So I Work Third Shift Now

Just over three years ago I was begged to work First shift because of the E36 M3ty work that was being done. Been doing my job and doing it well since. It has been nice because it is a Monday through Friday gig.

Saturday during a family member's funeral dinner I got a text message that my schedule is now third shift with days off in the middle of the week. I had to adjust my schedule and figure out what to do at night. It is dead here and I really don't have to do a thing. My internet access is limited, so here I am.

I also am now limited in my part time work. I have two other jobs that I may not be able to continue. We will have to see how my schedule goes.

When do I sleep? I guess when I get home. I'm ready to be back on a regular shift where I can have a life already and I'm almost two hours in. I guess I'll find something to watch on Youtube...

Welcome to the zombie shift!

I worked: 3rd, 2nd, off, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, off last week and I'll be working 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, off, 1st, off this coming week. Sleep? HAHA!

Are you all by your onesy there?

You should hop to the other side of the fence and become a criminal. You'd get to make your own hours!

One of the other jobs includes tracking them, so I do get to make my own hours there. There are 3 others here, but I'm kind of cut off from them. Been sitting here watching Tales From the Crypt.

ive been on night shift for almost 5 years now, and i wouldn't go back. my reasons are somewhat situational, but they are pretty big to me.

no production on my shift. this means i get to fix things in peace, and fix them right. i don't have to cobble crap together to make it run till the end of the day, then re-do it later. i like this. a lot.

there are 240 employees at my facility. 5 of them are here on nights. none of them are managers. this is awesome.

i schedule all my own stuff. i dont have to work around what tank is empty, what line is running, etc etc. i pull a work order, and go fix it. then i do that again, till its time to go home. this is also awesome.

i leave for work the same time my family goes to bed. other than my wife sleeping alone 4 nights a week ( i also work 4-10's, which rocks), this is fine. i get home just in time to cook breakfast, and see the kids off to the sitter, and the wife off to work. then i sit in my quiet house for an hour, hit the hot tub, and go to bed. life is good.

vacation days are easy. being expendable labor (no production requiring minimum personnel) i can schedule time off almost at will.

i can 'work my sleep'. not everyone can do this, i'm great at it. what i mean is, for those of you on normal 9-5 shifts, is i if know i need to sleep now, cause i need to go to work in 5 hours, i can lay down and sleep. anywhere. anytime. any noise. any light. doesn't matter. if i tell my brain to sleep, i sleep. i can sleep in the morning when i get home, or later in the day before i go to work. doesn't matter. i can skip it all together for about 36 hours, as long as i can find 5-6 hours afterward to crash, i'm good. i skip sleep altogether at least once a week. also, i only sleep 6 times per week. cause when i make the switch, i don't sleep after my Friday, i stay up for 24-28 hours, then sleep with my wife. then on sunday, i skip the nap usually, and go straight to work, pulling another 24-26 hour awake-a-thon. the result is i really get 4 days off. i clock out thursday morning at 6:30a, so i get thu, fr, sa, and almost all of sun, when i go back at 7pm. so i work 4 days, and get 4 days off, in a seven day week. cool huh?!!!?

either you will get used to it (give it 12-14 weeks minimum) or it will make you old fast. if it does that, get out. in all honesty, night shift can shorten your life if you can't handle it, there's numerous studies on the matter.

good luck!

and text me sometime, im always up! :P

-J0N

Well, I'm still awake. I have done well and entertained myself. My supervisor came over to hang out for about 30 minutes and that is pretty much all the human contact I've had for the night.

I don't mind the hours, but the days leave me a little screwed up. I'm not the type of person that can go very long without sleep. We will see how it goes. The wife is pretty upset because she has been attempting to get the same hours as me. I'll go home and probably sleep until 12:00 or 13:00.

I think I remember speaking with you, but didn't save your number.

I miss working nights. I had the whole day to work on my projects. I require very little sleep, so night shift was right up my alley. Now I am self employed and work days. I'm up around 4AM looking for things to do, and usually up late into the night watching TV or surfing the web. My grandmother, my father, and my 13 year old daughter are the same way. My dad called me around 5AM this morning wondering what I was doing today. Wants me to come down and "have a look at the churches grease interceptor". Thats code for bring a couple of buckets and clean out this nasty stinky thing.

jmthunderbirdturbo wrote: ive been on night shift for almost 5 years now, and i wouldn't go back. my reasons are somewhat situational, but they are pretty big to me. no production on my shift. this means i get to fix things in peace, and fix them right. i don't have to cobble crap together to make it run till the end of the day, then re-do it later. i like this. a lot. there are 240 employees at my facility. 5 of them are here on nights. none of them are managers. this is awesome. i schedule all my own stuff. i dont have to work around what tank is empty, what line is running, etc etc. i pull a work order, and go fix it. then i do that again, till its time to go home. this is also awesome. i leave for work the same time my family goes to bed. other than my wife sleeping alone 4 nights a week ( i also work 4-10's, which rocks), this is fine. i get home just in time to cook breakfast, and see the kids off to the sitter, and the wife off to work. then i sit in my quiet house for an hour, hit the hot tub, and go to bed. life is good. vacation days are easy. being expendable labor (no production requiring minimum personnel) i can schedule time off almost at will. i can 'work my sleep'. not everyone can do this, i'm great at it. what i mean is, for those of you on normal 9-5 shifts, is i if know i need to sleep now, cause i need to go to work in 5 hours, i can lay down and sleep. anywhere. anytime. any noise. any light. doesn't matter. if i tell my brain to sleep, i sleep. i can sleep in the morning when i get home, or later in the day before i go to work. doesn't matter. i can skip it all together for about 36 hours, as long as i can find 5-6 hours afterward to crash, i'm good. i skip sleep altogether at least once a week. also, i only sleep 6 times per week. cause when i make the switch, i don't sleep after my Friday, i stay up for 24-28 hours, then sleep with my wife. then on sunday, i skip the nap usually, and go straight to work, pulling another 24-26 hour awake-a-thon. the result is i really get 4 days off. i clock out thursday morning at 6:30a, so i get thu, fr, sa, and almost all of sun, when i go back at 7pm. so i work 4 days, and get 4 days off, in a seven day week. cool huh?!!!? either you will get used to it (give it 12-14 weeks minimum) or it will make you old fast. if it does that, get out. in all honesty, night shift can shorten your life if you can't handle it, there's numerous studies on the matter. good luck! and text me sometime, im always up! :P -J0N

I actively manage my naps with melatonin and diet mountain dew, one for sleepy and one for wakey. I'm a morning person so 3rd shift is difficult.

I remember taking the wife and kids to see the Avengers at around 2:00 in the afternoon at the local theater. I fell asleep...

N Sperlo wrote: Well, I'm still awake. I have done well and entertained myself. My supervisor came over to hang out for about 30 minutes and that is pretty much all the human contact I've had for the night. I don't mind the hours, but the days leave me a little screwed up. I'm not the type of person that can go very long without sleep. We will see how it goes. The wife is pretty upset because she has been attempting to get the same hours as me. I'll go home and probably sleep until 12:00 or 13:00. I think I remember speaking with you, but didn't save your number.

I've noticed if I work 3rds uninterrupted for a long period of time I begin to feel very isolated.

Can't do it. My body shuts down in a bad way if I try to go without sleep. I've stayed awake a full night twice in my life. Both times ended with me vomiting uncontrollably.

I prefer evenings or (swing shift) work.. keeps the management happiness out of my life and I am -not- a morning person

I'm the opposite, once I figured out midnight shift I don't want to work any other shift.

Although I'm not a morning person I worked daylight for over 25 years then got bumped to midnight, kicked my butt at first. The hours are upside down for sure but after a month it was easy. It clicked one morning leisurely driving home after my midnight shift, lookat those white-knuckle death grip driving morons late for work... waitaminit, that used to be me.

Midnights are laid back, no 'shirts' crawling up yur ass, no drama, most everybody on the shift actually wants to be there. Our midnight actually produces more than other shifts, go figure. As long as we get our work done no problem.

Get more work done at home working midnight than any other shift. After work get my coffee, run errands then chill watching Cars and Coffee, get to work after 9 a.m. or so. Grocery shopping is easy w/ fewer customers and fresh products being stocked. Schedule appointments for mornings only. Beer store opens at 8 a.m.

I work until around 2-3 p.m. before cleaning up then it's sleep time. Dark blinds, quiet, roll up a t-shirt over my eyes, nighty night. Nothing really going on for me between 3-9 anyway. Coffee after 9, repeat. Works for me.

I been covering midnight at this present job for a senior guy who goes out on sick leave about six months/ year. Maybe he'll retire or get disability, I dunno. Only reason I'm staying here is because midnight. First of the year I get bumped back to daylight for months maybe?? I'll prolly despise that.

Yea, the shift wasn't really bad. It was quiet and the supervisor is a buddy that I trained. Not bad at all. I'm having trouble adjusting my clock. Got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep, so I think this calls for a nap later. Tomorrow I have to work at the store in the afternoon for 2 hours, so I'll have to try to sleep in before that. Any suggestions on adjusting sleep?

I also sent an email to my site supervisor and his supervisor. Nothing that will unleash Hell's fury, but something that will clarify the situation to both myself and his supervisors as well as inform them of my intentions in regards to maintaining my shift. May as well make this official so stupidity doesn't ensue.

This from my midnight crew. Some stay up after shift for errands or to putz, some right to bed, from a nap to several hours sleep. Get up later to work around the house and/ or have dinner w/ family. Take another nap or sleep before finally getting up and ready for work. This from many 25+ year steady midnight people.

I can't do that, I need straight through sleep anymore, 5 hours min. preferably more. I stay up till 2-3 pm, go to bed tired. I found developing a routine speeds the adjustment as I get older, not near so much as when I was younger.

I work 4am to 9pm most nights. Weekend is just a made up word. Tired is the new normal. Wait till you get combat face: a 1000yd stare in a 100yd room.

When I worked 3rd in the summers I had different sleep patterns.

Before I was married I would come home from work and do chores, etc. till 3pm then sleep. I also changed my eating habits. Breakfast was at 11pm, dinner at noon, etc.

After I got married I changed it to coming home and going right to bed so that I got to spend the evenings with the wife after she got home from work. I would also have dinner ready for her so we had more time together.

In 2012 I did a school year's worth of 3rd shift on a grocery store night stock crew... While teaching music and coaching high school bball part time. That was interesting. Though I don't think I would have minded the night hours if It wasn't a sucky store to work at.

In reply to BlueInGreen44:

I had a similar schedule worked out in HS, school/FRC from 8 to 6ish, then work doing shelving resets from 7 till midnight or so. I only saw daylight through the glass in my car when I drove out to the county tech school after lunch. This took a lot of caffeine.

When I worked my nights, I would either stay up for a bit, if I wasn't dead tired, or go straight to bed for 5 hrs or so, then get up do something until it was time to go back to work or go back and sleep some more.

I can't do and never have been able to do 7a shifts.

Today I feel pretty good. A nap would be nice before work, but isn't an option. This morning I fell asleep before 07:00, yet the business line (for one of the other jobs) started ringing at 09:30. After I shut that up, I slept until 14:00. 15:00 I got to the store and I'll be here until 20:00. I'll be headed to work at 22:00, and will only be working the the midnight shift tomorrow. I'll need to rest up this weekend. As soon as the grand jury releases the "Ferguson" info, I'll be called in to work.