Pro's and cons of shift work?

basill

Pros:

Better pay.
As others have said, time to do things during the day.

Cons:

Not sure how old you are but I found drastic changes of work hours easier in my twenties when I had no dependants and no responsibilities.

Now living with OH and 47, working days with a week on call per month. I find I don`t recover form the late nights or shift changes nearlky as fast it now takes me a couple of days to get right after the week of disturbed sleep. Also even if my OH gets up quietly when I need to sleep it does wake me. Then the postman knocks and spoils the lie in even more.

In any case, the foot back in the door is the reason I would go for it. You will know soon enough if it suits you. I am convinced it is easier to change jobs than find one and the shift pattern would leave you time during the to attend interviews etc without taking holiday or sickies.

Good luck.

B

paddyrg

Shifts - brilliant for the money! Not only do you usually earn a slight premium for doing shifts, but as your mates are not doing shifts you don't end up on the reckless-spending Friday nights every week (so they become a treat) and you get to go to the shops when they're not full of everybody else! I would /always/ take a shift over 9-5 - 9-5ing kills your soul (well, my soul at least) as you lose the *best* bit of each day, when shifts can leave you with good spans of time to have a life.

duchy

I've worked a similar shift pattern when I had a toddler. Certain shifts were tougher than others but overall it suited me but after eighteen months I'd had enough of it and was glad to change hours. I actually didn't realize how tiring it was until I stopped though IYSWIM

Mrs_Arcanum

Worked very well for us when the children were in Primary school. DH was about to collect them & get them up in the morning & then I took them to school. Just had to get babysitters for me to go out when his shift fell on a Monday.

scooby088

I like day work in all honesty, i have found that i like rotating day shifts like 6-2 2-10, but I don't like night work, i just can't get used to it. But some is suits some don't.

smi85

I do 7-7 days and nights on the continental pattern and love it. I worked Fri, Sat and Sun nightshift at the weekend just gone, off yesterday and today, I'm on dayshift tomorrow and Thurs then I'm off til Mon night. 2 weekends off a month and in total works out at about 20 rest days per month. I get to watch Jeremy Kyle and the financial benefits are miles better.. in my last job working mon-fri weekly disposable income was £69, in this job £220. Sleeping pattern is a personal thing, I can adjust between nights and days no problem and sleep well during the day but others on my shift don't. Holidays are probably my favourite bit, instead of days I get 22x 12hr slots and they work to your pattern, for example in June I booked in 5 shifts as holidays, 3 nightshifts and 2 following dayshifts, and have 14 days off. If you work it properly by taking all your holidays during 24hr weeks then you are off work over 6 months of the year!

Only downsides are that nightshifts can drag if you are having problems with the other half - far too much time to think. On my nightshift weekends I do 3 nights on the trot and it can seem like you just sleep,work, sleep, work but rest days are frequent so you will always look forward to that.

Love shiftwork.

psychopathbabble

smi85 wrote: »

I do 7-7 days and nights on the continental pattern and love it. I worked Fri, Sat and Sun nightshift at the weekend just gone, off yesterday and today, I'm on dayshift tomorrow and Thurs then I'm off til Mon night. 2 weekends off a month and in total works out at about 20 rest days per month. I get to watch Jeremy Kyle and the financial benefits are miles better.. in my last job working mon-fri weekly disposable income was £69, in this job £220. Sleeping pattern is a personal thing, I can adjust between nights and days no problem and sleep well during the day but others on my shift don't. Holidays are probably my favourite bit, instead of days I get 22x 12hr slots and they work to your pattern, for example in June I booked in 5 shifts as holidays, 3 nightshifts and 2 following dayshifts, and have 14 days off. If you work it properly by taking all your holidays during 24hr weeks then you are off work over 6 months of the year!

Only downsides are that nightshifts can drag if you are having problems with the other half - far too much time to think. On my nightshift weekends I do 3 nights on the trot and it can seem like you just sleep,work, sleep, work but rest days are frequent so you will always look forward to that.

Love shiftwork.

How on earth do you get 20 rest days a month? Or do you include the day between two night shifts?


I think shift work is a very personal thing. I'd never wanted to do it, but my current job (been doing it for over 5 years now!) is 6 days on 3 days off, with no set shift hours on my 6 days on. Now I'm looking at going back to 9-5 and not sure I want to!

C_Mababejive

What would happen if you were on a shift and wanted a weeks holiday?

smi85

I just checked my rota for the exact figure, i did say "about 20" its 18/19 rest days because I include the day upto first nightshift.

If I want a week off work I submit a holiday request like anyone else but depends on my shift pattern for the week. You'd just take whichever shifts off as hol to make it a week off, for example in my 24 hour week I'd take the wed/thurs as holidays and would be off from the sunday to the following monday.

1886

I work shifts and get my rota for 13 weeks at a time. I do roughly 40% earlies and 60% lates. An early will start between 6am-7.30am and a late between 3pm-4pm, all shifts are eight hours.
I don`t have to work thru the night but sometimes I`ll get home at 1am if my shift has ran over for whatever reason, very rare though.
I`ve been doing shifts for two years now. I find the biggest downside is that it really leaves me little time to see friends/wife as I work nearly every saturday and about one sunday a month. If I`m on a late, my wife will be asleep when I get in. Earlies are not a problem but I go to bed quite early if I start at 6am.

I could go on perm lates or perm earlies but then you have to do every fri, sat and sun. If I`m on a late I get chance to do stuff in the day, if I`m on an early I finish at sometimes 1.30pm so no rush hour etc. Ideally I would just prefer to do mon-fri 7am-3pm but that`s not an option.
One of my friends is having an engagement party on june 4th and I doubt I`ll be able to go, I miss out on a few things like this. My Brother is having his 30th in Newcastle over a wkend in August, almost impossible for me to go but at least I`m in work and I knew about the shifts before I started