Shiftwork

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.

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. :)

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:

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

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Originally Posted by Brudda

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

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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:

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