Working the graveyard shift

bobcat

bobcat

Well-known Member
Location
Northern Calif
I don't know how that name ever originated, but it has distinctive differences from the dayshift.
It can seem strange driving home just as everyone else is going to work. Even eating breakfast before bed.
Some enjoy it while others hate it.
Sleeping during the day can be challenging, and even the phone can be a nuisance, along with other noises.

Have you or a loved one ever worked the graveyard shift?
How did it affect you or them or families?
How were days off managed?
 
I worked graveyard shifts my junior and senior years of college while still taking classes during the day. It was brutal. I think the only way I was able to handle the lack of sleep is because I was in my early 20s. I spent my days off sleeping.

My ex had to do rotating shifts (i.e., a mix of swing shifts, graveyard shifts, and days) when our kids were growing up, and that was pretty hard for him because of the kids, especially when they were very little and we lived in an apartment, not a house. I'd try to keep them outdoors so he could get some sleep, and he used a white noise machine, but it was still tough.

He'd spend days off trying to get back on schedule. The constant switching of shifts was pretty tough.
 
I've heard the origins were from the fact that grave diggers worked at night.

I have and it was more than difficult, but I was over by 40 then. I would attempt to operate like I would for a day shift. Get up about an hour or two before work, work, have time off after. On occasion I could actually sleep well, but it was very difficult all around for me to adjust to. I was very lucky though, a second shift opening became available so I only had to do it for a few months.
 
I worked rotating shifts for the better part of 35 years, with Graveyard shifts being a 3rd of the work schedule. Graveyard trashes your circadian sleep cycle, the body and mind suffer, and I don't think you ever quite recover completely normal function. I always transitioned to 'normal' day/night routine, but I've known others that stay on the day sleep/night wake schedule on days off.
 
Never third shift but I worked a second shift job right out of highschool. I loved it, got to spend the day with my girlfriend while her parents where at work and then I after I got off work at midnight I would go meet up with my buddies.

I will say third shift would have been awful for me at anytime during my life, I would have hated it.
 
My SS did the rotating shifts for years and it was hard on him. The pay was very good. These types of shifts aren’t good for those that have children. He now has straight daylight hours with some added days.

A surgeon I knew kept himself away 24 hours while on duty or on call. I worry about medical folks lacking sleep. Actually I worry about anyone using heavy equipment, truck drivers, etc.
 
Nathan said:
But why is that? You would think it would be easier to dig a grave during daylight.

I always felt half dead while working Graveyard, so I thought that was why...
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I can only guess 2 reasons: Cemeteries were open during the day and it was improper that it be done while the good folk were about or that the grave diggers weren't those hired by the cemetery, but in fact were grave robbers aka, resurrectionists. I don't know if that is where the term comes from, but that's what I was told by my teacher in grade shool.
 
I worked the graveyard shift for two years in a lumber mill, plywood division. There were three shifts in a day, Day Shift (8AM to 4PM), Night Shift (4PM to 12AM), and Grave yard (Midnight to 8AM).

Day Shift and Night shift rotated back and forth 4 weeks in each rotation. Grave yard was straight grave yard with no respite. I didn't like it. I was not a good day sleeper, and grave yard wrecked my sleeping patterns for years and years afterwards. Some guys loved it. Our week started Midnight on Sunday, and ended at 8AM Friday.

No one, by Union agreement did not have to work Saturday, which was time and a half. So if we worked Saturday, our weekend started on Saturday morning. But here was one plus if you wanted the big bucks. Some of the Saturday Day Shift would not be there. The bosses knew who was not going to show the night before and knew what spots needed to be filled, so just before our shift was over, the boss would offer some of us a double shift.

That may have been for double time if I remember, but it meant we would have worked 16 hours straight and then go home to sleep 7 hours, and then show up again Saturday Midnight, if there happened to be a Sunday Shift. That only happened for the Graveyard Shift. Other shifts never worked Sunday.

We could make a bunch of money and have not a minute to spend it. A plus for some of the guys. I sometimes took advantage of it, but it was bizarre and made you feel like you had an understanding of what insanity might be like.
 
I am and always have been a early riser and morning person. I only got as far off track with 2nd shift.
I hated it! It was after my late hubby passed and I had 2 teenage sons at home with no backup.
I fought like mad to get off that shift for good reason. They offered me a lay off and I took it since the
company was just sold and moving to Mexico anyway.
I took this opportunity to go back to college and get my degree while getting unemployment.
Turned out it was one of the best shifts to get me on the right road to a career I loved.
 
Before it was legal to use human copses for dissections, surgeons had to rely on freshly executed criminals or bodies supplied by grave robbers for teaching purposes. In order to deter these robbers who exhumed recently dead bodies at night, people would watch over graveyards until the bodies would start to decompose and be of no use to surgeons. Hence , the 'graveyard shift'.
 
Capt Lightning said:
Before it was legal to use human copses for dissections, surgeons had to rely on freshly executed criminals or bodies supplied by grave robbers for teaching purposes. In order to deter these robbers who exhumed recently dead bodies at night, people would watch over graveyards until the bodies would start to decompose and be of no use to surgeons. Hence , the 'graveyard shift'.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, Herr Doktor Frankenstein relied on such nocturnal cadaver appropriations...
 
i worked one graveyard shift in my entire life. i think they just call it overnight now. i worked at this happy chef restaurant in another town. i had to be there by 9:30p and got off at 6a and had to drive home. didn't have much trouble sleeping since we lived in the country at the time.

i work 2nd shift now from 3p to 11:30p. still sleep during part of the day.
 
I worked graveyard during the years all 3 of my kids were in grade school, and slept during school hours.

Got home from work at about 7am, woke the kids, big brothers helped little sister brush teeth and dress while I made them breakfast. Then I did something cute with li'l daughter's hair, made their lunches, checked their backpacks, and dropped them at school by 7:45.

I changed into my schlep clothes, spent 30min or so cleaning up the house, then died on my bed and slept until around 2pm. My nice lady friend had picked up my daughter along with hers from kindergarten at 12:30, so I picked-up my daughter at her place on the way home from picking the boys' up from school, including hers.

Then my daughter helped me make after-school snacks while the boys changed clothes, and I did my best to stay awake while we all took a snack-break. After snack time, I breathed down the boys necks until they got their homework done; so, for an hour or so.

Meanwhile, baby girl went to her room to color, watch The NeverEnding Story on VHS for the bazillionth time, or dance to her extremely annoying music.

After the boys finished their homework, they went outside for unsupervised adventures with the boys across the street, and always survived, and my daughter entertained herself watching Dad nod off, snort awake, repeat until it was time to make dinner.

After dinner, we all cleaned the kitchen and washed the dishes, then the kids took turns taking a bath and all that, and then they had free-time until they all went to bed at 9pm. I left about a half-hour later, to be at work by 9:45.

I left my kids alone all night back then. The boys were 10 and 8, and my daughter was 5. But I worked that shift for about 3 years.
 
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Capt Lightning said:
Before it was legal to use human copses for dissections, surgeons had to rely on freshly executed criminals or bodies supplied by grave robbers for teaching purposes. In order to deter these robbers who exhumed recently dead bodies at night, people would watch over graveyards until the bodies would start to decompose and be of no use to surgeons. Hence , the 'graveyard shift'.
Click to expand...
Robert Louis Stevenson used this for his short story "The Body Snatcher" .
The Body Snatcher - Wikipedia

Director Robert Wise made the well known movie in 1945.
Boris Karloff and Henry Daniell (Daniell is not in the clip below) were awesome.


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037549/?ref_=fn_t_1
 
I worked the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift for many years. We mostly worked 2 weeks on 6 a.m.-6 p.m. and 2 weeks 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. I always would try to stay on the overnight shift as much as possible. I found the overnight shift much more busier than the day shift. Crime rates were higher overnight.
 
I spent ten years working for Metro Toronto Ambulance, doing 12 hour shifts, either 7am to 7 pm or the opposite over night shift. Our schedule was a six week period, which has 42 days. We worked 20 days out of 42. The shortest week was 3 day shifts, the longest week was 6 night shifts, BUT the following week we had 7 straight days off, rest days, not vacation days. We got 18 sick days per year, and 3 weeks vacation per year, with a 5 day increase in vacation each year up to 45 days a year.

At that time I slept during the day, while working the night shift. Home by 7.30 am , eat supper, go to bed at 9am, sleep to around 4 pm. Ear plugs, eye mask, black drapes in the bedroom windows. Eat supper before going into work for 7 pm. We could snatch a nap in the station between calls if it was a slow shift. JIMB>
 
At the husbands company rotating shifts were mandatory for everyone regardless of seniority.
Some couldnt handle overnights and would trade with others. The husband liked to go to auction so he traded
second shift for midnights. So he worked one day shift two midnights for years.

It was my job to get him up when he worked midnights. Not fun. Especially after he stayed up all day to go to an auction
and only slept two hours. I refused to wake him up for day shift at 6am. I am not a morning person. And I was working 10am to 7 pm.

Where I worked shifts were picked by seniority. The later the shift the less hours but the pay was the same.
Worst shift I ever worked was 6am -2:30 pm when I was single. I am not a morning person so me getting up at 5am was an adventure. Most days I would come to at my desk and not remember how I got there. :eek:

Later I was able to hold 9-6 and 10-7. Best shifts. Missed all the traffic. Bosses all went home at 4 pm. The husband was asleep if he worked midnights. So as long as I got home in time to wake him up it was all was good.
 
Murrmurr said:
I worked graveyard during the years all 3 of my kids were in grade school, and slept during school hours.

Got home from work at about 7am, woke the kids, big brothers helped little sister brush teeth and dress while I made them breakfast. Then I did something cute with li'l daughter's hair, made their lunches, checked their backpacks, and dropped them at school by 7:45.

I changed into my schlep clothes, spent 30min or so cleaning up the house, then died on my bed and slept until around 2pm. My nice lady friend had picked up my daughter along with hers from kindergarten at 12:30, so I picked-up my daughter at her place on the way home from picking the boys' up from school.

Then my daughter helped me make after-school snacks while the boys changed clothes, and I did my best to stay awake while we all took a snack-break. After snack time, I breathed down the boys necks until they got their homework done; so, for an hour or so.

Meanwhile, baby girl went to her room to color, watch The NeverEnding Story on VHS for the bazillionth time, or dance to her extremely annoying music.

After the boys finished their homework, they went outside for unsupervised adventures with the boys across the street, and always survived, and my daughter entertained herself watching Dad nod off, snort awake, repeat until it was time to make dinner.

After dinner, we all cleaned the kitchen and washed the dishes, then the kids took turns taking a bath and all that, and then they had free-time until they all went to bed at 9pm. I left about a half-hour later, to be at work by 9:45.

I left my kids alone all night back then. The boys were 10 and 8, and my daughter was 5. But I worked that shift for about 3 years.
Click to expand...

Dads tend to overthink.
051026dad.jpg
 
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