Night shifts - good idea or not?

[Mr Pig]

I actually heard once that working odd shifts shortens your life! Sounds mad but I can believe it. Working night shift really screws up your body clock and you end up never feeling quite right. Personally, I wouldn't do it by choice.

 

[Morrisette]

Mr M did night factory work as a summer job when he was at uni. He was ill for the whole time, looked pale, sickly and could never go to the pub. He found he didn't eat properly either. And daytime TV is designed to make your brain fall out of your ears it's that bad.

The money was better though. :-)

 

[Maz]

Yup, 10% flexibility payment...

That's the deal-clincher for sure. Go for it!

 

[punkypossum]

That's the deal-clincher for sure. Go for it!

Well, at the moment the deal clincher is that if I take 3 days annual leave and am on the standard 3 on 6 off, that would give me 15 days off, which is very tempting indeed!!!!

 

[Night Train]

I worked nights for about 10 months. It was fine at first but then it took its toll. I was attempting to use the time to study but my brain doesn't work as well at night. Also the general boredom was terrible. Nothing happened, there was no noise, no activity, no contact with people, nothing except regular hourly building checks.

Changing back to days on my days off to have a social life was difficult as well. I worked 30 hours on three 10 hour shifts that were really 11 hours with the break plus an hour each side for getting to work made it 13 hours. Friends complained that I was always asleep when they phoned, I was always looking for a social life when friends were at work or in bed. I also put on loads of weight as my body didn't know when the meals were coming and also I was eating through the night to relieve the boredom.

I gave up after 10 months as I started teaching as well and was working Monday to Friday at college and Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

The other chap who worked with me did 40 hours over the other four nights of the week and he was fine with it and even covered for me when I was away and so did 11 nights in a row every month or so. He coped fine as did his wife and new baby.

I guess it works for some and not others.

 

[GrahamG]

Sounds pretty sweet to me - that's a good bit of time off and the opportunity to be out in the daylight over winter (biiiig bonus). When I was doing pub work during uni holidays a few years back, generally working 6pm until about 1am followed by 3-4 hours of chill out beers or a film and then sleeping until 11, I felt far more awake and active than I ever do with my normal office hours now. The weekend nights were a bugger from a social point of view but it sounds like your arrangement is more flexible. I'd give those shift patterns some serious consideration now, if only I wasn't a desk jockey!

 

[Janeyb]

I have no experience of nights personally but my husband does and i know he's getting to the stage where he wants to stop them. He's finding it more difficult now he's 41 than he did when he was in his early thirties. He does around 3 nights a week (12 hour shifts at a time). He wants to try and cut to 2 nights a week but he's on contract and it's all a bit difficult at the moment. I can safely say that his health has suffered as he's got older and I know he finds it difficult having time off when no-one else is around.

But it's all down to each individual I guess. He's loved the nights up until this last year or so. So maybe give it a go and see how you feel.

One last point though.....there is a heck of a lot of research about how detrimental to health night work is so make sure you know what you are getting into.

 

[jonathan ellis]

All depends on you.
I was okay doing this when I was 20 ish - now i'm nearly twice that it hurts a bit more!

I do mon to wed day, thurs night & sat day for 8 weeks twice a year.
I couldnt do nights all the time
dont know if this helps you...

 

[newbiebiker]

I find night shifts better because of the night differential pay. Besides, you'd adjust to it like it's nothing.

 

[ColinJ]

Here's the (rather lengthy ) story of my year on a night shift. It might give you a feel for what it is like...

I worked nights for a year to save money to go to university. I volunteered for it because I earned about £25 a week extra (back in the early 1980s that was a significant amount) and it stopped me going out to the pub with my mates 7 nights a week. I was supposed to do 4 10 hour shifts (Mon - Thu) but soon I was doing 5 shifts. The extra shift on Friday was at overtime rates so it was well worth doing, and it was another night when I'd normally be spending a lot of money.

I quickly settled into a routine of finishing work at 06:00, getting home at about 06:45 and having a quick bath. Then I'd chat over a meal with my folks before they went to work (it was their breakfast but the last meal of my 'day'). Then I'd flop in front of the TV to watch Dallas which was being repeated every morning on the BBC at that time. Don't laugh - it may have been mindless crap but I liked to unwind properly before going to bed and it was perfect for that.

I slept all day - I didn't even attempt to 'have a life' during the week. I'd get up when my parents got back from work and we did the meal reversal thing again, my 'breakfast' being their evening meal. At 19:15 I'd head off to work to start my shift at 20:00.

On Saturday evening, I'd go out with my mates and do what we always did, except that when everybody was conking out by 03:00, I'd feel like the night had just started. When I got home, I often used to listen to music on headphones for a few hours.

Sunday evenings were like Saturday evenings, except the pubs shut early and my mates didn't want to stop out so late. I was always at a loose end when I got home. Very confused as to what time of day it was.

I did get up a couple of hours earlier on Saturdays and Sundays so I could spend some time with my family and do things that I couldn't do at any other time.

I know that some people try to lead a relatively 'normal' life while working nights but I couldn't do it. I got too knackered if I didn't stick to a regular routine like the one described above. Think major jet-lag a couple of times a week.

I missed out on a lot of things in that year. Mates were having relationships, going on holidays, playing in bands, going to gigs, the cinema etc. etc. I could cope with it because I was doing it for a good reason. I needed money to pay for my first year at university and my parents couldn't afford to help me. I saved £3,500 that year which was exactly the amount of money that I needed.

I'd say do it - if you could stand a lifestyle something like mine, and don't if you couldn't. I don't know how people fit relationships or marriages in when the partners are effectively living in different timezones!

I don't think that I could have done much cycling then. I could have made do with a bit less sleep and sneaked a few rides in here and there, but I had a manual labouring job so I was already getting 50 hours of exercise there a week plus walking back from work every morning.

There are some strange things about working nights...

It was pretty magical on nice summer evenings to work with the factory doors open and watch the sun go down, then work through the twilight and see just a couple of hours of darkness, before the sun started to come back up again. Walking back through a park at 06:00 was lovely. Only a few milkmen about, oh, and rabbits, squirrels, and the occasional fox.

Working nights through a cold winter was grim. I don't want to remind myself about it !

We used to feel a bit spaced-out by the early hours and cracked up every morning when the farming news came on the local radio station at 05:00. There are all sorts of funny names for young farm animals. We didn't know what the heck they were, but hearing a couple of yokels discussing the prices of them just seemed really amusing after a hard night's work !

 

[Amanda P]

Shift change at the brewery, 6 am. 12-hour shifts, you're on your feet the whole time, and stressed with it. Dave is my oppo on the other shift.

Me: Morning, Dave.
Dave (visibly grey-faced, drooping and with eyes like a bloodhound): Morning Phil. You look very fresh. Have you been sleeping?
Me: Yes - all night.
Dave (with venom): You bastard.

Two weeks later, when we've both switched shifts:

Dave: Morning, Phil
Me: Morning, Dave. You look very fresh. Have you been sleeping?.....

 

[bikie]

I started working night 3 weeks ago, 4 nights a week 11-8, it's really starting to mess me up, I struggle to sleep the hours I need, I eat all the time, usually junk. I miss talking to people, miss the kids and feel half asleep all the time. Don't think I will keep it up for long.

 

[Mr Phoebus]

I'm very tempted to apply for permanent nights at my place of work (absolutely hate my current hours and 5 days a week). This would in theory mean working 10-8 on a three nights on, six nights off basis. In practice, as we would still have to cover holidays, sickness, etc, it sometimes turns out to be 4 nights on, 5 off. Never worked nights before, but I'm quite nocturnal anyway - don't finish till 10 at the moment which means I spend most of the day waiting to go to work, and then, by the time I get home everybody else has gone to bed, whereas I'm up till 2 or 3... Is this a good idea? Anybody on here work night shifts? I've asked the small team at my place and they all say they wouldn't swap, but as there is only 6 of them, it's not a very representative sample....

As long as you're not doing it with 'Dora the Drawer Storer', then why not?

 

[MarkF]

Try it and see but it's not for everyone. I've never met anyone who likes working nights.

I did it for 6 months a decade or so ago, simply becuse I was skint and needed the enhanced hourly rate. I hated it, I never felt healthy, had zero social life and it messed up my body clock so that I could not enjoy my 2 days off. It was like I was "outside" normal life. Never again.

Once I was so skint I worked days and nights at the same time, now that really messes you up, can turn you into a foaming at the mouth maniac in one week.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Try it and see but it's not for everyone. I've never met anyone who likes working nights.

It has its advantages: when I worked mixed days and nights in a dairy, the night shift was always more of a laugh because there were no managers around. Plus, as I was in my twenties at the time, I was usually able to get home after the last night shift and stay up until a normal bedtime, thereby normalising my hours again. Night shifts on lorries are far preferable to day shifts because the hours are generally shorter and there are fewer idiot motorists in your way.