Anyone ever worked night shift?

I graduated 2 years ago and was lucky enough to pick up a nice paying temporary research position at my university. But that ended in august. I had a nice bit saved up since then, but i still want to put of grad school for another year or two and i don't like to see my finances bleeding. Esp after i dropped 7k+ in vegas in august. i went pretty loco there.

I got an offer with a nice amount, but the hours are 11pm-7am. I heard night shift is bad: your circadian rhythms get off and you are more likely to get sick and cancer and all that because the body goes off rhythm.

But it's my closest offer. my only guaranteed offer. It's pushing on fall/winter here (in pittsburgh) and it's gonna be pretty dark until march anyways from here on out.

I'm not sure if I should take it for now, or wait until a more desirable job comes up.

If you the saddos bros have any pros/cons they can share i'd appreciate hearing some first hand experience. Im 24 so I still have a bit of my recuperative powers left but they are waning :-\

and yes your peoples advice will make me take it or wait so give it good!

Those are some mighty mean hours. If you think you can handle it then go for it, but I wouldn't advise doing it long term. It could turn you mad.

I thought I was losing my mind by teaching from 10am until 11pm for a year. I was banking good coin, but mentally I became frazzled. It was the finishing late that got to me, and that wasn't even going to bed at dawn which is what you will be doing.

I've come to realise that trying to get a good nights sleep and plenty of rest is the most important thing. But like I say, if you plan your life right then you might be able to handle it whilst trying to get through these shitty economic times. And you are young which is always good for those with nutty schedules.

Don't do it too long and become like one of those zombies from low budget '80's slasher films though!

I've worked it for a little while.. Was kind of fun an interesting for a while.. I also worked out that even at my regular hour jobs I would only get about 6 hours sleep each night (stayed up late), so it wasn't that hard for me to fit that 6 hours into another part of the day...


You really dont want to go to bed early then wake up for work as you usually would...

For your hours 11pm to 7am you'd just get home at 7am from work and go straight to bed.. Just get some really thick curtains so that your room is dark, get a shotgun to fire off warning shots in the air if neighbors are being loud bastards while you're trying to sleep... Then you can just wake up between 1 to 3 pm and stay up for the rest until you work and stuff...

Actually not bad because you get a decent chunk of the day to do stuff before work, and sleep through a pretty useless part of it....


Honestly if they pay is good and you don't have any people close to you who are going to get driven insane by your hours, then i'd take it... I can see how it would mess up your body clock, but as long as you get the sleep, then it probably shouldn't go too much against your natural cycle.. I wouldn't really want to do it for a few years, but in the short term or while you want to get some money together, i'd really go for it and just make sure you make the most of the money you make so you have something to show for it...

It's definitely a relatively cool experience... Having your lunch break at 3am is kinda unique...

Closest I ever got was doing a 4pm to 12am and 4am to 12pm, I did one of these for a week each month so had two week between shifts. It was office work and was nothing too hard , just monitoring computer systems but was very tiring. Might be different if you did it long term but I had an uncle who did shifts for 20 years and he still never got used to it.

Think it depends on your own circumstances,finance,family social life etc.

A lot to think about.Agree with Diz though you do need to get prepared for the sleep part of your day and that can depend heavily on neighbours etc.

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Originally Posted by Cortez The Killer

I graduated 2 years ago and was lucky enough to pick up a nice paying temporary research position at my university. But that ended in august. I had a nice bit saved up since then, but i still want to put of grad school for another year or two and i don't like to see my finances bleeding. Esp after i dropped 7k+ in vegas in august. i went pretty loco there.

I got an offer with a nice amount, but the hours are 11pm-7am. I heard night shift is bad: your circadian rhythms get off and you are more likely to get sick and cancer and all that because the body goes off rhythm.

But it's my closest offer. my only guaranteed offer. It's pushing on fall/winter here (in pittsburgh) and it's gonna be pretty dark until march anyways from here on out.

I'm not sure if I should take it for now, or wait until a more desirable job comes up.

If you the saddos bros have any pros/cons they can share i'd appreciate hearing some first hand experience. Im 24 so I still have a bit of my recuperative powers left but they are waning :-\

and yes your peoples advice will make me take it or wait so give it good!

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It depends how much sleep you need/like mate. Mates of mine finish work at 6am, get home, have half an hour wind down, go to bed for 4 hours and are up at 13:00 with all the day and eve before they go back to work 23:00.

I reckon you'll be o.k for a while, just don't plan on doing it for ever

Working nights is no big deal really.Been doing it for the last 10 years as part of a shift system.

For some reason when I was like 19 and working at a grocery store I volunteered to work the night shift for a while, it was cleaning the floors, 11-7 I think. The thing was I was always done by like 1 in the morning so I'd just get high, read magazines, cook things in the deli, and whine about their not being a super hot slutty all night cashier girl, since it was closed at night that was unlikely.

By far easiest job ever and I actually kind of liked it for a week or so. Then, and this is besides the not being able to go out at night with your friends stuff which quickly got old, it just started to kind of make me feel weird, in a way, like something was just off. Anyway, it wasn't that bad, It was kind of nice coming home when everybody else was going in. But I asked off of it after a few weeks. I'd try it, if its decent money, and maybe see how it is but continue to look for something else. I could see myself sticking with it longer now as I don't go out nearly as much as I did when I was 19 which was really the main problem. You might just kind of feel off but you would probably get over it.

I have until the end of the week to decide. A lot of good responses, thanks guys.

I still have no idea if i'm going to take it or not.

If anything these responses have made me more strongly 50/50 than I was before

Whatever i decide, it's probably going to be impulsive like most of my major life decisions ;D

I did work night too; From 23:00 till 7:00 am... cleaning machinery in a chicken slaughterhouse.... it was very painful job, not that it was difficult, but cleaning blood, chicken fat and guts, it is, well, not very good for the self-esteem and the need for self improvement.
Anyway, the job was shit but if you can have enough rest between the two shifts, physically it is not too bad; Normally I was sleeping 5-6 hours when I came back and was active around noon till 20:00 where I was taking another little nap if I was feeling tired again.
Nightshifts aren't the ideal but definitely manageable, as long as you have enough time to rest in between and to do something so you don't have the impression to be a zombie.

I have on several occasions.

Horrible.

I never felt rested and often felt myself on the verge of stroke. Maybe it was smaller than that but my heart suffered none-the-less.

I've worked nights on a couple of occasions, was great. Generally you get your work done in half the time and fuck around for a large portion of the night. I worked in Cardiff many years ago putting air conditioning duct into a TV factory. Got left a list of jobs that needed doing before the morning shift started, fucked off down the pub if footy was on, then came back, did work, crawled into a tube of duct with a quilt and pillow and snored until morning, jobs a good un.

Go for it mate, but not for too long.

I've worked into the early hours a few times... 4am etc.

They had to pay us 1.5 times our rate for a night shift (which they class as if you start after 11pm... so they'd usually get you in from 4-6 and pay you single time.

Cunts 0_o

Never done a 'full' night shift, but hopefully I'll cope as I'm hoping to get into the fire service by the middle of next year.

(passed all of my tests almost 2 years ago... just found out I have to re-do them all incase I've became fatter/stupider :mad:)

I managed to cope with being up at 8am, training all day... staying up till 6am the next day to watch ricky hatton head butt a corner post, getting home at 7:30 and not bothering to sleep because I had a 12 hour shift starting at 9...

What's worse is that the gym I was working in's receptionist was on holiday so I had to sit on the desk all day... walking the floor would have made it much easier to stay awake!! once or twice I almost fell off the chair I was in if I didn't focus on staying awake but I had been awake for something stupid like 35 hours by this point!

Is there much work to be done on the night shifts porky?

I know it probably differs from area to area, but apart from call outs is it a case if doing routine checks on the equipment, playing cards and dosing in the rec room?

Is it common for some people not to be able to adapt to it or do most people get into the swing of it?

It's the only thing about the job I'm not too sure about.

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Originally Posted by BIG H

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Originally Posted by Cortez The Killer

I graduated 2 years ago and was lucky enough to pick up a nice paying temporary research position at my university. But that ended in august. I had a nice bit saved up since then, but i still want to put of grad school for another year or two and i don't like to see my finances bleeding. Esp after i dropped 7k+ in vegas in august. i went pretty loco there.

I got an offer with a nice amount, but the hours are 11pm-7am. I heard night shift is bad: your circadian rhythms get off and you are more likely to get sick and cancer and all that because the body goes off rhythm.

But it's my closest offer. my only guaranteed offer. It's pushing on fall/winter here (in pittsburgh) and it's gonna be pretty dark until march anyways from here on out.

I'm not sure if I should take it for now, or wait until a more desirable job comes up.

If you the saddos bros have any pros/cons they can share i'd appreciate hearing some first hand experience. Im 24 so I still have a bit of my recuperative powers left but they are waning :-\

and yes your peoples advice will make me take it or wait so give it good!

---

It depends how much sleep you need/like mate. Mates of mine finish work at 6am, get home, have half an hour wind down, go to bed for 4 hours and are up at 13:00 with all the day and eve before they go back to work 23:00.

I reckon you'll be o.k for a while, just don't plan on doing it for ever

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i done the same thing when i left school and i got away with it for about 6 weeks then it caught up with me and i had to sleep all the time i wasnt working and was tired at work.... amzing how it catches up with you.

but as long as you get 8 hours sleep nightshift is great IMO ;)

Have you ever worked the curbs saddo? :D

The Fire service shift pattern is 9-6pm for 2 days and then 6-9am for 2 days and off for 3.

tbh that's probably not even as taxing on your body as half these fuckers who work 9-5 all week and then binge drink and barely sleep on both nights of the weekend, seeing as I'm a bit of a cunt health freak (well to the point that I don't go out on the lash every other day!) I don't think I'll struggle to much!

Apart from the boredom and working out what to do during closed hours you eventually become completely used to it

Took my bodyclock a week to become fully adapted to sleeping in the day and working at night. The hard shifts are the first few you do because tiredness sets in real quick

After a week though working at 5 in the morning is the complete norm!!

I guess it depends on what kind of work that you will be doing.

I worked 12-8 for about 1 1/2 years, and I loved it!

I was in my early 20's at the time, and I was the only female on the shift. I had my own office, and all the guys were in the warehouse filling orders for all our restaurants. Man they treated me like a queen, but they also loved scaring the $hit out of me when ever they could.

Even though I had an office position, I was allowed to dress down in jeans, where all the girls that worked the day shift had to dress up. Boy they hated that. It worked out great for me, because I can't tell you how many times I had to come to work straight from playing softball, and would have to clean up, and get changed at work.

I also would come in high almost everynight, even drunk a few times. I even passed out at my desk once because I was so drunk. I also was the only person with a key to the front offices, because sometimes I would have to go into the main computer room if the system went down, so I would go in there and smoke pot, since it was so well ventilated. Plus on many nights if I was tired, I would give the key to one of they guys, and tell them to come up to the vice presidents office, and wake me up, because he had a couch in there that I could crash on.

Another plus, you're ready to party all night on the weekends!!

Like someone said though, make sure that you have room darkening shades on your bedroom window, so that you can get a solid sleep in, go to bed as soon as you get home, and get up late afternoon and you'll have plenty of time to do other things. It will take some time, but your body will adjust.

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Originally Posted by AdamGB

Is there much work to be done on the night shifts porky?

I know it probably differs from area to area, but apart from call outs is it a case if doing routine checks on the equipment, playing cards and dosing in the rec room?

Is it common for some people not to be able to adapt to it or do most people get into the swing of it?

It's the only thing about the job I'm not too sure about.

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How your night shift goes depends on two things,firecalls and your boss.


Like you said on nights you test equipment do a bit of drill(useing the equipment) or have lecturers about different topics.
Like all jobs if you got a keen boss you will do a lot but if your boss is laid back then you will do a bit less.

If you got a good watch then it does not matter if you work on a quiet or bussy station but if you work on a quiet station its more important to have boys you get on with.

Overall mate its a great job so I am sure you will get in the swing of things.
The tricky part is just getting in in the first place.:p

I worked 10pm - 6:30 AM a while back, I did it for about 5 months. It really kicked my ass, couldn't sleep cause of the noise of the city, couldn't stay awake at work. Driving home towards the sunrise is usually bad policy. For me it's not worth it, you get to work with some freaks (which makes things interesting) and usually graveyard shifts are more lax with better pay.

Bottom line, if you are young you might as well try it for a bit, worst case you make a few bucks and then quit it's a perfectly good reason to say you quit when you are looking for your next job.