How on earth do people work nights??

[Subterfuge]

I worked afternoon shift for 27 years straight at one time, it was great, we would get all our orders from the office brass at 4 PM and by 6 the building would be empty, we did our work, quiet, peaceful ... we were happy and they were happy ... loved it

 

[rockstar232007]

I'm a night person, and usually work from 4pm, to around midnight. Have been for the past 20 years.

For awhile, I'd have a "rollercoaster" schedule (alternating close/open), and it messed with my head. Not to mention, I had no life. Granted, I still don't have a life, lol, but at least I'm awake, most of the time.

 

[Deftone]

Back in the '90's I worked 4pm to 2am (4-10's) but we were on mandatory five days. Fox Factory as a Machinist. It was brutal on the Mills as there were short cycle times, non stop work. The Lathe guys had it easy with bar feeders. They just read magazines while the Lathe's were turning. I'm a morning person, I don't like to sleep when it's light out so I didn't care for it.

Years later as a Manufacturing Engineer, we would rotate on to swing shift for a month. The work was much more chill as I was only called down to the floor when there was an issue. My Mgr would let me work around 11am to 8 or 9pm. I'd miss traffic and could get to bed at a reasonable hour. 7% shift differential was nice too.

Given the choice I'll take an early shift, 5am start and leave at 1:30. That's what I did at my last job. I'd beat the traffic and be home early. Some people complained that I left too early, but production starts at 6am and a lot of Engineers were coming in at 9am so they really had no argument. Plus, I could interact with the graveyard shift as they were ending their day.

People used to try and schedule me for meetings after 1:30 to keep me at work longer, but I would just hit the "decline" button. LOL...that pissed them off.

 

[PeteK]

I did shiftwork for about 15 years. Days were 6am to 6pm and nights were 6pm to 6am. When I was single with no kids, I didn't mind it. Got a lot of time off and the nightshifts were usually easy money since nothing was really happening. You get used to it. Blackout shades are a must and I really had to manage my diet more carefully as far as sugar and caffeine.

I have a pretty sweet dayshift gig now where I am out of here by 3pm every day. Occasionally I'll pick up an overtime shift at night and I immediately remember why I don't like doing that anymore. Plus now my home life is wife and kids. Try sleeping all day with a 2 and 4 year old running around the house.

 

[LP121]

I worked 11:00pm - 7:30am all week for years, and it permanently screwed up my sleep cycle. I felt it was impossible to have decent relationships on that schedule, you feel like you're just a ship passing by everyone else who lives in the "real world". Then, on your days off, you usually try to break your sleep habit so you can spend time with the people in your life, before it's back to work all week again. You're always tired because you never sleep well, or very much; just when you're trying to go to sleep, the whole world is wide awake and usually making noise somewhere, even if it's just the chattering birds at your window sill. I had to barricade my bedroom windows to block out the sunlight, it's amazing how just a single hole the size of a pencil can illuminate the whole bedroom on a bright sunny day at 2:00pm - it's literally like having a 2,000 lumens flashlight on.

Yeah that's the drawback. On weekends it's really hard to sleep when normal people do.

 

[NotScott]

Back in the day when there was a thriving live music scene and you could make a good living working clubs 5 nights a week, I loved working nights! A typical night would be arrive at the club around 7 for soundcheck, go on around 10 and play to 1 or so. I soon discovered that I didn't need 8 hrs of sleep, I had my days free to get stuff done and most importantly to my hormone-riddled, teen mind, the boyfriends and dads of all the girls who came to see us at night were all at work during the day, leaving the ladies free to be entertained by me.

 

[PeteK]

I used to try to "iron man" it after my last nightshift and just stay awake through the next day to sort of reset my sleep pattern on days off. I think I aged out of that strategy. Last time I tried it, I fell asleep on the couch around 1pm and woke up at like 8pm and basically fucked up my entire weekend.

 

[Roberteaux]

I spent about 24 of my 30 years with the county working nights... and holidays. Once the kids got past the whole Xmas thing, I was more than happy to fill those slots nobody else wanted.

It made it easier to survive in what was essentially a corrupt, back-stabbing kind of organization.

See, the beauty of nights and holidays is that the top suits are all taking the day off, leaving their trusted subordinates and accomplished middle management types (and techies) to run the airport-- which is something we did every damned day to begin with.

The big difference was that it was easier to get the job done without the big bosses and political flunkies around. Even though these guys didn't know how to do any of the jobs that I was responsible for, while they were present they always had a tendency to either interfere (so as to make it look as though they actually did something for a living), which usually required one of us (almost always me) to explain to the suit that his recommendations were actually pretty good... except that sometimes what they were asking us to do was literally impossible, while at other times their idea stunk anyway.

So my guys would send me upstairs to smooth all that out. There were times when the crew literally finished some repair, modification, or what-not while I was up in the office telling the bigger guy about how great his ideas were... even though the crew was doing what it was supposed to do, not doing whatever the boss pulled out of his ass.

Towards the very end, I took to actually lying to the bosses, to tell them that we'd implemented some brilliant solution to what would have been a trifling project if not for said "brilliant solution".

I especially did that when we performed work in areas no boss would deign to even enter, such as the cramped, variously hot or insufferably clammy, extremely noisy, somewhat dangerous, and really, really filthy baggage belt tunnels that ran beneath the airport terminal building.

LOL Most of them wouldn't even know how to access such areas to begin with. And for those who were aware of how to get down there, all it took was one look for them to decide that going down there was a good way to ruin a nice suit.

There was a reason we were dressed mostly in greasy overalls.

So, towards the end, I got to where I'd shine clueless bosses on, while also flattering them by saying their input made a real difference...

I never did tell 'em that the main difference their input made was to provide us with a very clear indication of how NOT to proceed!

--R

 

[wildhawk1]

I used to work nights during my college vacations. I liked it. I'm a night person and am the most awake and productive then.

3rd shifter song.

Sleep your sleep
I'm awake and alive
I keep late hours
You're nine to five

 

[Lungo]

I liked night shift, what I never could get used to was rotating shifts.

I did rotating shifts for 4 years. It was a 2 week on - 2 week off schedule. The 2 week shift consisted of 14 days of 12 hr shifts. We’d work 2 weeks on day shift, be off 2 weeks, then be on night shift for 2 weeks when we went back. Getting on a night shift schedule was easy but it would usually take a week for me to be able to sleep at night afterwards. I enjoyed the night shifts but rotating sucked.

 

[efstop]

3rd shifter song.

Sleep your sleep
I'm awake and alive
I keep late hours
You're nine to five

The quintessential night shift song.

 

[pnuggett]

How on earth do people work nights??​

You mean as opposed to Mars or sumpin'?

 

[DeafDumbBlind Kid]

I've worked a lot of weird hours when I was in between semesters at college. I was young and dumb and could take it. No freaking way now. I haven't worked in so long I don't even know if I could get back into it again. I might as well be a musician.

 

[DotStudio]

During refueiling outages at the plant I work 1700 to 0600 for 1 to 3 months at a shot. It sucks for a night or two, but you get used to it quick. It's way worse when I'm on duty for issue resolution and can get called in for any given problem to oversee issues. I was up 27 straight hours for one issue. Swinging between shifts is no bueno.

 

[Skit]

Retired in January after doing many Railroad years working 2 PM to 10 PM usually done at 9:30 PM. Went to bed at about 4 AM got up at noon. I hated working graveyard or swings throughout the week. I'm still going to bed about 4 AM and getting up at noon.

 

[LtDave32]

My wife works 4 nights a week.

 

[LocoTex]

I worked the better part of 40 years on nights, the vast majority on 2nd shift (either 3-11pm or 4 to midnight). I still don't get my head fully together till about 3 pm. I worked 4 years on 3rd shift (11pm to 7am) and it damaged me, both physically and mentally. Mainly mentally. If I had it to do over I would work anywhere doing anything I had to to not work 3rd shift.

 

[Joeydego]

Overnights are the best. No big bosses around and it’s nice and quiet.

 

[ErictheRed]

I worked nights for a while in the Air Force, started anywhere from about 2:00 to 5:00pm and got off about 10-12 hours later depending. There were a few times that I'd have a couple of beers on my front porch when I got home from work, 6:00am or so, and watch the sun rise. Nothing like waving to the neighbors with a beer in your hand at 6:30am while they're turning on the sprinklers and getting their morning paper! It was also nice because I could get a lot of crap done during the day, like going to the DMV or bank or doctor, because they were all open when I was off.

 

[Olds442]

started working nights in high school. air freight company by O’Hare. great money for HS.

many years on 2nd, a few on third.

but the best air freight ppl work days, did that too.