Nightshift experiences?

[yungatart]

I have done night shift off and on...more rotating shifts though. I could never get enough sleep, was horrible to everyone, never knew what meal I was supposed to be eating etc etc.
Mind you, the last time I did it, I had six kids at home and the youngest was a breast fed baby...no wonder I was tired and burned the dinner every night....

[Mom]

I have not worked nights for many years, but chose it as an option when I finished my nursing training. Worked Sun to Thursday nights 11pm to 7am.

Meant I got Friday and Saturday nights off to go partay!!!

First night was always hard, try as I might it was almost always impossible to sleep Sunday afternoons, but come Monday morning zzzz's were easy peasy! Used to get home from work at 7:30, eat my cornflakes (yes breakfast after work) and be in bed by 8am. Usually slept till 3:15pm, would have been longer but that is when the kids upstairs came home from school! Get up have shower, get tea on, all that normal end of day stuff. Watch a bit of TV and then head out to work at about 10pm.

Friday mornings I would do the same but set my alarm for 11am. Groggily (is that a word?)get up, have shower, have coffee, do shopping etc. Party hard Friday, outlasted many I have to say, sleep in Saturday, repeat Saturday night.

Never seemed a problem, apart from the odd waking up in bed not knowing how I got there moment. The only problem was the endless coffee I had while at work, I thought I had a brain tumour the headaches were so bad when I finally came off nights...LOL

[Ocean1]

I have done night shift off and on...more rotating shifts though. I could never get enough sleep, was horrible to everyone, never knew what meal I was supposed to be eating etc etc.
Mind you, the last time I did it, I had six kids at home and the youngest was a breast fed baby...no wonder I was tired and burned the dinner every night....

Excuses excuses...

[Mom]

I have done night shift off and on...more rotating shifts though. I could never get enough sleep, was horrible to everyone, never knew what meal I was supposed to be eating etc etc.

Yep split shifts were the pits, I agree and used to despair sometimes trying to sleep because I knew I have to be a work in a few hours!

Excuses excuses...

Like living dangerously doncha sport!

[DEATH_INC.]

From a partners point of veiw......it's hard, you don't sleep well and all sorts of horrible suspicious thoughts run around in ya head....it's not very nice

[yungatart]

Excuses excuses...

You'd better run faster than that dude!

[marty]

i've worked shift work for 22 years, currently doing permanent nights 7pm-5.30am 5 on 4 off.

when i've got time i'll write a bit more, but it has its advantages and disadvantages......................

[Usarka]

work a shift with two days then two nights, love it ,done it for 22 years
no problms once your used to it, I was grumpy to start with so it made no diffrence.

Sully60 have sent pm.


F/F

rubbish all you rf lot are screwed in the head

[doc]

Night shift sux's. Avoid it if you can. There is evidence that is affects your health. But it pays more, so most people wont/dont admit its a problem.

[ajturbo]

[quote=Str8 Jacket;1461203]my mates very often they forgot about me.
quote]


how the FUCK can we forget about you??????????

mates???? yer right!!

[ajturbo]

And lets face it Sully, you aint getting any younger....

AND he may even get slower on the track!!!!

go for it big boy!

[scumdog]

Worked nighthsift non-stop for just over a year at a textile factory.

Started at 7:30pm and finished at 7:00am - oh and ahd abou 50 minutes drive each way too.

Started the week on Sunday night, finished Friday morning - and if I wanted more overtime I could come back Friday night for a few more hours. (another 50 minutes each way)

NEVER, ever again, got all manner of head problems due to overtiredness. (Just imagine doing the above week, heading off to the Remarkables Rally on Saturday afternoon, come back Sunday, unpack, change, off to work, about 8 hourse sleep from Friday morning to Monday morning).

Now my night-shift varies, better but really not good.

Do it for a bit if you want but most that come off night-shift swears against doing it again.

[DIN PELENDA]

Got 5 kids and wife work day shift so i have work nightshift for last 5 years, 6pm to 6am.im at work righ now and im mising out on thrsday nighte ride covering felow worker wich got fired so im working ewery night for last 3 weaks .Ewery morning after 12 hr shift get older 3 kids to school and stay home with my twins wich ar 2.5 years old i get 3-4 hr sleep it is terible im like zombe but i got no choice .Ewery day i go to work on my bike R1 and that is best time of the day stress ralese.

[Str8 Jacket]

how the FUCK can we forget about you??????????

mates???? yer right!!

Love you to AJ

But next time I see you im gonna kick you in the goolies!

[Sully60]

Well some of the Welly KB crew already knew this but for the other who’ve replied to this thread and via PM thank you all so much for the information and experiences you’ve shared. It’s made the decision making process a lot more informed in this area with lots of little things I didn’t consider and will now be aware of when I finally make the change.

I’ve decided to go back leave behind the HVAC industry and go back to my roots.

While I took Deanohit on a tour of Wellingtons better roads I bumped into a chap whom I worked with at the company where I did my apprenticeship many moons ago. He told me the decline of the company had stopped and they where growing again and may need experienced people in the future. “Come down and talk to the production manager, who knows what might happen”.

I wasn’t really unhappy in my current job but I wasn’t enjoying the relatively confrontational and stressful aspects of it and as a consequence my performance was slipping and I don’t feel happy doing a job if I’m not giving it 100%.
So while I wasn’t looking for another job I wasn’t not looking either, if you get my drift.

So I saunter on down to the factory and talk with said Production Manager (who still thinks I’m an okay bloke despite swapping the order of his spark plugs leads and putting his distributor cap on the wrong way in a drunken apprentice gag gone wrong. )

We have a pretty casual talk promising nothing and he asks for a copy of my CV which I email him when I get home that night.

I let I lie for a couple of weeks and then call the Production Manager to follow up and see if they have something. The discussion is fairly non committal and I come away feeling that this might not happen, my heart sinks slightly but in the end I still have a job and things aren’t really that bad. Soldier on and all that.

Two days latter in the middle of another stupid “Coordinated Services” meeting I get a phone call from the Production Manager saying “Can you come in for an interview?”

I was taken aback as I thought this was a dead end and had consigned the idea to the realms of history.

So back to the factory for a proper interview with the Department Manager. This time the full scope of what’s required is made clear, pay rates, expectations and night shift.
This job will eventually lead to running a production line on the night shift.
For some reason (probably that I’ve gone soft from flying a desk and mobile phone for so long) I didn’t see that one coming!
I didn’t really know what to think about it, hence this thread.

Number One and I talked about this, being the lovely supportive wife she is she said it didn’t matter which way you end up going she’d still be behind me all the way, it was just going to be tough getting used to not having her automatic active bed heater and blanket recovery device in bed with her at night though!

So I pondered over things again and I really wanted to get back into my trade again, I’ve been winging it in my current job in terms of training and even made a few dollars for the company while I was at it but it was time for a positive change.

A few more negotiations took place in the interim and the remuneration package was finalised. While it didn’t include the company vehicle I currently have use of, it was more than enough to make the move worthwhile. This was the final piece of the picture I was waiting for to make the decision once and for all and it couldn’t have come at a better time, right in the middle of another coordinated services meeting.
The other contractors around the table must have wondered about the impish grin I couldn’t hide for the rest of the meeting.

So I promptly resigned, which is really hard to do when you have such a good boss (biker from wayback, shouted my to the April MotoTT track day last year.)
and started the process of handing over all my complicated projects to untangle myself from this role once and for all.

So Friday is my last day and our little road trip to Auckland in June means I have to start the new job on Monday. Not on night shift just yet, I’ll have a lot to learn as things have moved along somewhat since and I’ll need about three months or so worth of training to get back up to speed.

It will be a real challenge for me but I can’t wait. I have all new printing processes to learn and a whole production line to get my head around. Lucky I already know most of the people there so I won’t be learning new names at the same time!

So the fact I won’t have a work PC means this is the last week that I’ll be a “daytime KB’er” for a while so I’m going to make the most of it until I get back on the nights and can play with you all online again.