. Let him know that you’re frustrated by the new situation, and feel unappreciated. Remind him that you’ve generally tried to pitch in to help out when necessary. Even if nothing happens, you’ll feel better than if you just suck it up and don’t say a word. As long as you’re calm and polite, there’s no way they’ll fire you for speaking up (unless they were planning to already).

12

Dear Boss,

I don’t understand how privacy is a concern for me, since I work alone on the night shift. However, I am concerned about having enough room to work. The configuration of my new desk does not allow me to write, so I will be unable to do my job with this new arrangement. There are now four desks available for two people in the office - is there any way that I can have two of them, instead of only getting the smallest one?

-Stinkpalm

13

If no one else is there, why don’t you scoot the stuff on the 80 percenter’s desk over and use the space, and move it back before you leave?

As for complaints to your boss, it will probably be difficult to do so because of your schedule, but if you can, confront him and tell him your complaints face to face. Without a human face to attribute your words to, it is much easier for him to be a heartless ass with regard to your situation. Going face to face will let him know you’re serious, as well as increase the chance of him either empathizing with you or being intimidated by you if you have a more dominant physical/psychological presence and giving in.

14

Hola!

Can I have this job when you leave?

SENOR

15

Sauron:

“To me, the job described in the OP sounds wonderful. You don’t have to deal with co-workers, you don’t have a lot of work, you’re paid fairly well and you have a ton of vacation time.”

Agreed. The less I have to deal with others, the better. That “not a lot of work” part also sounds quite appealing! :smiley: But, I guess it’s different for everyone.