The Fret After Dark, and a story....

[Katastrophe]

So, I start my transition this week to staying up all night for my job. I start working a night shift this upcoming Friday.

Are there any other Fretters that work overnight? Night shifts have their own vibe that I like. It's gonna take a little time getting used to being a night owl again, though.

We had a time change in the US starting this morning, where we were SUPPOSED to set our clocks back one hour. My cell phone and computer do this automatically. It's SUPPOSED to happen at 1:00 am, resetting to 12:00 midnight. Well, MY cell phone didn't reset until after the alarm went off at 5:00... Therefore, I show up at work this morning at 5:40 am, a full hour early! I had a nice chance to catch up on the news and eat breakfast at a leisurely pace this morning - except I could have had an extra hour of sleep.:thwap

[Jx2]

Ive always prefered the night shifts over any other personaly. Like you said the vibe is diffrent plus typcially there is less big wigs till its close to time to go home anyways. Which depending on your job, could provide some fun time. I always had a harder time adjusting to getting up at say 5am then adjusting to working the nights. Id just go into the first night with a couple 5 hour shooters and Id be good to go. Never seemed to take me more than 1 or 2 days to adjust.

Id love to find me a good nightshift job again. A plant I use to work out shutdown a few years back and just re-opened under new ownership. Heard they are going to be back in full swing the first of the year so Im hoping to slide back into that place.

[Tig]

Well, I'm working right now, 11 PM local. I work 9PM to 8 or 9 AM, Fri/Sat/Sun nights. Every other week, I work Thursday nights. Crazy sounding, but I'm used to it. I love having 4 to 5 days off between! If I get stuck on nights, I hope to take the opposite shift that has me off these nights I'm currently working.

Getting the right amount of sleep between work shifts is the key to survival. I have black-out curtains in the bedroom, run a fan or 2 at high speed for white noise (no, not Vanilla Ice!), and keeps phones in the far end of the house.

The first few months, I'd take a short nap at lunch, but now I've got it all wired to an art and have no problem staying awake and alert. No politics at night, but 1 of the guys I work with sleeps for hours, forcing me to take up the slack. When things get tight, I'll still be working and he'll be toast. What happens on night shift stays on night shift. The pointy haired bosses can see exactly when and how much work we do, so I have nothing to worry about.

The work is 100% computer based, Active Directory and security administration/analysis. I get plenty of time to listen to music with my earphones, which keeps it all quite bearable. I can watch DVD's or .AVI movie files when it slows down.

So, life isn't easy, but it beats not working! :hungry

[FrankenFretter]

When I was in my early 20s, I had a job at a service station where I would work 2 day shifts, 1 or 2 swing shifts, and 1 or 2 graveyard shifts. It was utter chaos on my sleep pattern, and since I'm a light sleeper anyway, it was that much worse. I never liked that mixed up shift schedule.

I did also work as a VJ/DJ at a bar for a couple years, and I liked that. It was usually from around 8 or 0 until close, which was 2 AM. That was a fun job!

[Jimi75]

I'm online from 9h on, CET. That must be late evening, night time in the entire USA.