Nights and you: A soul sucking job

[Cantaim]

Just got hired on as an evening/afternoon shift, 3-11. Not that bad for hours, but by the end of it I'm completely drained. This friday was the end of my first week and I'm exhausted. I can't imagine trying to do this as a 3rd shift.

Anyone on ERA work the graveyard shift? How do you handle it?

Thread made on behalf of dpunk3

 

[dpunk3]

Thanks man.

 

[CreepingFear]

I once worked 4:30 AM to 1:30 PM in a soul sucking job for 8 months. I truly believe I lost 5 years off my life.

 

[Cantaim]

Thanks man.

Click to shrink...

No problem and happy to help

 

[Bandage]

You have to adjust your sleeping schedule and even then you'll never truly get use to it because the body wants what it wants.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

I've worked the night shift (10P to 8AM) for the last 18ish month and absolutely love it. I get a 10% premium bonus to my paycheck and I do like 5% the work of day shift. Sleeping has actually been better too. I get 3 hours after work, and 3 hours before work.

My shift preference is:
Graveyard/Nights > Morning/Days > Afternoon/Evening

I enjoy having the daylight hours to do me things while everyone else is stuck at work. Especially in the winter months where I get out as the sun is coming up while day shift gets out as the sun is down.

 

[Chrno]

worked a similar shift in retail for a couple of years. Definitely ruined large parts of my social life.

 

[Buttzerker]

I work 6pm-6am and it's not so bad. I stay up 'til about 10-11 when I get home and do my errands/gaming then, and I sleep 'til 4:30 or so. Drink lots of water. It's very easy to get dehydrated on nights because you aren't paying attention.

 

[Macheezmo]

The worst is when your shift bounces around. Last week my Mon-Wed was 6am-4pm. Thu and Fri were 6pm-4am, And my upcoming Mon is 2am-10am.

 

[Skies]

I work 7p - 7a.

My job only requires three days a week and my wife works the same shift, so we just decided to go full vampire for the last two years. It was really cool at first, experiencing shopping when everyone else is going home, gaming/watch tv late into the night, and taking a walk with the sunrise.

But now it's starting to wear on us. I miss the 12 hours of sunlight, yet I now hate how bright is when I do get to experience it. Going on vacation is a bitch as well, having to switch back and forth from days to nights fatigues you and is quite frankly dangerous.

 

[Deleted member 11157]

Had a 4pm-130am swing shift. It takes a while and you get used to it. Or you don't and quit.

 

[CaviarMeths]

I've been working graveyard shifts for almost a decade now. Suits me. Definitely not for everyone though.

 

[T'Challa Shakur]

I used to work the overnight at two jobs. One was 4pm-4am doing Factory work, which paid well but man it was fucking horrid. The other was a overnight Job at a gym 10-6. I used to watch movies, smoke weed and sleep in various places around the gym where I knew the cameras couldn't see me.

 

[Taurus Silver]

When I was a correctional officer I worked 3-11. Was a great shift. I'd stay up until about 3 or 4 am and be up by 11 or 12 the next morning.

The only thing about 3-11 that sucks is if you are the type who likes to go out drinking and partying. I'm not so it never was an issue.

 

[Mik317]

I work that now. It's pretty neat for my lifestyle (or lack thereof). I can't imagine going to a 9-5 now...which is a problem.

definitely have to fuck up your sleep cycle.. mine was already fucked due to anexity and poor life choices so I cannot recommend it to everyone.

 

[Deleted member 28564]

I'm a night owl. It shouldn't be too difficult to alter your sleeping pattern. I have altered it several times in the past few months alone.

 

[Rygar 8Bit]

I work 12am-8:30am. Stay up til 4-5pm, go to bed wake up at 11:30pm shower and go. I love the night shift, been doing it for 13 years.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

9-to-5 seems so lifeless to me now. You get up, got to compete with traffic (hours for some), work away the daylight hours, then leave to compete with evening traffic, get home, have dinner, and maybe have a couple hours of daylight assuming it's summer and not winter where it's already dark out.

 

[Morrison71]

I work the graveyard shift 6pm to 6 am. I like it a lot more than I thought I would. At my old job I worked 1 week on overnight shift and absolutely hated it but that was 8 hour shifts.

I'm pretty sure my wife hates how much I sleep but I have no idea how else I would do it. I go back to day shift sleeping habits when I don't work but if it's my first night of work I sleep like normal day shift that night wake up get kids ready then go back to sleep until like 3 in the afternoon.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

I did a 3-11 for two years. Fucked up my sleep schedule. Cause I mean it's 11:45 by the time I got home and I can't just go to bed. I need to unwind so now I'm not sleeping until 2-3am. Would wake up @ 11am or sometimes at 1pm.

At the end I hated it and don't like sleeping that late now. If I wake up past 9:30am I feel disgusted with myself. And I"m not a morning person. But that experience changed me. I wouldn't do it again.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

When I worked 10-7 I actually greatly preferred it to most other shifts. Paid better and pretty relaxed atmosphere till about 6am.
4am to 1pm was probably the best shift though(you are off at the perfect time, day stuff can be immediately done but you can also do night stuff if you prefer).

 

[Morrison71]

When I worked 10-7 I actually greatly preferred it to most other shifts. Paid better and pretty relaxed atmosphere till about 6am.
4am to 1pm was probably the best shift though.

Click to shrink...

The atmosphere point is spot on. I imagine it's like that at most jobs, it can be a big plus.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

Paid better and pretty relaxed atmosphere till about 6am.

Click to shrink...

Yup. Between like 10PM and 6AM I mostly just game on my laptop or watch a show/movie on Amazon. But once 6 rolls around all the normies start coming in and the work increases several hundreds of percent. I'm like completely stress free compared to my day-shift counterparts.

 

[vider]

I used to work from 6am - 2pm one week and from 10pm - 6am the other week for around 6 years. And it was pretty bad. It was like being constantly extremely jet lagged. And those weeks when I was on the graveyard shift I basically had no life, because even if I slept until 3 or 4 pm, I would still be tired all afternoon.

 

[Forerunner]

2:30pm to 10:30pm is probably my favorite shift. I get home around 11:30pm and I'll stay up until one or two. Then I'll wake up at either eight or nine in the morning. I'll go work out and do whatever I need to do before leaving for work at 1:15pm.

 

[julia crawford]

9-to-5 seems so lifeless to me now. You get up, got to compete with traffic (hours for some), work away the daylight hours, then leave to compete with evening traffic, get home, have dinner, and maybe have a couple hours of daylight assuming it's summer and not winter where it's already dark out.

Click to shrink...

This is true, but personally working nights the incredibly lonely, what with being so distant from the lives my friends were having.

 

[Bombless]

Night worker here, for the past 8.5 years. Not exclusively but 95% of the time. 11pm to 7am.

I used to spend nights playing games so I felt it was a natural progression at the time. The pay is alright but it has wrecked my health and social life. I'd say it's not worth it but at the same time the money I've saved over the years says otherwise. I'm getting close to 40 so I can't change my sleeping schedule on a dime as I used to anymore either so good riddance. This is my last year, I'll resign sometime next Autumn.

 

[Carnby]

The only thing about 3-11 that sucks is if you are the type who likes to go out drinking and partying. I'm not so it never was an issue.

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I disagree. The real fun starts at midnight.

 

[Sun's Resting Place]

yeah. i just did a 10pm-6am last night. it varies drastically what kind of shift I get, one time i did a 10pm to 11:30am, or sometimes I do 8pm to 8am. got lots of clients.

 

[Taurus Silver]

I disagree. The real fun starts at midnight.

Click to shrink...

Bars close here in MD at 2. I can get wasted in 2 hours but I prefer to gradually get drunk.

 

[Yasumi]

Just about to start a 3pm-12am fulltime job on Monday. Been deliberately screwing with my sleep schedule for the last week to get ready. Nooot really looking forward to it.

 

[Basileus777]

I worked overnight (11pm to 7:30am) for almost 5 years and have been working 3pm to 12am for the past year. I mostly like working shift, you just need to accept that you won't be able to keep normal people hours and instead find yourself a sleep cycle that works around the hours you work.

 

[Bagels]

I work 3rd shift, 11:30-8:00, as a chemist in a pharmaceutical company. I like the 10% shift differential, not having to share lab equipment, and being part of a really tight-knit crew. I really like it overall. My sleep improves in Fall and Winter, and is absolutely wrecked in the Summer. If you can get home and get to bed before the sun comes up, it works pretty well.

I often stay late to finish things up and I've noticed that the social stimulation I get when 1st shift people start trickling in makes it really hard to sleep. I'm pretty extroverted, so chatting with my coworkers can get me pretty energized.

I've been able to bump my shift back to 9:00-5:30 and it has made a world of difference. I feel pretty normal on my new sleep schedule.

 

[Carnby]

Bars close here in MD at 2. I can get wasted in 2 hours but I prefer to gradually get drunk.

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Good ol' 2 AM last call. It's 4 AM where I am from.

 

[Taurus Silver]

Good ol' 2 AM last call. It's 4 AM where I am from.

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See if it was 4am here I probably still wouldnt have went out. I went out so much from 18-20 that by the time I hit legal drinking age I was over it.

 

[Uncouth Norseman]

Overnights suck, but driving semi is worse. Sporadic sleep schedule, 20+ hour days, when you do get several hours at a time it's not the best. Not part of the job I miss.

 

[alr1ght]

I worked 3rd shift for 3 months and it was torturous. It really fucked me up. I was miserable and tired all the time. Some of my co-workers have no issue, and they welcome the lighter work load and better pay. It really depends on the person.

 

[acheron_xl]

Been working 3rd shift for the lion's share of the last 15 years. You get used to it after a while. Being a natural misanthrope helps.

 

[HylianTom]

I worked weekend overnights in an emergency room for 7 years. It was three 12-hour shifts (1900-0700), followed by four days off. My body loved being up at night, so I had zero problems with this shift. I'd get off on Monday morning, go home to a Tivo filled with football, and I wouldn't return to work until the following Friday night.

Then I transferred to another city and another hospital.. to a day shift. It took years to re-acclimate. My body and mind wanted to stay up at night, getting up in the mornings was as difficult as hell, and two-day weekends were horribly short compared to the luxurious four-day weekends I'd grown accustomed-to.

I'm used to this day arrangement, especially now that I get three-day weekends. But if needed, I could go back to night work in a heartbeat.

 

[Zackat]

I work the evening shift at the hospital, 3-11, and I actually kinda like it. I do not like waking up at 5 am to go to work. Being able to have my mornings back and have time to do things before I go into work is really nice for me. I am not sure yet if I want to do it long-term but I will take the extra money from shift differential for right now.

 

[HardTimesFamilyPride]

I have generally worked 2-10pm for years now. Used to be til 11 but I got my availability changed while in college and they never changed it back. :P

When I started out I was third shift. 10pm-7am five nights a week. Wasn't too bad until I started having trouble sleeping during the day while trying to still maintain a social life.

 

[TheJoker]

I work 7pm to 7am. Working isn't the hard part for me. It's the days off where I have to decide to just stick to the schedule or wake up early without much sleep. Normally I just try to stick to the same schedule unless I have something I want to do or have an appointment.

 

[Sgt. Demblant]

I was a bartender in a fancy hotel for a couple of years. From 11pm to 7am. Shit was rough. I actually loved working nights since I've always had a weird sleep schedule but it greatly impacted my social life. I was too sleepy to do anything with my friends during my off days.

 

[HardTimesFamilyPride]

I work 7pm to 7am. Working isn't the hard part for me. It's the days off where I have to decide to just stick to the schedule or wake up early without much sleep. Normally I just try to stick to the same schedule unless I have something I want to do or have an appointment.

Click to shrink...

We got our district manager to require our GM to give us our days off in a row so we could make sure our 9-5 errands were taken care of. I would just stay up the whole first day and sleep forever that night so my second day was free. Catnaps the day back to work. That 6pm nap worked wonders!

 

[DiscoPizza]

I've worked mostly overnights for about 11 years and it just works for me. I briefly tried a different shift of 11am to 8pm and couldn't get used to it so I switched back.

 

[sphagnum]

I love 3 - 11, fits with my natural tendency to stay up late and means the bosses arent around.

 

[kyle mechlachlan]

2nd shift was a nightmare when I had to do it. Hated it. But I was switched to Midnight-9am eventually and that was great.

 

[Eldy]

I had to work afternoon/evening shifts while I was in retail but the bad part was that it was completely unpredictable. Each week would generally have two closing shifts (get out around 10pm most nights) and two opening shifts (be in at 7am) and one mid shift, but they weren't even the same days each week. Completely fucked my sleep cycle for years. Late shifts fit well with my natural inclination to both stay up and sleep in late, though.

 

[Bloodforge]

You really have to be a night owl kind of person if you want to work 2nd/3rd shifts, if not you're going to feel like shit. I like staying up all night so it has never been an issue for me.

 

[DonNadie]

4:00 pm to 12:15 am, been doing it for 10years. Love it most times, but sometimes I hate it too. It's good because I have the mornings and most of the afternoon to take care of any business. And commuting, going to the gym, or to school is way less hectic. But now that my son is going to elementary school, I don't see him almost at all during the week and that sucks. Now, I was lucky enough to be married before I started working this shift, if I wasn't, it would've been really hard getting or keeping a relationship. There are a few guys in my shift in their late 30's and 40's even 50's with no family, girlfriend or nothing.