Shiftwork

[fred.n]

I've been doing shift work for 14 years now and love it:)
Call me crazy:p :D

my hours are
day shift......7am to 2pm
Arvo shift.....2pm to 10pm
Night shift....10pm to 7am

We start Sunday night 10 pm and finish Friday night 10pm
We work a 5 day week and the shift roster is... Day Night Arvo

This gives me heaps of time off, but I get real pissy with Arvo shift in summer ( if there is a summer in Ballarat) :mad: :mad: when all the boys are having BBQ's and I'm at work:mad: :mad: ....just finished Arvo tonight
What do you guys/gals think of shift work??

[black1]

never tried it. just watches in the navy:cool:

[Ashore]

never tried it. just watches in the navy:cool:

Much easier on shift work , that 4 to 8 was a killer espically with 3 hours ot in the mornings :mad:

Rgds

[womble]

12 hour shifts suck, but we only do three a week at the prison. 3 night shifts in a row is a bit much though...http://www.ubeaut.biz/blotto.bmp

[ozwinner]

I did 9 months straight night shift, also in Ballarat.
What a pain in the bum, but it paid good money.
Hours where 11 pm to 7 am, I found it very hard to get any real sleep, until the weekends.

Al :(

[Iain]

12 hour shifts suck, but we only do three a week at the prison. 3 night shifts in a row is a bit much though...http://www.ubeaut.biz/blotto.bmp
Don't worry, parole is not far away:D :D :D

[doug the slug]

i used to love the shiftworki did in the army in canberra

2 evening shifts 4pm till midnight followed by 2 day shifts 8am to 4pm followed by 2 days off. the only downside was being back at work for the first dayshift only 8 hours after finishing second evening shift, guess what part of the shift cycle all the mistakes were made on?

on the upside, we crammed 4 working shifts into 3 x 24 hour periods then it was another 3 x 24 hour periods from finishing at 4pm on last days to being back at 4pm for first evenings. Even better, because we were working a six-day cycle as opposed to seven like everyone else, it equated to 31 extra days off a year!!!! but wait, theres more... because we were classified as shift workers we were given an extra 5 days annual leave to compensate us for working 31 days a year less than the dayworkershttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon14.gif.

I loved it, but can you believe there were people who still thought they were being hard done by??

[DanP]

Shift work I can handle. Love night shift. HATE with a passion, quick change overs. Especially when on call and you get called out a couple of times and still expected to be at work 8 hours after your rostered knock off. Some nights you only get a couple of hours, some nights none.

Dan

[savage]

Did arvo shift for a couple of years and didn't like it, then got onto night shift and did that for 19 years and loved it, when things got busy we would sometimes work 6-7 weeks straight have a weekend off and then another 5-6 weeks. The day shift thought we where over paid, so I used to say to them they could swap anytime they liked, they never did.:)

[Auld Bassoon]

The only 'shift' work that I've ever done was the old standard 4 on, 4 off watch keeping routine when sailing. A bit of a buggah for the first couple of days, then it seems entirely normal.

[Harry72]

Been on shift since 94, the place I work doesnt stop for nothing(including xmas)we were 8hr day/arvo/night... totaly sucked always felt like you were at work every day, was hard to go anywhere or organise something.
The rosters off were rarely on weekends and only lasted 1.5-2 days(as in 48hrs)max!
In 1998 we changed to 4x12hr but not straight shifts(nooooooo that'll be to bloody simple wouldnt it http://www.ubeaut.biz/banghead.gif)no we went 2X12hr days 24hrs off(claytons day) then 2x12hr nights and rosters are 3.5days off(the company call it 4 days "go figure")... the only advantage is its easy to work out when your working as it works on a 8 day cycle... if I start on moday this week next week I start on tuesday.

Im realy starting to get sick of it now getting very itchy feet... only the monthly pay day that keeps me there(other than the bank manager)

[Sir Stinkalot]

I don't mind my shift work ..... Monday to Friday 9.00am - 5.00pm with 1/2hr for lunch .... sure it wouldn't suit everybody.

[Dan]

I've been on the same 12hr 8day shift as Harry72 since '95 and quite like it. No problems sleeping during the day although it's easier when you're the only one in the house, and because you're only doing two nights you don't get too nocturnal. Works for me.:)

[Daddles]

Bloody shift work. Sheesh. I can remember shift work. In the warehouse it was. They wanted us to shift this here, then that there. Cripes, the shifting we did

Richard

[Mirboo]

I have worked a bit of shift work, not much though in the greater scheme of things.

The first time I was doing 8-hour shifts on a 21 shift pattern. The hours were 7am to 3pm, 3pm to 11 pm and 11pm to 7am. We started on day shift and worked 7 in a row. We knocked off at 3pm after the last day shift and had to be back in again 24 hours later for the first of 7 afternoon shifts. After knocking off at 11pm after the 7th afternoon shift, we had to come back in at 11pm 36 hours later for the first of 7 night shifts. We finished the last night shift at 7am and had the rest of that day off and then 5 more days off before we had to start all over again. The cycle repeated every 28 days.

I liked afternoon shifts the least. I was young and single back then and I found afternoon shift very anti-social. I was heading off for work before my mates were home from work, I got home after all my mates had gone to bed and I got out of bed after everyone had already left for work. During the 7 days of afternoon shift I didn't see much of all my friends who weren't working shift.

Night shift was the best shift I reckon. You just had to operate the equipment and that was it. You were left alone because all of the office bods (I was usually one myself) who organise meetings, training sessions, production trials and the like were home in bed where they couldn't annoy you. We also had a bit of fun on night shift, doing things that you wouldn't get away with on day shift.

[bsrlee]

Yeah, 'shift' work is great, until your wheels come off. I worked rotating shifts from 1974 to 2000, '74 > '98 were 8 hour shifts, then 12 hour rotating shifts till 2000. I went 'Pfut' quietly, but one bloke I knew since '74 had to be carried from the building after doing his 'nana mid-shift.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I loved night-shift when I was in the open cut. You could get settle into the groove and time just disappeared. No annoyingly pointless interruptions; they were all at home, snugged up in bed. :rolleyes:

The only thing I had to watch out for was time went by so damned quick I'd often almost back the excy or 'dozer over the leading hand's truck when he pulled up behind to collect us for smoko or knock-off. He usually turned up well before I expected him.

Ahhh... when time flies like that it makes for easy money. :)

[routermaniac]

I think in total I have done just 12 months of shiftwork. The usual thing in hospital is either 7 days on, 7 off working 8pm-8am or 5 days on, 2 off working the same hours. 7/7 is ok but the 5/2 is exhausting very quickly.

In the hospitals these shifts tend to be very busy and there are few staff around (very isolating), the only positive thing was that you were exhausted by the time you got back and slept like a log.

Personally I think on call is much worse as you end up working your 9-12 hours and when the phone goes off at 2am you sometimes have to go back in. Regardless the next day goes on as per usual :eek:

[Kev Y.]

shiftwork is fine, once you get into some rythmn. I started off doing a 7 night roster backin 1981, 8 hour nights were a killer..

In 1986-87 I was part of the initial 12 hour roster trial here in the valley, and have not regretted it one bit. we work a 2 night, 2 day 5 off, 12 hour roster. At the moment we are looking going into a "reverse rotation" roster which os supposed to be better on your sleep patterns as you get older..

Skew ChiDAMN!!, which open cut were you in? and have the side effects of sucking all that coal dust worn off ?:p

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Skew ChiDAMN!!, which open cut were you in? and have the side effects of sucking all that coal dust worn off ?:p

Morwell, although I was "on loan" to both Yallourn & Loy Yang at various times.

The only major long-term effect I noticed was the inability to wear white shirts & t-shirts for a few years after I left. :rolleyes: 15 mins after putting 'em on, they'd be black around the cuffs & collar.

Despite Uncle SEC's assurances there was no dangers to our health, I'd hate to really know what it actually did to my lungs... :eek:

[Jack E]

I am not doing shift work now but I did like it.

You have to love the 30% night shift loading, although you don't actually get 30%:mad:

Used to do 14 days of 12 hour shifts in a row then have a week off. That was good.
Then we started doing a week of nights followed by a week of days. That way we got a change over day and only ended up doing 13 shifts in a two week stint, although you were stuck at the mine for two weeks anyway so the only difference it made was that you could get on the wallop on change over day.

Then the mine decided to go 8 days on 6 days off.
Would have been great but it came with a rather large pay cut so I left.

Now I work 6 days a week, 10 hour week days and 6 hours on Saturday.
I get to go home every night and I get more money than I did at the mine:)

Cheers, Jack