Ten months into it, I'm convinced life sucks. There's no getting used to it or settling in for me. My off-time is almost totally worthless. On the edge!

Anything but day shift sucks. Im on 2-10. Better than overnight, but not by much. Dont get near enough done. I cant wait to get back to daylight tho.

I’ve worked it.

6pm-6am
12am-12pm.


I liked it.

I sleep fine during the day. Some folks can’t.

Folks frown at you when you buy beer at 6:30,in the morning. 😂🤪

Boomer,

condolences bud, Don't know what your hours are but some of the jobs I had I preferred the night shift.

Last place I worked, one assignment was 12 on-12off. 0700-1900 or 1900-0700. I always took the night hours if offered. A little extra "incentive" for night shift, and more importantly I got to do the job without interference from bosses, being called away for this and that, being bugged by other folks jerking off and trying to find something else to do.

Get off work, shower, go home, tend the garden, hit the hay, get up a couple of hours ahead of time if I wanted or sleep until 45 mins before work (7 min drive to work).

Need to do some banking or other stuff during "business hours"? I didn't have to lose any hours, take vacation or personal time off and such. Just plan my sleeping accordingly. And maybe drink more coffee at night.

Of course, I was lucky in that I was 500 miles from my wife and dogs and didn't have kids and scheidt to worry about.

Good luck with it all. Try to look at the bright side? Could be worse? At least you're working???

I get better sleep on nights than days. Been working 7 on 7 off switching nights/days every two weeks now for 13 years. We get 7 days off in between shifts though so we can live a little life. Ear plugs, sleep mask, and melatonin always does the trick.

I never could. Dark shades. Heavy quilts hung over windows. Even tried ear plugs. Nothing worked.

Then one day its like my circadian rhythm did a 180. Now I actually could do overnight sleep wise. But I wont. Its like a mind phugg working twice in one day.

Worked them all on rotating basis. I'm okay with it. Rather not but it's okay.

My fav when I was younger was 2-10. Done with work, close the bar and sleep in with plenty of time to make next day's start.

Spent 19 yrs on nights. The thought of ever working a night again sickens me.

I had just turned 21, still living at home after graduating Junior College and working part time while doing the school thing.

Got a job paying a penny an hour less than my old man. New guy, so no seniority for hours. Usually got called in for night shift work.

Got off early one morning, liquor stores opened at 0600. I grabbed a sixer, came home, sat down to leftover dinner, popped a beer while the old man was eating his Wheaties or something.

Got told right then and there, "This schiedt has to stop now!"

I moved out shortly after.

I mean, a man has a right to a beer after a hard night's work, right?

Nights has benefits, like no boss to micromanage you but thats about it.

Besides, if you're working all hours of the day and night....................................








how you goin' to schedule all that side action?

If you were in that situation today, the obvious answer would be to quit that job.

No admin is great. Do end up missing out on kids sports and whatnot depending.

Like some have posted, you can get everyday
business done, and you're working, but that's
about all the advantages I can think of.

The times I've worked nights it was always a
mess because all the vendors that I would
need to deal with were closed, and if anything
was needed that wasn't on hand, well that
particular job would have to be delayed until
the day shift, so nothing was gained.
And it made more than a few pretty upset
because they just couldn't understand why
everything really isn't available 24/7

The good Lord made light and darkness
for a reason

I hate working nights and always try to avoid it. Fuqqs up my schiit schedule and cuts into beer drinking. But I love the look on peoples face when you buy beer at 6 in the morning. I just smile and say to them that this is my 5 o'clock.

Worked over 20 years nights. Most 12s. Then company got bought out and started driving 50 miles one way. Always said I got my best sleep driving home in morning.

If you do it for enough years you won't be able to adapt to day shift again. The final third of my employment years were mostly a collection of night shifts,...mostly 10 hour days which ended at 3AM and a 6 hour shift on Saturday about half the time. At one point I accumulated enough seniority to go to days and it didn't last very long. I bumped back to nights.

My favorite shift was at a job that I had for a year before getting caught up in a big downsizing. It was 10 minutes from home and started at 10:30 PM, ended at 7:AM. I'd come home, sleep until about 1:30 PM, then had all afternoon and early evening for myself.

I still stay up late and sleep late.

Why?

It paid well and I didn't mind the hours.

had I not been a dumb "kid" I would have a much larger pension now and the ability to do more of the things I like now.

Flirt while working, internets great for that.....time to plays easy. Get off at 10, bj in walmart parking lot by 11, home at sleep by midnight

Wal Mart lot!

Perfectamundo baby!

Through much of my career I was overseen but not supervised, and fairly well set the schedule. Sometimes that meant working 16 hour days and way into the night, but I was doing stuff I enjoyed and needed to be done before tomorrow - those times were OK.

My every summer job at the oil refinery when a student was mostly day work for years, but down toward the end of that run they gave me better pay rate assignments and that was night/shift work - mostly 4pm to midnight - not bad for the sleeping aspect. I was rebuilding the engine of my1954 Chevy that summer (outdoors, on the end of Dad's driveway) and that was good - worked in daylight and then off to the refinery. Dad checked my progress when he got home each day (noted any errors and made suggestions) and i was good to go the next AM.

Much of that night shift work that summer was on the docks - unloading crude from big tankers and loading finished product onto barges. Not difficult work (although a bit dirty) and having long breaks with coffee on the fantail of a big tanker - looking out over the Delaware on a beautiful summer evening - not a bad way to end my old summer job.

There's a reason why night shift pay is higher. Because it sucks and is not good for your long term health.

Holy chit, shift change every two weeks?! Fugg that!

I preferred nights over afternoons. I used to work 12's at night. 3 on 4 off, 4 on 3 off. I had a ton of time for hunting.

I worked rotating 12 hour shifts for 28 years.
Sucks isn’t quite the term for it. It’s a life shortening thing.
4 Graves Fri-Mon. Off at 8am Tues.
3 Days Fri-Sun.
3 Graves Tues-Thurs.
4 Days Mon-Thurs.
7 Days off.
Work a month’s worth in 3 weeks to get 7 Days off. It was the best schedule option of the 6-7 different schedules we tried.
That said, it’s a life sucking drag that will beat the morning person right out of you.
Luckily I retired before it killed me.

Used to do rotating 12's

6a-6p for 2 days
2 days off
6p-6a for 2 days

Rinse repeat

Even every month sucked.

12 & 12, 7 days on, 7 off, 7 on, 7 off..............Next 7 switch shifts.

Just leave me on nights and leave me the H alone.

In the Navy - I always did days or nights, never 2nd shift. Hated 2nd and would trade out of it, but we'd do them on a 30 day run. Not too bad. Get in a grove.

Damn, that's a chitty deal. Guess I've been lucky over the years. Worst I ever had was split days off - Sunday and Tuesday. And that only lasted a few months.

I've worked four 10's (7am - 6pm) with Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off for probably 20 years.

Been there, done it for 15 years. Yes it sucks.

Buddy of mine said come home sleep 4 hours get up for 4 hours then go back to bed and get up about an hour before work like you would in the morning.

I never had to try it thank the good Lord!


Mike

4 10's is the cat's arse.

Or work 9's and get every other Friday off - I could like that too if people freak over a 10 hour day.

Right now I work 5 - 11 hour days, M-F and then as needed on weekends. Salary is a bitch lol

This - did 23 years of it.

Was always fond of swing shift, and during my service time in Nam preferred the night shift. Liked to be awake when the rockets came in.

What a buncha pussies.

I hate nights. Can’t sleep for crap during the day. More of a bed at 9pm up at 5am person myself.

But working emergency department I end up sometimes working days,mids, and nights. No consistency. This week one night then a mid then a night. It fuggs your head up honestly to switch around like that. If I sleep 4/5 hours on mids or nights I did good.

If your hating it. Time to move on. No point in being miserable

Never worked nights

Ever


Can’t roof in the dark. 😃

Yep,

a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to provide for the fam!

Laughs in 24 hour shifts.

Not even at the Johns Manville plant?

I worked afternoons at a gov't. arsenal (4-12:30) for 14 years. No social life but I had a young family so didn't want or need a social life except on the weekends with parents and in-laws. My routine was: got home at 1-1:30 am, got up at 6am had breakfast as a family. Worked outside and baby sat 3 kids, had lunch at 11:30 or so and then EVERYBODY took a nap. Got up at 2pm did the 3 s's then took the kids to a sitter and went to work. Kids at sitter for about an hour until the wife arrived home and picked them up.

It may not work for everyone but it worked for me. We were able to save a bunch of money. Worked well for me and I would do it again.

I’ve worked about every shift. Any more, if I’m going to work, I like Tuesday through Thursday, 8:00 AM until I feel like quitting.

In my younger days I liked working nights, hunt, fish or trap all day. Also, when I had coon hounds 2nd shift was good, get off at midnight, hunt til daylight.

Nope

I had seniority from day-1

Daddeh worked on the rigs, put in a good word for me.

When I was young and single 3rd was my favorite shift.

That changes when you have family.

It figgers. Ever time, not wut, but whoos ya knoes.

If there was, I would probably like it more....

Papermill was 7 on 2 off rotation. Eight hour shifts unless 12 or 16... 7 Swings, 2 off, 7 Graves, 2 off, then 7 days to beat you down dealing with management, 3 1/2 off.

This has been the chits, comes out to about 11 1/2 hrs per night Sun-Thur. Get off tired as hell Friday morning and back at it Sunday afternoon. Feel like the walking dead all week and almost all of the off-time. That's what bugs me the most, not enjoying the off-time. Beat down. I don't think I am going to stay with it much longer. Five 8s would be better, I know, BTDT. But this is sucking balz.

What's time worth? Hmmmmm...

Looking at a job that pays less, but day time and 2-3 off per week...


Always adjusted to shifts better than this. I hate it. Poor me.

Long haul irregular route truck driver for 6 or so year's.
Before e-logs. 24/7. Sleepy when/whereand if i could.
After that a bunch of jobs and shifts, including 12-8.
Just have to learn to live and function tired.

Now, I can work what I want.
From somewhere around 6 to 2.
Doesn't really matter. Doesn't even have to be 8.
Break it up into segments if I want.
Only thing is I get paid hourly, and the work gets done.

You must be at wildwoods..

Sometimes that drop in pay is certainly worth it if it allows you a better quality of life.

Tired all the time sucks.

Hey go earn your soups you damn indigent bum..

I work 12’s 6-6. Two weeks 6a-6p and then two weeks of 6p-6a. My sleep adjust pretty well to either shift but the days better fit my lifestyle.

Your time off is what you make of it.

Learn how to spell. JFC

Guess I’m used to it now. Everytime we get enough support to switch to longer blocks of days or nights some dipsh*t starts crying about losing shift differential for that stretch.

If we were meant to work at night we'd have night vision.

I work that oilfield seven and four. Seven days on forever.

Try being a electric lineman on call every other week for 3 years 24-7 plus working a 50 hour work week,now thats a treat.

4 to midnight here. Last 10 yrs.
Yup, just start something and have to quit...go to work.
Still wake at 6 and 8am.....due to being trained by rest of fams schedule.

Sucks.

Harder the older i get too.

Used to work double and triples at my other job.
For a couple yrs.
Crazy OT.

High stress. Made me sick but it was a blast.

Big diff 25 yrs makes

This! I am going to use this in my manifesto.

I hated day shift so I worked nights. It's a life style and not just a job.

kwg

Have enough time to go days, but that would mean change of area.

Like my area, no drama.....could be better, could be worse.
Am gonna stay on 2nds a while longer.

I can deer hunt in the mornings. Only real advantage.

I did 4am - 4 pm for 8 months and I had enough. Trying to go to bed when everyone is awake at home and trying to wake up at 3am was not for me. I found another job for the same pay which is Monday through Friday 8:15 am to 4:45 pm. Find something with better hours, it will make you happier.

Well at least it isn’t spring creek where they have mandatory overtime..

Night shift is not cool if you're part of a household that keeps regular folks hours.

Don't recommend hiring on as train crew if you can't swing a night schedule. Once your 12 hours rest is up (10 1/2 really) phone turns into a grenade - pull the pin on that fugger and wait for it to blow. Know its coming, just don't know when. Might be noon today, might be 2 AM Saturday...

ya i hated night shift. we did rotating in the service on either 2 or 3 month cycles. i never got used to mid-8. i could do swings but mids killed me.

Been working shift work for 34 years . 4 on 4 off . 12 hour shifts . Rotate days and nights . Never really bothered me . Nights has its advantages. All the people with crazy ideas are home sleeping.

We are diurnal animals. We are supposed to be up and about during the daytime, and sleep at night.
If we get that swapped around, it causes all kinds of ill effects. I am talking about increases in divorce, heart attacks and strokes, all kinds of problems.

I was a team driver over the road for 2 1/2 years and that was really tough. On Monday I would drive from 8am to 8pm, and by Friday I was driving from 7 pm until 7 am.
That really messed with my head.

Full-time night shift supervisor since 1986. No, you never get used to it. When I hear day workers talk about being tired, I tell them, "Hell, I've been tired since '86." It worked well for me when I was the Chief of our vol. fire company. Always available during the day when most members were at work. But it does go against nature.

I no longer work night shift as I changed jobs...and man am I loving the change!

Nighttime is for drinkin', fuuckin' and sleepin'.....



Ace







(PS, I hate heifer calving season...)

This. After and IF you get acclimated to third or night shift, it's not a bad shift. I've been working it for four years now and see more of my family than when I worked daywork. I've got a great boss, a Black guy who just worry's about getting the work done. When the work is done and no more fires to put out, you can sit down and rest. Daywork is for the drama queens in management. We don't take any breaks during the night, work straight thru. We save all our time for end of shift. Sometimes we can get a 1/2 hour nap, sometimes a 2 hour nap before we drive home. Driving home and not falling asleep is the hard part till you work out your own system that works for you. Now rotating shifts, that's a whole different ballgame. My hat's off to the guys that make that work.

Sorry Sam but you seem to have jumbled up the words,

"Night time is for fucking drinking and sleeping'.


Now we old married fellas can read it.

Hard to argue with that

I worked shift work for 40 years, 3 years were 8 hour shifts....the other 37 years were 12 hour rotating shifts! I never did get much sleep when working nights, 5 hours being a good days sleep. But, I got a lot of work done around the house when I wasn’t sleeping! memtb

Boom Boom
Whatcha doin, if ya don’t mind? Not building ice roads? Kinda sounds like gigolo hours! 😆😉

No kidding. Or Goose. We get all the OT we can want down here but it ain’t mandatory.

I always enjoyed night work.

Didn't have to put up with front office and got paid more to boot.

Did that for 3 or 4 years back in the 70's.

No mandatory at goose, not yet anyhow..

The only time I worked night shift was when we wrecked a critical piece of rotating equipment in the refinery. I was the one to make it right. Short of those crisis none, That said, my Father worked weekly rotating shifts, days, swings and graves for years without a complaint that I ever heard growing up. Maybe he biotched to my Mother but we never heard it. Just doing what needed to be done raising a family of five.

Driv'n from A to B to C to A, repeat next night, repeat, repeat, repeat..... Sometimes mix it up and go A to C to B to C to A. At least there's spectacular scenery...

Yep , after loggin, went to work at a hardwood mill for couple years as a oiler, good $$$, but same as you, wasn’t worth it. Went to work at the prison 22 years ago, best thing I ever did...

Do you like movies about gladiators ?
😃

I don't miss going in at 8AM, getting a cut trunk cable trouble emergency report and working straight through and getting home 24-30 hours after you left the house. Don't miss it at all.

I did not start doing shift work till about 6 years ago. I enjoyed working alone with the tunes cranked, but my body never got used to it. Sleep for me has been elusive for many years. Now , I am waiting to see what is in store for me as I wait on word to start working nights again. Most of my years were pouring concrete in the summer, working for outfitters in the fall and ski patrol in the winter. I miss those days, the body does not! One must do what one must. I will probably be working through lunch time on the day of my funeral!

I have done it but it has been a long time ago.














































I

I rotate every week or sometimes during the week, When I get off for a day or two if my last shift was a day shift, my next will be a night shift and if my last shift was a night my next will be a day. Gotta love the 24 hour turnarounds. You learn to sleep when its available and enjoy your days off as much as possible.
I gave up a days job as an engineer with my company to go to production and work towards moving back into a day role as a supervisor. Best decision I ever made. My pay almost doubled the first year. Should go back on straight days in the next year or so. I will have been on swing shifts for 5 years in August.

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, but that sounds like pure torture to me.

When I was a young trooper had to do a couple of years of shift work, rotating every month between days ( 0800-1600), swings (1600-2400), and graves (2400-0800). Anything other than day shift you just learn to live on less sleep. Days were usually easy and fairly steady, time to conduct follow-up investigations. Swing shifts the action picked up and bagging a DUI close to midnight guaranteed overtime = $$$! Graves were normally slow until bar closing time 0500 here in the Valley. Usually the real bad [bleep] happened during graves. I actually enjoyed the variety of experience working all the shifts, but, found the change overs difficult to adjust to for the first few days. I concluded shift work sucked and I had to get out of patrol.

I've done 12-8:30 for the last 28 years. It's way better than days to me. Anything that needs doing after work is super easy as everything is open. Heading to the range works out great, especially during the week. The only guys there are the RM and a few old retired guys.

I work 24 hour shifts. One on, two off with a Kelly day every 21 days. You feel like your dog died when you go to work and Christmas morning when you get off, but it's only nine days a month. That leaves 20 days for the other job.

Glad I don’t change work times, I’d be fuucked, I’m at work now.

I have worked evening and mid night shift for 19 of 34 years as an LE. Nights were more interesting from the quality of work side of things. but from the family side I missed many, many events. I will never get them back. birthdays, Dances, Proms, Homecoming dances, ( two daughters). I regret that, and will of course never make it up. I have worked 5 Christmases in row. I did not realize that. but my wife reminded me!That is the price you pay when you have a job that dictates your lifestyle. the military has it way worse. I could never thank them enough for all that they do at the expanse of themselves and their families.

I just retired from a 12 hr , rotating shift , days to nights, weekends, factory job. 23 years. Been about a month now. Almost feel human again.

I forgot to mention. While I never got enough sleep when working nights, I much preferred to work nights over days. On nights, you merely did your job without all the political, managerial, BS involved when working days! memtb

When I retired after 33 years of rotating shift worm getting back to a normal diurnal life pattern took a while. One thing I learned early on was if the rotation followed the clock it was tolerable. By follow the clock I mean days shift to swing shift to midnight shift. Go the opposite and it really screws up ones body. Had that problem in the military and couldn't convince the CO to set the schedule right. Same crap when I started out in the Weather Bureau, now National Weather Service. Couldn't do much for a couple of years but finally filed a grievance and got things squared away. Somehow, I got stuck with being the shop steward which allowed me to raise a little hell with the boss. For some silly reason I always preferred the graveyard shift. Usually nice and quiet, not boss or day wienies to put up with and damn little traffic with the public. Very little to do for the most part until time to fly a balloon and then it was a bit of a hustle until maybe an hour before quitting time. I tried to get put on permanent graveyard shift and the boss said it was OK if everyone else agreed to it. Naturally one rectal orifice said no so no deal. Funny thing is he was the one who bitched the most about working graveyard shift. Some people's children really should have been aborted. Oh well. I retired in 1989 so frankly, these days I don't give a damn.
Paul B.

Are you a tow boat driver?

MtnBoomer: You ain't seen nothing yet!
I worked the 8:00 P.M to 4: A.M. shift on the PD for 26 years - trying to adjust back to "normal" human hours was WAY harder and took five times longer than adjusting initially to the graveyard shift.
My advice - get on "day shift" as soon as possible and STAY there.
Good luck.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Amen to that, brother. That's the best thing about the shift. I have the best boss I've ever worked for, but I'm still happier not seeing her.

I worked full time 11pm to 7am back in the early 80's. 40 hours a week. I also took 10 hours in college, my first semester. Fell asleep in ancient history class at 8am-9am. Still made a B in there without studying. Never changed from high school history. Went home at 12 noon after calculus class, slept from about 1-7pm. Studied a bit, and went to work. Anyways. After I got enough seniority, I moved to 3pm-11pm and still had morning classes. Was able to sleep better and stay awake in the next classes, but had to do most of my studying on weekends. I was 18-20 during this time. I couldn't do it today, too old and tired. I never had student loans and took me about 8 years to get an education, but no debt, had money, bought new cars, etc. Kids today can't handle hard work and no play. I still had time to date on Saturday nights or during the day on Saturday's, even on Sunday's, during or after church, or both. No video games, even had time to do a little hunting on weekends, and some fishing. Also had time to tune up my car or change oil.

Lol...close enough.

One of those dudes told me his schedule for the week.

I gave him $5 and drove on.

The worst shift work I ever was on was a 3-2 rotation, 12 hour shifts, and change from days to nights every month.

3 12 hour shifts, 2 days off,
2 12 hour shifts, 3 days off.

Every month you changed from day to night shift.

I bailed on that job.

Eight-hour shifts!

Seems a year and a half ago I was bitching about trucking 14 on 10 off repeat... I really though I had it made here on the home daily gig.

reading this makes me wonder if the next gens will endure these kind of schedules. hell, we just were glad to get a job that had decent pay and benefits. shift work was just part of the deal. from what i have seen of the whining bitches coming up through the ranks, makes me wonder if companies will be able to get workers to do these kind of jobs in 15-20 years. i see a lot of ads for shift work in mfg around here. always openings.

Bristoe, I’m not certain that this is worse or not....for 6 years, I worked a 3/ 2 rotation, called EOWEO (12 hour shifts)...every other weekend off. Example: work Mon &Tue days - come back to work on Fri, Sat, Sun. nights , off Mon &Tues come back to work Wed & Thurs days.....continue the cycle.

You never knew whether you were coming or going. Believe it or not......that was only the 2nd worse shift I ever worked. I can’t really remember the worst one, thankfully.....it only lasted about 6 months before there was near mutiny at the plant!

My best rotating shift was 7 on/7 off, switching from nights to days. If you took a 7 day vacation......you got 21 days off! A shift that I worked from 1987 until I retired in 2016! memtb

When I was an embassy guard, we did two day watches, two eve watches, two mid watches, then two days off.

Looking back on it, it was nuts. Basically always tired. The body never had time to adapt to any kind of work/sleep rhythm.

14 on, 10 off. Yes I did it for 8 years. In my case, gone from home 14 days in a row and then two days off if I was lucky. Often, if you can believe it, just one day off.
Squeeze in a 34 hour break and roll back to Texas.
A brutal job, I was making $65K but should have been making $95K.

God Bless the truck drivers.

I have no problem working 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week if necessary, but it’s 7a-7p. No way I could ever work indoors or at night.
Fugg that.