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Night shifts


Lloyd90
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It really depends on the person I used to work twelve hour nights seven days a week on a fortnight about system but I am one of the lucky ones I can go to sleep day or night and eating at different hours never affected me but it really depends on how you feel we had one person at work who worked one night and then needed three days of to recover from it. 

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on the old shift pattern, i used to work seven 10-6 nights finishing 6am on Monday morning and then back in for work at 2pm in the afternoon for a 2-10pm shift,followed by another 2-10pm on Tuesday.

I blame that for taking away my 'boy band' good looks!

f.

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You need to look at whats in it for you, can you stick it for a couple of years, pay a load off your mortgage for example. Its going to mess up your life style and as has been said can effect your relationship. 

Bear in mind everyone around you may work a normal day shift, home DIY, cutting the grass, BBQ's postman knocking on your door, kids wanting to play, yours or the neighbors.

All of this can effect your sleep and therefore your moods and your ability to think straight. 

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I've worked 8,9 & 12 hours shift patterns over the years and made them work, but working nights and switching between nights,days,afternoons etc certainly does not work for everyone!

Our firm went over to embedded holidays in some patterns 5 years ago and in my experience the issues that come with that may have more effect than the working hours.

For example if it is continuous working how many years before you get Christmas or new year off?

If you have children that can only go on holiday outside term time, how often will this match your pattern or how often will you be around to celebrate birthdays?

Personally when working nights I'd rather do a short block say 2,3 or 4 max, sleep for 2-3 hours upon getting home following the last night so I can get myself turned back round to "normal". 

It depends upon the type of work and whether it is physically or mentally demanding but from what you are describing it sounds like you can write off the days between nights because you'd be knackered.

Think about the work, life balance and if the pros outway the cons go for it, shift work effects the whole family though.

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6 minutes ago, m greeny said:

I do 12_hour nights you either love um um or hate um 2 days 2 nights 4 off every 7 weeks get 18 days off its a hard life

That’s identical to my old rota. I hated it! No one should do nights every week. I forgot what “feeling normal” felt like. You don’t realise how bad it is until you stop doing them! 

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24 minutes ago, m greeny said:

I do 12_hour nights you either love um um or hate um 2 days 2 nights 4 off every 7 weeks get 18 days off its a hard life

That's what I was on and liked it, now on days at the same place, 5 on 2 off, more days at work and more travel. I just can't seem to get back on shifts as I'm "too useful on days".

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1 hour ago, Fuddster said:

on the old shift pattern, i used to work seven 10-6 nights finishing 6am on Monday morning and then back in for work at 2pm in the afternoon for a 2-10pm shift,followed by another 2-10pm on Tuesday.

I blame that for taking away my 'boy band' good looks!

f.

That sounds illegal? I hope it was a long time ago?

14 hours ago, Taileron said:

If YOU can sleep well in the day, nights are brilliant, less day shift idiots to deal with

Absolutely,  far too many idiots at bigger places on days who just get in the way.

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I did shifts and hated them, It would probably be OK short term 9 to 5 is hard to beat. 

Long-term night shift work is associated with an increased risk of certain cancers, as well as metabolic problems, heart disease, ulcers, gastrointestinal problems and obesity. ... People who work night shifts or rotating shifts also often don't sleep enough, and long-term sleep deprivation is known to be bad for health.
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16 minutes ago, Mice! said:

That sounds illegal? I hope it was a long time ago?

Absolutely,  far too many idiots at bigger places on days who just get in the way.

2000 was my last time on that particular pattern.

I think the introduction of the working time directive put paid to it.

f.

 

 

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I'm not on a regular shift pattern, but do work on-call out-of-hours a lot. If I'm lucky, I get to sleep and being paid to sleep is a nice feeling. I'm not always lucky though. It's tough on the body and on the mind in so many ways. Hard to eat healthily and sometimes hard to sleep during the day, especially in summer. I take the odd sleeping tablet to get back on track, prescribed by my GP of course. If you have children, it is even harder and it takes it's toll on family life. Not a lifestyle I would recommend. 

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1 hour ago, decoy1979 said:

That's what I was on and liked it, now on days at the same place, 5 on 2 off, more days at work and more travel. I just can't seem to get back on shifts as I'm "too useful on days".

I love it only do 140ish shifts a year and most of them in shooting season I swap shifts so end up having most of season off and working most of summer which most of the other lads love coz they want summer off so all do my winter shifts winner winner

1 hour ago, Medic1281 said:

That’s identical to my old rota. I hated it! No one should do nights every week. I forgot what “feeling normal” felt like. You don’t realise how bad it is until you stop doing them! 

I love it 

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I always loved night shifts, gives you time during the day to go do things whilst they're open.

I used to love four 12 hour nights then four days off if you do without sleep.

Does mess with your sleep patterns, supposed to shorten your life too.

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5 hours ago, figgy said:

I always loved night shifts, gives you time during the day to go do things whilst they're open.

I used to love four 12 hour nights then four days off if you do without sleep.

Does mess with your sleep patterns, supposed to shorten your life too.

It all depends what kind of work your doing, all i was fit for after a 12 hrs shift was sleep. 

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I hate them. 1700/0100 is a nice shift as you get almost the whole day to be productive before going to work to wind down before bed, but unless I get 3-4 hours decent sleep between 0000 and 0630 I am a mess. 

 

These days I don’t do proper nights. I am available if needed but expect to get a reasonable nights sleep. I might get the odd call overnight asking for advice but rarely get out of bed.  Those shifts start 0730 and continue to about 1800 the next day. If your job offers the same sort of sleep I get take it in a heartbeat. 

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1732-DC7-C-AC2-C-4-C80-9-A8-A-874057-FFE
 

this is the 10 week rolling rota 

Its about my current pay plus 50% again, and I thought a lot of days off would be good for dog training / shooting, you never get called in on that 5th week so you get 3 weeks off in 10 to go away etc and I have no kids atm. 
 

 

Edited by Lloyd90
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35 minutes ago, Lloyd90 said:

1732-DC7-C-AC2-C-4-C80-9-A8-A-874057-FFE
 

this is the 10 week rolling rota 

Its about my current pay plus 50% again, and I thought a lot of days off would be good for dog training / shooting, you never get called in on that 5th week so you get 3 weeks off in 10 to go away etc and I have no kids atm. 
 

 

That looks awful!

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I'd rather bite the bullet and do the nights in blocks of 2 or 3. Switching on and off for a night would be a killer but a 50% pay rise isn't to be sniffed at.

also beware of your journey home after a long night shift-I've frightened myself a few times when driving home and nearly nodding off.

f.

 

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1 hour ago, Lloyd90 said:

1732-DC7-C-AC2-C-4-C80-9-A8-A-874057-FFE
 

this is the 10 week rolling rota 

Its about my current pay plus 50% again, and I thought a lot of days off would be good for dog training / shooting, you never get called in on that 5th week so you get 3 weeks off in 10 to go away etc and I have no kids atm. 
 

 

Awful. That week 1 just as an example; you’ll spend the majority of those days in bed. After that 15 hour shift you’ll have to minimise your sleep on the Fri so you can get back to sleep that same night in order to start days at 0845 on the Saturday. It’s not a day off, it’s a shift change! Then Sunday on days and you’re back on nights again! Then a couple of days off but with nights on either end! Whom ever dreamt up that shift pattern needs sacking! I’m assuming they aren’t doing it? 
Anyhow, like I said, if the moneys good you’ll do it, regardless of what anyone says. I did! 🙂

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1 hour ago, Scully said:

Awful. That week 1 just as an example; you’ll spend the majority of those days in bed. After that 15 hour shift you’ll have to minimise your sleep on the Fri so you can get back to sleep that same night in order to start days at 0845 on the Saturday. It’s not a day off, it’s a shift change! Then Sunday on days and you’re back on nights again! Then a couple of days off but with nights on either end! Whom ever dreamt up that shift pattern needs sacking! I’m assuming they aren’t doing it? 
Anyhow, like I said, if the moneys good you’ll do it, regardless of what anyone says. I did! 🙂


I am asking friends in the team what their night shifts are like. If they can spend a good chunk of it sleeping I wonder if it will be as bad. 
 

They have a back office with a bed etc.

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If the nights generally involve a good snooze I bet that rota will be quite decent to work. 

Very few hours overall though, which does make you wonder why they don’t increase the hours unless the job would then be intolerable. Less than 30 a week, my jobs involving nights where we usually sleep have worked out 60-80 hours a week. 

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3 hours ago, Scully said:

Whom ever dreamt up that shift pattern needs sacking! I

Those that come up with these shifts never work them, if you are asleep half the time then its probably no big deal.

We went from 3 on 3 off at one point to 5 nights a week,  it was awful simply because you had no turn around time, finish Friday morning back in Sunday night,  people left in droves, and they've gone back to 4 nights now so you get a weekend again. 

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