have you ever worked 3rd shift?

im starting tomorrow night. when the offer was made it sounded good at the time but now i am getting a bit nervous.

i took it for a couple reasons. they offered me a touch more money and it is less of a work load. the guy i am replacing and my boss both told me i will have lots of time on my hands. i can get on the internet. bring books. bring my music...
that all sounded good. dont care about getting on the net but i do like the idea of being by myself. on days the factory is popping. lots of action. lots of supervisors. it can be rough.
on nights though i will be the only one in my department. i am there to inspect parts from the welding department but i guess there is only 5-6 guys there at night.
i prefer being by myself so i dont mind that. i can keep myself busy with my books so i dont mind that.

another reason i took it is because i do not sleep well anyway. i have prostate problems so my sleep is very broken and i only wind up with a couple broken hours a bight anyway.
my wife goes to bed by ten. my daughter is in bed by 8 and my shift is sun-thurs from 10pm to 6am.
i figured since i dont sleep well i might as well take the little increase in pay and be at work while they sleep since i usually toss and turn ayway.

now that it is getting close i am worried about it. tomorrow worries me most.

i am always up before 6 am and i dont think i have been able to take a nap in 20 years. that means i will be up tomorrow at 6 am and will be at work till monday morning at 6 am. so i am looking at 24 hours awake.
my plan is to get home at 6(just 2 miles away from my house) and stay up till about 8. crash and hopefully sleep till about 2. that will be more sleep than i usually get.
it will be nice getting off friday morning at 6 ad not having to go back till sunday night at 10.

im just worried that the off shift will take a toll but i am not even sure how. i think i might just be flipping cause i have never worked the night shift before....

so to anyone who does it or has done it. did you like it?
did it work for you?

i hear people say they either love it or hate it....

another plus is my best bud lives in south africa and he is 7 hours ahead of me so with me on 1st we dont get to talk much. with this shift i will be able to shoot the breeze with him over whatsapp through the night.
im looking at it as a chance to get paid to talk to my bud, read my books, listen to my music and be awake anyway....

any feedback is appreciated

I did night work for 5 years straight, its easier to work for me personally with less people around but the night shift is a killer in the long run, sleeping during the day time is tough at best.

Get some sleep aids for your first few days of work, so you can try to sleep more than a few hours, or else you will burn out pretty quicly.

Just my 2 cents do, night work could do you good.

a reply to: TinySickTears

I always thought 3rd was better than 2nd shift.
Work all day and sleep all night on 1st shift.
Sleep all day and work all night on 3rd.
Either way you get evenings free with family.

2nd shift is when all the family activities take place and you miss everything.
Ball games, concerts, dinner even.

a reply to: TinySickTears

I once worked overnight as a security guard. 4 12 hour shifts. I also worked at a Mobil 11-7 overnight. I was much younger then.

I would nod off on the security job. No people but me, a massive retirement compound all set up, but not yet open.

If I had to do that now, I would try 5 or 10 mg of melatonin an hour before I went to sleep. Try to keep a similar schedule on the weekend.

originally posted by: reldra
I once worked overnight as a security guard. 4 12 hour shifts.

Oh, Jesus, this is comedy gold. You're going on my interview list just for this fact alone.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: reldra
I once worked overnight as a security guard. 4 12 hour shifts.

Oh, Jesus, this is comedy gold. You going on my interview list just for this fact alone.

Ok. I never found the job particularly amusing. Well, it did get interesting after everything was moved in, especially a fully stocked industrial kitchen and a dentist's office. It was like a small city. All to myself.

originally posted by: reldra
Ok. I never found the job particularly amusing.

The stuff I just pictured you doing in my head was really amusing. Mostly you running around with your finger gun going *pew* *pew* *pew* and pretending to save the Mona Lisa from being stolen.

The only negative consequence I could imagine is that you would enjoy it too much. I could be difficult to go back to 8-5 M-F, especially if you are comfortable with yourself.

There is a certain living entity that sucks peoples souls in the time frame of 8-5 that does not seem to manifest during off hours.

I am jealous now. Good luck.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: reldra
Ok. I never found the job particularly amusing.

The stuff I just pictured you doing in my head was really amusing. Mostly you running around with your finger gun going *pew* *pew* *pew* and pretending to save the Mona Lisa from being stolen.

LOL, OMG.

a reply to: TinySickTears

Oh yeah. I've worked the 3rd shift in a few different fields and they're all mostly the same, excluding the actual job part. The hardest thing is staying awake, although it gets easier as time goes on but since you don't nap this probably isn't a worry for you. The best part of 3rd shift is that no one is there. No daytime politics or your boss floating around and you were already given the green light to use the net, books, movies, etc.

I once worked a shift that started off with 2 day shifts, then I had off for 24 hours to get ready to work 2 night shifts but the pay off was having 4 days off in a row. Hard schedule though, many times I would stay on the night shift schedule on my time off and by my first day shift I was up for 24 hours! I was young and am a night person.

Black out your bedroom windows and run a fan to drown out noises from the outside. Sudden and unexpected noises from outside will tend to keep you awake.

Done it and you'll learn to sleep from 8am till 6pm.
Room darkening blinds and turning your phone off are key.

Getting your family to respect your sleep time will be a riot. Having evenings with the kids is great tho!
Taking good food for overnights is also necessary, it's easy to eat dinner in the am's.

Our workplace was always jumping so nights flew by, but on slow nights finding your own work and making a routine for yourself will keep you from being bored.

Congrats on the pay raise!!!

Throughout my working life, I have probably worked the night shift for around three years and it's not the greatest of experiences.

If you have to work Friday nights into Saturday morning, you will have fun going for a few drinks on the same evening.

a reply to: TinySickTears

Textso to anyone who does it or has done it. did you like it? did it work for you?

I once worked 3- 8 hour shifts back to back to finish a industrial paint job .I was tired and wouldn't suggest it to anyone . I have also drove none stop from Calgary Alberta to Moncton New Brunswick and wouldn't suggest that either .Its a personal call but seeing you can access the www then take a shot .

a reply to: TinySickTears

I worked 3rd shift for a while many years back. When it's slow it's just too easy to doze off. I got woke up by a customer at 4am after I dozed off doing paperwork. I quit at the end of the week and never took a 3rd shift job again.

a reply to: TinySickTears

im just worried that the off shift will take a toll but i am not even sure how. i think i might just be flipping cause i have never worked the night shift before....

so to anyone who does it or has done it. did you like it?
did it work for you?

It got harder the longer I was at it. The problem wasn't working the shift, you get over the change pretty quick, like jet lag. it was coming home at dawn to go to bed when the world was waking up.

I could never quite adapt to sleeping during the day. The trick I found was to 'stay up' a long as possible, till noon maybe, then go to sleep. That was easier for me though, I didn't have family.

I worked third shift for a couple of years. It wasn't a problem. A swing shift can be hard on you though, I know people who work swing shift and they seem disoriented during the transition.

I would get home at eight in the morning and I would go to bed, I was up by twelve or one. I couldn't sleep longer than that. I actually do best with four to five hours a sleep at night though, always have been that way. Go bed at two and get up at seven. If I sleep longer I get a headache, I have injured my neck quite a few times in my life, as soon as it would get better, taking five or six years, I would get a good year then get hurt again. The last one was a doozie, I got rearended from behind on the highway at a light and wound up having a chunk of a vertebrae break off. Never have your head turned around talking to someone in the back seat while at a stoplight. Your head can't bob and things can get messed up.

There are some people who can't work nights though, they cannot reset their circidium clock and they have problems. I do know some people who could never work nights, they are half a sleep and can't think and cannot sleep during the day.

a reply to: GeauxHomeYoureDrunk

True some people can't make the "shift" from day to night.
I liked it cause I could grocery shop on my way home in virtually empty stores, on the flip side while I could make daytime appointments I fell asleep routinely in my doctors waiting room. (as long as no drooling it's all good)

If I stayed up till 9-10 am anything needing to be handled by phone could be.
My friends got used to early morning phone calls.

On my off days cleaning was done at night, I did give up and hire a guy to mow the lawn tho. My one luxury which I routinely also slept thru, left his money on the porch.

It's 90% depending on finding the upsides!
There are good and bad things about all shiftwork.

I hated 3rd shift, only plus was more pay. I became physically and mentally exhausted after a month or so. Invest in black curtains or good blinds for the bedroom! Hopefully you are one who handles it much better. I was also doing extremely physical work, lifting near my body weight a few times per hour and other heavy lifting in between that which didn't help matters. Best wishes to you!

I have been on a two week split night shift the last 2 1/2 years minus a career break last year, working 3 out of 5 nights then a week from 10-17.30. I am just about to get out of it and head back to a standard rota of earlies, mid and then late's in a rotation..

Nights have f#cking killed me long term tbh and I am in a job role that many would class as "exciting" but you then have the issues of doing paper work that has to be correct at 3-4 am...

Personally if the money was to good to turn down then go for it but you need to have a life style that you can work around it.. I would get home around 5:50am and then straight into bed with zero interuptions, then wake up around 12-13:00 head out training for a few hours (keeping fit was massive for me whilst on nights) then chill until the shift starts..

I do however agree that if I was stuck with having to do a normal 9-5 shift as many do then the whole day is bolloxed really, nights do free up usable hours during the day,


RA