I found out yesterday that Joseph is going to be working nights this week. He does this every so often - usually more than once per month. The deal is - he works all day @ his office, comes home for dinner [generally around 8pm] and then he leaves again [usually around 10pm] and returns late - around 2am or so. I know this is not a traditional night shift, but it's a definite shift in our routine for him to do this for a week, not just one night. I'm a night person, so it's okay by me [also, I don't have to leave the house and now that I can watch TV in bed - it's even better - so clearly I have no say in this], but I know that working night shifts for extended periods of time can be very bad for you - physically and socially [because I would think that your family relations would become strained if you worked nights and also it would be difficult to socialize on your day off]. Joseph is not so much of a night person and working so many hours in a day is a super challenge.
I do wonder if it's something I could do. As someone who has a career in transition, I'm trying to figure out what my types of limitations and preferences might be. I will say that I'm not a big fan of traditional office hours - I hate waking up in the morning and I dislike the same-iness of the routine. I like doing shift work and working into the evening [but not super late - like when I was waitressing] and I also would also prefer to work weekends and such in exchange for having weekdays off [shops are less busy and there is better stuff on TV].
I remember when my dad worked nights - to me it seemed like he did this for ages and ages...but apparently it was only a couple of months. So I would say that it did take a toll on our wee family. This week already feels lonely...even if Joseph is in another room and we don't speak for an hour or so...he's still here - it makes all the difference. Why yes, I'm a sap. To distract me - why don't you, faithful readers, tell me about your experience with shift work/night shifts. Did you go mental from lack of sun? Did your noisy neighbours drive you mental @ 10:30am, but there was nothing you could do because it wasn't the middle of the night? Did you eat dinner before going to bed @ 7am? Do tell!
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I've never worked regular night shifts, but I have had pager shifts (which I actually think are worse, because you work all day, but can still get paged constantly all night). I find it really difficult - I feel physically sick if I'm up around 1 in the morning when I want very much to be asleep. Because I'd take pager shifts from home, I would get cold & then have to warm up before I could go back to sleep.
ReplyDeleteBecause I had flex time, I wasn't expected to come in to work the next morning if I'd been up all night, so it was also isolating (and the rest of the world doesn't understand that you don't want to get woken up by the phone at 10 a.m.)
I wouldn't eat a full meal before going to sleep again, but I was always starving. It was important to keep easy to eat food (like bananas) on hand on pager weeks.
I do not miss those days at all.
The whole pager thing sounds like a nightmare. Luckily I'm not remotely qualified to do anything important enough for me to have a job that would require a pager.
ReplyDeleteBut you did address many of the issues I think would be common with working a night shift - the food things and the lonliness and the fact that no one would respect your need for silence.
when i was working in bars i would typically be home by about 3 am - but i would be all geared up and stay up until usually 5am
ReplyDeletei couldn't go straight to bed after work no matter how hard i tried
typically i would get home - eat a huge meal - count my tips, watch a movie alone,go to bed around 5 and sleep until around 10 or 11
sometimes i would catch a quick nap later on in the day
i liked it - having the whole world to myself in the day time was perfect for me
I was the same way when I was waitressing/bartending. I wouldn't go to bed before 4am. I remember watching Dragonball Z almost every night @ 5am. And yes, I always had a full meal when I got home. Never got fat though...
ReplyDeleteIt's not bad when you're living somewhere that can accommodate that lifestyle. Where I am right now I would be woken up @ 7am and then kept up throughout the day due to noisy neighbours.