Does anyone else hate third shift?

[Stannatic]

Recently an opportunity came up at my place of employment for some overtime in the nightcrew department, which I promptly declined for that very reason. Back in 2012 I worked overnight shifts for about six months and hated it with every fiber in my being. At first when I took the position I thought it would at least be tolerable. There weren't as many restrictions on work attire, practically no customers to deal with, and the foreman and myself had been friends for awhile.

I worked 10 pm to 6 AM everyday Monday through Friday (Another thing that I thought I would enjoy was having weekends off) and I don't think I ever got used to it. If I didn't fall asleep by around noon everyday I got barely any. And even when I did get a decent nights sleep I was usually waking up at around 4:30 PM which was barely enough time to get a decent dinner in before I had to get ready for work.

I had to force my self to do anything but go home and crash on my Friday "Night". I developed a ritual of getting breakfast at Denny's after I got off work and watching the sunrise through the window so I could feel like a somewhat normal person. After that I would also force my self to do something I used to enjoy like fishing or working out so the week didn't feel like a complete wash, because I pretty much did nothing but sit around the house on my weekends.

There was practically no social life considering I didn't exist during the day and was working at night. Beers after my softball games? Nope, had to go home and get ready for work. Weekend movie? Nope, I usually ended up seeing whatever it was around 9 am or so that morning. And though I had kicked caffeine a couple years before, I was back on it now. I had to drink a cup of coffee and at least two red bulls to not feel like a total zombie during my shift.

I took the first chance I had to get the hell out of dodge and haven't looked back since, and it took me a long time to get my internal clock back to normal.

So...does anyone else have any third shift horror stories?

[deleted01]

I've never worked nights, but I have worked unsociable hours. When I worked in a supermarket, I barely had time to get home before I had to go to bed. I was usually on the early shift, starting at 7am, but sometimes I had to get there for 5:30 to deal with deliveries. For some strange reason, whenever they decided to put me on the super early shift, I'd be working a late shift (until 9/10pm) the day before. I hated that place with a passion.

My mum used to do crazy hours as a carer. Sometimes she'd be working from 7am-10pm. In an important job like that, caring for vulnerable adults in their home, I don't understand how the management thinks it's a good idea to work their employees to death. The level of care some clients received were below acceptable, simply because the carers were exhausted, hadn't eaten, and hadn't had a day off in weeks.

[MerenthaClone]

I just volunteered for straight 7p-7a at almost no material benefit to me, so nope, that's all you.

[MercenaryChef]

My pops worked 4pm to 1am most of my childhood. He absolutely hated it. We would only cross paths on the weekend.

[Isis]

We call it a night shift here (10pm-6am). I did about six months of it when I was in my early 20's and it was incredibly bad for my health. I slept way too much, ended up eating four meals a day and did zero exercise. I only did it for personal reasons - to avoid a psychotic exboyfriend on a different (double day) shift who was bullying me and encouraging others to do the same. So in a way it was preferable (and you got paid maybe 5% more per hourly rate for it) but not by that much.

I worked with people who swore that they could only work nights and only function if they had no more or less than four hours sleep per day. That may have been true but we are not supposed to be truly nocturnal creatures.

[Ramsay B.]

I've been working third shift(11:30pm-6:30am)for 11 years now and I have mixed feelings about it but I mostly like it.

The positives for me:

At my job I only work 6.5 hours but get for 8.

Not many bosses around and the atmosphere is way more laid back compared to 1st or 2nd shift.

I don't have to deal with mornings.

I can do whatever I want during the day if I choose to.

The negatives for me:

My mondays start on sunday nights so it's pretty rough after a nice weekend to get in there.

Tough to have a normal relationship. I've had to end relationships and the 3rd shift hours were a major factor.

Sleep is pretty erratic sometimes.

Some people just can't do it, I have a manager right now who looks like a zombie because he just can't get to sleep during the day. The main thing is to just get into some sort of routine. I usually get to sleep by 7:30am and wake up at 2:30, hit the gym and get food etc. During the summer it does get tough after softball games so I usually save a lot of days for when the weather is nice.

Anything is better than 2nd shift(3:30pm-12am)though. I did that for 11 months left and I was miserable. That is really no social life.

ETA: Get good curtains, a dark bedroom is a must.

[Tellus Explorer]

My pops worked 4pm to 1am most of my childhood. He absolutely hated it. We would only cross paths on the weekend.

:(

My other father, used to work from 7pm to 7am then come home to the kids and his wife.

He hated it a lot.....

[MercenaryChef]

Restaurant and bar workers hours are often not conducive with a regular life. There is no mystery why we generally socialize and get in relationships with those who also keep the same strange hours.

[Solmyr]

I've never worked any odd shift, but from my time as an unemployed person I can reason that I would probably do OK on a night shift. It would depend on the work tho - if it's something that requires constant and active involvement, I foresee no problem. If it's a more passive job, say a night guard, I might drowse off. But come to think of it, passive work isn't really my thing at any time of the day.

So I guess what I'm saying is, it doesn't matter what time it is, it matters what kind of work it is.

[Fez]

I never worked those hours, but my summer job home from college I often worked 2pm-12am and that was miserable enough. I was still able to have close to a normal sleep cycle, but I never saw anyone except people at work. The worst though was when I had a shift like that, and then the next day had a 9am-3pm shift*; when that sort of thing happened, I sometimes didn't even go home, just found a couch to crash on between shifts.

*I worked front-of-house at a theater; first doing concessions/bartending and later working in the box office. Once I switched to the box office things were fine, it was always a straight shift and was always over by 9pm at the latest (and I was often able to snag 9am-5pm). The concessions/bartending gig could go to 12am or later, and it was often split shifts (so, for instance, that 2pm-12am shift was actually 2pm-5pm and then 7pm-12am and I didn't get paid for that two hour break in the middle there). The worst were "all-days," 9am-12am, which would always have at least two breaks in them.

[DJDonegal]

As mentioned by a few others, I've never had to personally do night shifts. I will be doing a one-off in a couple of weeks which will be my first ever, but not something I will have to do for months on end...

However, my girlfriend does them as part of a pattern, and my job involves scheduling people to do a set of them once every 5-6 weeks on a rotation basis, so I've heard a lot of viewpoints on the subject.

With the issue of when to sleep, that's very much a personal issue. Some people like to treat their mornings the same way as an evening and stay up for a few hours then get up for "breakfast" just before going to work. I would still say most crash as soon as they get home so they can still meet people in the evenings (even if they can't drink/drink that much).

There are, however, those who love the night shifts. They like the extra money. They like that they have to do fewer shifts (4x10hr shifts instead of 5x8hr). They like that the weekday set guarantees the weekend off before and after (since it's a 24x7 shift pattern we work in). They like not having the boss around. They like having their days free and arranging sleep periods in the shift with colleagues to get the work covered and help everyone's days out. They like knowing they won't start a 6am shift one day, followed by finishing at 1am the day after (just as tough as any other kind of turnaround for the body clock).

That might be everything I can think of/have heard... And it might not seem like much. Don't get me wrong; most people who have to do them in my line of work hate them, but these are some of the reasons why people love them.

I was usually on the early shift, starting at 7am, but sometimes I had to get there for 5:30 to deal with deliveries. For some strange reason, whenever they decided to put me on the super early shift, I'd be working a late shift (until 9/10pm) the day before. I hated that place with a passion.

Not sure where you live, but that's illegal in the EU. A mandatory 11 hour break has to be applied. Even with a "weekend" break of 2 protected days, an additional 11 hours has to be added to the break period.

ETA: Get good curtains, a dark bedroom is a must.

An absolute must from past experience. Even if you can't get great curtains because the curtain rail still lets light through the top, you can get some kind of draft excluder and use it to help with blocking the light.

[Theda Baratheon]

Never worked nights but I'be been working 4pm-8pm alongside full time university which really exhausted me until I went down to 12 hrs a week working 3 four hr shifts a week which is fine. But when I had every weekday 4-8 alongside uni I felt bad for hating 4 hour shifts but I was the only one there in uni full time and I was just exhausted all the time. Mostly because I didn't eat very well the whole week.

[Summah]

I used to bartend and occasionally cocktail waitress, so I would normally get off between 2-4am, I did quite well on this schedule, but it was quite antisocial for friends not working in bars or restaurants. I've also waited tables regularly on dinner shift, then I usually got off between 10-12 and usually we would go out after work (again like MC said socializing mostly happened with others in the industry or ones with similar hours), I had basically the same sleep schedule (about 4am to noon) which is a schedule that I thrive on, only schedule I can keep without needing an alarm clock and wake up feeling I slept well and got enough sleep. But I understand most people are not so nocturnal. I've never worked a night shift regularly, so I don't know how I would do with that, but I suspect I would do much better on a shift that ended at 6am and that a shift that started at 6am would be basically impossible for me (the earliest I ever tried was 7 or 7:30 am and even after more than a month it did not go well and I fell asleep at work frequently and during that time it never got easier despite going to bed very early).

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

Sounds like you should go into nursing Summah. My older sister worked from 7pm to 7am in the ER for years.

[lessthanluke]

I worked 10pm-4am at a club throughout uni. Liked it a lot. Go to sleep right after work. Wake up about 12pmish and have the whole day to do what I want.

[Bronn Stone]

I was working a contract at a 7-24 business. I showed up for work at my usual 8:30 one day to learn I was scheduled 11-7AM that night. I stuck it out three weeks before telling the client I'd be moving on if I were stuck on that shift. They thanked me politely and wished me luck going forward. Four hours later they called and I was on swing shift.

Swing shift was fine for me for three months (in this case, 3-11PM, We-Su). There was a 2AM bar near enough my apartment that I could get a beer or two and socialize with the staff of a nearby restaurant as they too unwound. But I don't miss it.

[A True Kaniggit]

I worked nights (6pm-6am) for 2 years starting in 2011. I liked it, but that was mostly because we had a Panama schedule (2 days on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off, repeat) and never working more than 3 days in a row made it worth it.

[deleted01]

As mentioned by a few others, I've never had to personally do night shifts. I will be doing a one-off in a couple of weeks which will be my first ever, but not something I will have to do for months on end...

However, my girlfriend does them as part of a pattern, and my job involves scheduling people to do a set of them once every 5-6 weeks on a rotation basis, so I've heard a lot of viewpoints on the subject.

With the issue of when to sleep, that's very much a personal issue. Some people like to treat their mornings the same way as an evening and stay up for a few hours then get up for "breakfast" just before going to work. I would still say most crash as soon as they get home so they can still meet people in the evenings (even if they can't drink/drink that much).

There are, however, those who love the night shifts. They like the extra money. They like that they have to do fewer shifts (4x10hr shifts instead of 5x8hr). They like that the weekday set guarantees the weekend off before and after (since it's a 24x7 shift pattern we work in). They like not having the boss around. They like having their days free and arranging sleep periods in the shift with colleagues to get the work covered and help everyone's days out. They like knowing they won't start a 6am shift one day, followed by finishing at 1am the day after (just as tough as any other kind of turnaround for the body clock).

That might be everything I can think of/have heard... And it might not seem like much. Don't get me wrong; most people who have to do them in my line of work hate them, but these are some of the reasons why people love them.

Not sure where you live, but that's illegal in the EU. A mandatory 11 hour break has to be applied. Even with a "weekend" break of 2 protected days, an additional 11 hours has to be added to the break period.

An absolute must from past experience. Even if you can't get great curtains because the curtain rail still lets light through the top, you can get some kind of draft excluder and use it to help with blocking the light.

The UK, and oh I know it was, but they didn't give a shit. I left after 4 months anyway, as it was only a job to keep me going between school and college.

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

I worked nights (6pm-6am) for 2 years starting in 2011. I liked it, but that was mostly because we had a Panama schedule (2 days on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off, repeat) and never working more than 3 days in a row made it worth it.

Been my schedule for 9 years now, 8pm-8am. It sucks tbh, but, money and benefits are good. And, with family, if I worked the day shift, I'd never see them on the days that I work.

If you have to do it, as stated before, routine is the key. Ditto on the curtains. One way I've combated the over eating is to not eat dinner ate home when I work. Something small and take my dinner to work. If you eat dinner at home, you'll be eating it again around midnight. Also, staying active does help with your sleep routine.

If you have to do it, good luck. I can't wait til a better opportunity arises, to say the least.

ETA:I've read many a article about how basically working night shift is a death sentence. Humans have been sleeping at night for thousands of years, and certain organs clean themselves or "shut down" while sleeping at night. If your awake, it won't happen when u sleep during the day. Again, killing you slowly, but killing you nonetheless.

[deleted01]

My new job requires me to work most evenings, 4-9pm, which is fine, but I'm gonna have to get used to eating early or late. My SO works 5-9pm, and even though he eats dinner at like 3pm, he's usually hungry after work too. I don't particularly want to start eating dinner twice and gain weight, but my job is a desk job, and his is pretty active, so I can see why he gets hungry again. I can snack at my desk, and take a dinner break if I need to, but I'd rather not, especially as I'm new there. Unsociable hours suck sometimes.