DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... 3rd ahift

I am in OKC this week installing a new machine and I drew the coverage for 3rd shift. For all of those who do this .... Ugh . I'm pretty sure there isn't enough money to get me to do this . Factory life and ne would not be compatible .

Bouncing back and forth is tough but once you’re full on to nights it gets easier. I use to work 7pm to 7am nursing shifts. Three shifts a week. I’d get home around 7:30am. Hit my bed by 8 then be up by 2pm on my work days. My first day off would be catching up on rest. Then I’d have three days off fully rested.
My days off I’d stay up until at least 2am to not get too off schedule. It worked out well as I was also working as a road hand for a Columbus based band. I could close the bar, strike the stage, then hang out at any after hours party without yawning at all. I was a younger man.

...Now I think it’d kill me.

Good luck.

I did third shift when I was starting out. It turned me into a zombie. I hated it.

I worked for the News Herald before I moved to Chicago... Worked all 3 shifts every week. I hated graveyard the most.

Maybe it wasn't so much the shift, but the work done on graveyard was so repetitive. I constantly found myself nodding off.

Don't think I will ever work 3rd shift unless it's something I really love doing. You really throw away a lot of your options, especially with friends, because you have to rearrange your life so much...

Although I have to admit, there was no feeling quite like driving home while everyone else is driving in to work, hahaha.

Late 70's/early 80's, I worked at an oil refinery.
Swing shift.

Sat/Sun off.
1st shift, M-F
2nd shift, M-F
3rd shift, M-F

Fri/Sat off
1st shift, Sun-Thur
2nd
3rd

Thur/Fri off
1
2
3

Six Sat/Sun weekends off per year.
Rinse/repeat

It was hard as all get out.

That swing shift is tough.

Third shift is tough. But it’s gotta be done.

As Portland mentioned, if you’re on long-term 3rd shift:

1) You can work it out (eventually)
2) It sure helps to be younger
3) You better be getting a “shift differential” (premium - either more pay or more paid time off)
4) If no premium - quit. Start a religious cult or something.

As others have mentioned: Longer term, you get used to it. Short term, it can be terrible. That "internal clock" doesn't reset very quick.

My wife has worked 3rd shift for 25-26 years. She loves it. For her to switch to days would be a short term nightmare.

She's home at just after 7, asleep by 8-8:15, and up by 1. (she's not one that needs a lot of sleep) Fridays she sleeps from 8ish to around 10 so she can be "tired" by 11-12 friday night.

I couldn't do it. (unless I had her long term experience doing it).

It's all what you get used to. Again, as some have mentioned, the swing shift would be very tough imo.

I worked at Ben Venue Laboratories in Bedford for almost 5 years on 3rd shift, until it closed. I LOVE 3rd shift. It's the devil's shift. Up all night when you are supposed to be sleeping.

The only one I truly hated was 1sts. 7AM is inhumane.

I found ways of maximizing life on 2nds and 3rds.

3rds was easy. Slower work environment, fewer ppl. I liked the solitude. One downside: couldn't go catch a drink with friends.

2nds was cool. Get off at 11PM, had a choice: find my mates at the clubs or break into Memorial Hall and practice onstage til 2-3 AM.

More than anything else, it was the shifting days off that killed me.

I hated firsts. Less money, more work. That said when I moved to Oregon I made the switch from 2nd and 3rd shift as an agency nurse, to days. Work them to this day. I hate how much they cut into life. Working ‘bank hours’ means dealing with other bank hour businesses is a hassle. By the time you get home it’s dinner time. If you stop for groceries...so has EVERYONE else in the world it seems. Plus the added bonus/joy of commuting in the city with every other working human.
Thankfully my current job allows for flexibility. I sacrifice my morning to the gods by starting ridiculously early. It keeps me out of morning traffic. Plus I work a 6.5 hour day. So it gets me done early enough to grocery shop, errand run, etc without the crush of humanity.
It’s all about balance.

As to 3rd shift. I think in the long run it can be unhealthy. You don’t get enough sunlight, vitamin D. You also can’t undo millions of years of circadian rhythm wiring. It’s not natural for humans to be up all night long all the time.

Refineries use cello players on all 3 shifts?

The classy ones.

Mood music for the other workers.


I tried working 3rd shift but I could just never get used to it and it was ruining my health because I wasn't getting any sleep. Now I work 2nd shift and love it. No alarm clock, I get up when I feel like it. Get off work at 11pm and I'm usually home around 11:45, grab a bite to eat and relax until about 2am then I hit the hay, get up around 9-9:30am and do whatever I need to do until I leave for work a little before 2pm.

Oh, DUDE! I got a story...
('cause you know- Clemmy always got a story... hehe)

The unit job I bid on (and was awarded) was called OM&S- Oil Movement & Storage. Best shiftwork job in the plant. Everyone else was tied down to a fractionating unit, and confined to a 2-3 city block-sized section of the plant. OMS 'Pumpers' were the mavericks, the Cowboys... we roamed everywhere in the refinery, and interacted with every production plant at the job. For us, every day was different, unique... and required us to think on our feet and improvise- because systems are only partially efficient.

Our mobility set us apart; we were also First Responders as members/leads in the Refinery Fire Brigade. (Stories for other threads...)

You know all those rows of round white storage tanks out in those bigazz open fields? Yeah- my job was to route the various products to the appropriate storage vessels at the assigned times. 3rds were the shizz: you got a 2-way radio, a truck, and a clipboard with all the scheduled pipeline shipment times, and product dumps from the various units. You saw the foreman at the start of the shift (11PM), and checked in with him at the end of the shift (6:45AM). A "Freestyler's Dream."

But the first job you get (until you've been trained as an 'Operator A') is the LPG rack.

It's a 'filling station' for all those Liquified Petroleum Gas tanker trucks you see on 80/90 and I-75. You're stuck at the very back of the refinery. At least 1.5 miles from the main gate, and a mile from the foreman's offices. There is a 1/3-mile gravel road leading from the outskirts of the tank field to the LPG racks, so an 'Operator B' can see The Boss coming 2 minutes ahead.

I'd been working LPG for about 6 months, and the 3rd shift routine was learned, down cold: a few trucks from 11:30PM to 1:30AM, a smattering through the wee hours, then a real uptick after 5AM. Those hours from 1-5 can get pretty boring, and my cassette tape player (this was before Walkman, mind you-) was played out... so I decided to change things up.

That night, I rolled up to the parking lot in my '77 Spit with the cello in the passenger seat. I zipped the Tonneau cover in place to hide the case. Exactly 30 min after shift change, I took the 'usual window of opportunity' to drive my pickup out to the parking lot, snatch up My Girl... and race back to LPG.

Fast Forward. The usual routine has died down. It's about 2:15, and there are no scheduled fills for another 2 hours. I pull out the axe, and start grinding out some J.S. Bach: BWV 1007. Prelude. I've known it since I was 13 years old, and play it from memory.

Always with my eyes closed.

So I get deep off into it. I'm a night owl anyway, and do my best solo work with zero distractions.

I rolled that last chord, held it 2 beats extra long in the bow, surged off the end of the note, and slowly opened my eyes-
-To see my boss Freddie Listner (what a name, right?) standing 5 feet away from me inside the pump house!

I must have jolted 3 feet out of that old, smelly office swivel chair!
I started to stammer out some garbled lameazz excuse/apology/explanation, but Freddie just thrust his palm in my face, shutting me down On The Immediate.

[FL]: "Why are you here?"
[Clem]: "Um... what?"
[FL]: "Why are you working here?"
[C]: "Uh- it's my job. I do it to make- money? Pay the bills?"

I was... probably 20, 21 years old. Freddie was late 30's/early 40's. He was a Blue Collar Foreman, and my straw boss... but he always seemed better suited to be the cool, chill High School Guidance Counselor.

[FL]: "You don't belong here. You should leave this place."
[Clem]: "Um... I'm sorry, but you don't get to-"
[FL]: "Yes, I do. Because I'm your boss- and I'll bust you for insubordination if you interrupt me. You need to be playing this instrument for people. It's what you're supposed to be doing. Every day you spend away from that instrument is a day that someone who was meant to be an Oiler can't be what he's supposed to be. Please- get the fk away from us, and go be what you're supposed to be!"

I packed my rig away... and had the worst night of employment in my 5 years there, torn between what I wanted for myself... and what those fine people wanted FROM myself. I HATED Freddie that night.

But Fred Lissner was right.

Leaving that job was the right thing to do.
Freddie Lissner, Gary Longbrake, Earl/Nolan Sherrick, Mo Green, Deke Huston, Gilly... they all pushed me away after that.

They MADE me go back to what I was supposed to be.
And that's why I love them.

They threw me out. Not because they couldn't/wouldn't accept me... but because they DID accept me... and wanted to run with me somewhere else. Some place I couldn't if I was an Oiler.

I got to see a handful of those guys at concerts over the years. One or two are FB friends.

I love My Olde School Bros.
We made s#t happen when we were young.
WE had each others' backs, and our purpose wasn't diluted by 35 years of poisoned/diluted message. WE CONTINUED ONWARD.

Blue Collar Brothers, artists/musicians/writers, along with welders/machinists, linguists, and teachers, administrators and day care workers are making things happen.

The old walls are crumbling. The New Paradigm is making book.

It's a cool time to be positive and forward.

Night shift sucks....

My shifts are 6 to 6... the am/pm changes every 28 day cycle.

So I work Fri/Sat/Sun.... then Wed/Thur... then Mon/Tue... repeat, then I flip.

My wife has a worse schedule. 12 hour shifts, 4 days on, 4 days off... EACH time she flips day and night.

I like the type of work at night, but it reeks havoc on your days off.

Great story as usual! I want you to leave Dawgtalkers and write a book for the people. It's what you're supposed to be doing. Every day you spend away from doing that someone who was meant to be a message board hack wannabe NFL GM troll can't be what he's supposed to be. Please- get the away from us, and go be what you're supposed to be!

I wish you success.

Our cornerbacks work 3rd trick, so it is a scheduling problem getting picks. Peppers might be swing, has trouble getting into work on time.

Not really. Think purple.

I worked 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd shift 5 and six days a week for years. Get to work at 8 AM and work straight through till midnight or 12:30 AM. Speed home get a 2 hour nap, then start all over again. Lather rinse repeat over and over LOL

All you guys do is complain - I work 8-430 at a desk with an hour lunch and have 12 paid holidays and 15 vacation days, you don't wanna know rough!

No complaints here. I work M-F 6:30-1. Though I do occasionally work later. I typically don’t eat a lunch but take that time along with my 15 minute break to check in here. My office is my car. I set my own daily schedule. I drive around the city all day listening to podcasts between seeing clients. I have 6 paid holidays and 5 weeks of paid time off. This combines vacation and sick time. Thankfully I don’t get sick often, only calling in 5 times in 12 years. So I spend most of my PTO on vacation.
I worked hard to get to this place in my career.
I also discovered working overtime won’t make me rich. It’d only make me old. No thanks.

I worked 3rd or quite a while when I was an 18 year old short order cook.

I enjoyed it. Once we got passed the drunk rush, it was quiet (until morning prep showed up at 5am, anyway) and smooth sailing.

I did that in college too. Back around ‘92 or ‘93. . A place in Bowling Green called The Corner Grill. It has a kitchen totally open to the dining area. I worked with another cook that’d play death metal really loudly from about 1:30am until around 3. It was his way of keeping the drunks from sticking around after they ate.
I can remember more than one drunken fight in the dining room. Having to call cops to deal with a drunk passed out kids in a booths. The occasional floor vomitter. But on the good side drunk college girls flashing their boobies.
Good times.

Rejection... again.
I'm getting used to this.

I worked with this guy who loved punk ... the weirder, the better. He played some of the most bizarre stuff ..... I think for the reaction as much as any musical enjoyment he got out of the stuff he played.

You poor baby.

27 paid days-off / 260 work days in a standard work year =

~ 1 out of every 10 work days off with pay.

1 paid day-off every two weeks.

2000-0800 7 days a week at sea. Honestly, not that much different from day shift since there are no windows on most spaces. They normally ran drills during day shift which you had to do as well, so you got a little bit less sleep. On the other hand, you had to deal less with higher ups rolling through. Port visits required a bit more Red Bull, especially the first day, since there were curfews which made you operate on the day shift schedule.

Dang, man.
You have my respect.

To me, 3rd shift is like 1st shift, except reversed. Years ago I worked a 2nd shift. I found that hard, going in at 3 and getting off at midnight.

The deal is you have to be all in and don't switch back to days when you are off, or at least the final off day you need to stay up until 3-4 am to start swinging back to the overnight lifestyle.

I worked nights for years. Turn the phone off and try to get at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Darkness is important, as that's what's required for the body to produce the melatonin hormone. I had blinds and dark shades...as well as an understanding wife.

I can't relate to 3rd shift,but I will say as a mason foreman working 5 10's and a 8. Driving 2-1/2 hrs each way it sucks.

But i was home most nights even though i my of only gotten 4-5 hrs sleep.

quote above by 'peen:



Having a lot of money is like having no money, except reversed.

Having a home is like being homeless, except reversed.

Being dead is like being alive, except reversed.

Being funny is like not being funny...

I love 3rd shift, been on them for 12+ years now. Home by 6:45, in bed by 8:00, up at 3:00. The only thing that sucks is the weekends. My daughter plays softball, and trying to sleep on Friday for a wake-up at 7:00ish on Saturday morning is hell! Then doing the same for Sat/Sun night and morning then going in for 3rd Sun night is also hell, but that is the price I pay to watch her play. Wouldn’t do it any other though.