Do you know anyone who works 12 hour shifts, 3 days on/4 off?

[overcome]

nak
my dh was offered a job at a good company. he is unhappy where he is now.

one of our concerns is the shift...night shift 6pm - 6am, 3 days on, 4 off (although somehow it is not always 4 days in a row?? i'm not clear on that)

he's worked a night shift b4, but he was home by 1am.

any btdt advice would be appreciated

[dhano923]

My cousin is a nurse and she works a schedule similar to that. She works 7pm-7am for 3 days, then has 2 days off, then works 7am-7pm for 1 day, then gets another day off.

[JBaxter]

My mom has worked a shift like that for years. She is a nurse and I think it works out to have 2 weekends a month off. All of us ( 4) were grown but she likes it. They make their schedule a month in advance and usually if she has a conflict she can swithch days with someone.

[hez]

Some of our manufacturing plants do something like that. 3 days, 2 off, 2 nights, 2 off, 3 nights, 2 off, 2 days, 3 off, 2 nights, etc. 'til you rotate through the whole schedule (takes 4 weeks to get 4 teams through).

They're all 12 hour shifts. I've personally worked, many night shifts supporting project work, and I would get to a point where I wouldn't know what day it was. When the date changes in the middle of your shift, it can start to screw with you. Maybe that would have been different if I had to do it for more than a couple weeks in a row.

What I found was that I had a hard time napping the day I was supposed to start night shift, and then lost quite a bit of the day when I moved myself back to days. The lack of sleep doesn't hit you 'til your second night shift (at least it didn't in my case). I'm assuming your DH would try to be on a day schedule on his days off, that's why I mention this.

There are folks at our sites who've made this schedule work for 20+ years. I don't think they necessarily love the schedule, but that's how the plant management has chosen to manage the need to run 24/7.

[sdoyle]

I worked 12 hour nights for quite a while and LOVED it! I was younger though and no kids yet. The hardest part for me was people never understood that I HAD to sleep during the day. I would get calls all the time in the middle of the day from family and friends. So if he does it, I would definately try to keep in mind that it is really necessary to protect that sleeping time.

I had another friend who did it with the intent of not having daycare. (She would work nights, DH worked days and they would each watch the baby when they were home) I don't know if this is what you were thinking but it really did not work for her. She would end up being up for almost 2 days straight if she worked 2 in a row. She was miserable and they ended up finding child care quickly!

Just something to think about!

[icunurse]

I used to work 3 12-hours shifts/week and it wasn't bad. Some people prefer to do all 3 in a row to then have a ncie stretch off. I liked to do 2 shifts, have a day off, and then work my last one. I, personally, am not a great night worker (as far as I get worn out pretty fast working several shifts in a row), but I know more people who have been doing it for years and love it. For them, they can still get stuff done during the day and then they can schedule their days off for two weeks to add up to one long stretch and then not even need to use vacation days for things (ie. work Sun, Mon, Tues, then off Wed through the following Wed, then work Thurs, Fri, Sat - so your days/week are covered, but you have a week off!). The shift definitely has its perks...

Traci
~Connor's Mom 02/2004~
Agency paperwork completed - waiting (and waiting) for another baby!

[ellies mom]

I worked that shift for over 9 years. I worked the day shift version for several years too. I loved working nights. Granted, it was before DD was born and I'm a total night owl. My husband is currently working the day shift version of it.

I agree with the PP, getting people to understand that you sleep during the day is really difficult. It helps to make the bedroom a good place to sleep during the day. When my husband gets put on nights for a while, we cover the windows. White noise may also help, although I didn't use it.

It is better to maintain some semblance of a schedule rather than comepletly flipping back and forth. For example, he may sleep until 2pm on his work days, but on his days off rather than getting up at 8am, he may want to get up at noon instead. Some people can flip pretty easily, others can't.

One huge plus it that he'll have more time off. I love having DH home 3-4 days a week.

As the PP mentioned changing dates in the middle of the shift is odd. But after doing that for over 9 years, it took me ages to get used to the idea of going home on the same day I went to work. I was always like "wow, it's still Tuesday".

[tny915]

DH did this a few years back prior to DD. He would work from about 7pm to 7am for 4 days in a row, then had 3 days off in a row. We rarely saw each other except for his days off. Making it work depends on how much sleep your DH generally needs and how understanding you are of the time it takes to adjust to daytime hours on his days off. Our situation was this: DH at the time needed 8-10 hours of sleep and sometimes naps. That means on his first day off, he wouldn't wake up till early evening and the day for us would be practically over. This always frustrated me. (I wasn't very understanding :P) To be honest, it got pretty lonely never having him around or awake.

We've talked from time to time about DH switching back to the night shift. Some guys he works with have made the schedule work for them because their children are school age. They come home from work, drive their kids to school, sleep, and wake in time to take care of the kids after school and get dinner set before leaving for work. Then their wives take over. DH and I are both at a loss as to how we'd make it work with younger children.

In general, I think these work shifts require a tremendous amount of planning on everyone's part.

[mudder17]

Our neighbor does that and yes, every once in a while (every 3 weeks?) she has to do 4 nights instead of 3. The hardest thing for her is readjusting to day and night. She's finally found what works for her and that is to not sleep all day on the last day of her shift so that she can actually go to sleep that night and get back on a regular schedule. It works well for them both because it means that they don't need to worry about day care. On the nights that she works, the next morning, her DH will leave for work a little later (he's a post-doc) so that she can get some sleep. They've managed to find a way to make it work, in any case.


Eileen

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[elephantmeg]

(NAK) I used to work nights. You've gotten good tips here, I'd like to emphasize a few
-don't do it thinking you don't need child care
-DARK curtains + blinds
-Phone ringer off
-try to sleep in and or/nap the day before the night shift
-sleep only until noon-1 after the last night shift-and expect to feel groggy that day-I usually avoided driving if I could help it-got a speeding ticket once...

I would usually get up around 12-1, eat and go back to sleep. I was always hungry and it's hard to sleep hungry!

some coworkers of mine have taken seratonin-might be worth googling...

[overcome]

oh my goodnesss...thank you for all the wonderful advice! dh is on the phone right now accepting the job! we are excited and nervous too!

i've already planned on room darkening shades for our bedroom and we already have all phones turned off upstairs.

thanks again!

[rockchick15]

well, my DH works 10 hour shifts 4 days on, 3 off and he admits the hours are very long, but he likes having 3 days off in a row. usually one or two during the week which lets him spend alone time with me and the baby and one weekend day which gives him time with all of us including the older ones ,in school during the week, as a family. I admit I miss him during the day and it seems like forever waiting for him to get home sometimes. But, it has worked out nicely for us. He works 7AM-5:30PM. He used to work overnight at Motorola and that was very tough. I hated sleeping alone!