Shift Work

RednScarlet

RednScarlet

New member
Shift workers are a weird bunch.

We never get enough sleep, eat strange stuff at strange hours and basically are some moody SOBs.

For the last 15 years I've worked a 12 hour shift ( half the month 8 am to 8 pm, then switch to 8 pm to 8 am for the last half of the month ).

After we moved, I swore I'd never work shift again. That lasted 6 months. Just couldn't handle working a normal day shift. New job is back to rotating 8 hour shifts and I love it.

I work alone and YES, I do talk to myself and answer.

Things I have found out after 35 years of different types of shift work:

- 4 hours is the max I can sleep.

- I can sleep anytime, any place, any noise level and in any position (including vertical).

- Caffeine has no affect on me.

- What I can eat during daylight hours, will make me puke on night shift.

- The internet was invented for shift workers.

- You can make a game out of everything you do.

- Most people do not know the meaning of BORED.

- That beer you have at 8 in morning, as you watch your neighbors head to work, is the best beer ever!

Anyone else out there doing 'shifts'?

 
I worked a rotating shift many years ago. Days for two weeks, then swing shift, then graveyard. My sleep patterns have been screwed up every since then.

But I like your suggestion of the 8:00am beer. Haven't had one since my college days. I'll have to try it sometime. :)

 
I did a 7pm to 7am shift as a dispatcher at a tow truck company for a few years. (Super fun customer phone calls! Never any curse filled drunken threats! Ever!) I always had to go through this explanation routine as I bought a 6 pack at 7:02 AM, you know, "I know this looks bad ha ha, but uh, I work overnight so it's really like 7 at night for me!"

"Sure buddy, whatever. That'll be $5.99."

 
Before I went back to college, I worked over nights at a plant in Crete. We got off at 5:30 or 6, and once a week my co-workers and I would head down to a bar. In Crete these places were also the diners. I would laugh as we would walk in, order breakfast and beers/shots, all the while a Saline county judge would be sitting across from us eating pancakes and drinking coffee, we would joke with him about seeing him in a couple of hours etc. Man we would have a ton of fun. I found the worst to be going out on Friday night and getting tired at 12pm. People would always say "You work nights how can you be tired", I would try to explain its like drinking at 10am for them.

I like that your post was made at 3:52am....

 
Canttakeitanymore said:
Before I went back to college, I worked over nights at a plant in Crete. We got off at 5:30 or 6, and once a week my co-workers and I would head down to a bar. In Crete these places were also the diners. I would laugh as we would walk in, order breakfast and beers/shots, all the while a Saline county judge would be sitting across from us eating pancakes and drinking coffee, we would joke with him about seeing him in a couple of hours etc. Man we would have a ton of fun. I found the worst to be going out on Friday night and getting tired at 12pm. People would always say "You work nights how can you be tired", I would try to explain its like drinking at 10am for them.

I like that your post was made at 3:52am....
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We did the same thing in the semi-small Nebraska town I worked in.

Town had one cab and it was kept real busy on those mornings.

Really miss the plant and Nebraska for that matter.

One bright spot will be this weekend; Wife and I will be cheering Big Red on from the Frayed Knot here in Nashville.

Great watch site for all us displaced Huskers.

GBR !

 
I've worked shift work for the past 9 years. It has its ups and downs, but for the most part I love it. My wife hates that I work evenings, but it gives me some time to mellow out and be by myself. I think it helps our relationship some and really makes me cherish the time I get to spend with my boys and her.

 
BIGREDIOWAN said:
I've worked shift work for the past 9 years. It has its ups and downs, but for the most part I love it. My wife hates that I work evenings, but it gives me some time to mellow out and be by myself. I think it helps our relationship some and really makes me cherish the time I get to spend with my boys and her.
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Sure, I can see that. What's the old saying, absence makes the heart grow fonder?

My wife likes it when I'm gone, though. Without exception. (j/k. I think.) :lol:

 
Been on 12 hour nights for 5 years this shot and 7 years on a rotating shift 7-7 and I love it. Took the wife the longest time to figure out that when I get home at 7:30 am and pour a stiff drink. She was convinced I was a drunk. Then she would call at 11, 1 2 oclock to see what I was up to. my Reply was "sleeping". This went on for about a week when I started. Then one night at 2:30 am I called her and asked her what she was doing? Her REply was "what the hell do you think I am doing?" my reply to that was "how do you like it when your sleeping?" I just wanted to call and see what you were up to. When I got home in the morning I got an apology from her and she realized that at 2 in the afternoon is like 2 in the morning to me. :box

 
Nebula said:
I did a 7pm to 7am shift as a dispatcher at a tow truck company for a few years. (Super fun customer phone calls! Never any curse filled drunken threats! Ever!) I always had to go through this explanation routine as I bought a 6 pack at 7:02 AM, you know, "I know this looks bad ha ha, but uh, I work overnight so it's really like 7 at night for me!"

"Sure buddy, whatever. That'll be $5.99."
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I can so relate. Every time I felt like I had to explain like the guy at the Bucky's really gives a crap. I miss my me time with a 6 pack and the ps2 after the kids went to school. I'm working normal people hours now and I just can't my sleep pattern right.

 
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