Anyone else never done a 12 hour shift?!!or a night shift?

[Lipperfromchipper]

Surely I can’t be the only one!? , anyone else here who has never worked a 12 hour shift or done a night shift?? Every job I have had had been 8 hr days or less!! I think I would collapse if I had to do a night shift. My current hours date 9-2.40 but I leave at about 3 so I suppose you could say 9-3 with 40 mins of breaks!!

Yes, I used to work 8pm to 8am.

It's terrible for your health, both short term and long term, and you walk around in a state of permanent jet lag.

Better in the summer than the winter.

It was fine in my 20s, 30 years later, no way.

No formal shifts, civil service, nominally a 9-5 type job. When away for work a 6am to midnight or beyond working day is not unusual, so 18 hours + days. No actual breaks, food usually provided but is eaten in car during an in-car meeting on way to next meeting, or is eaten during a lunch meeting.

Not quite 12 hours on night-shift as a nurse. 9pm to about 8.20 or 8.30am. What was the real killer was the fact we did a week of nights. 7 nights in a row! I once did a week of nights, week off, then another week of nights! I ended up with eye infections and a chest infection. Some of the matrons were literally called night matrons because they did this all the time! I think it's illegal now.

I've been working shifts since I was 17 and I'm now 32. Worked nights through my last pregnancy and now 24 weeks pregnant about to go to work. I work the railway

@Selfsettling3 7 in the evening!! Our parents evenings finish at 5/5.30 and I find that a long day!!!

@Selfsettling3 how many of those long days did you do per year and what breaks did you get?

Yes. I work a job that has random shifts ranging from 4 to 12 hours.
Some shifts start at 3am and can last 12 hours. That's a killer.
I have started at 3.30am once and due to problems at work ended up staying until 17.30. I was due back in work at 04.30 the next morning too.

You do kind of get used to it. Hydration is what helps me and a Berocca Boost!

@Jessie9323 ex Railway worker here, I feel your pain!

Man I used to work some weird shifts on board. The killer one was 4.10am booking on till 5.45pm.

Then there was a lot of work going on in our neck of the woods so the shifts got weirder and harder to get trains running through. 2 and 3 am starts are not fun! And then the following week you’d be on lates so for example doing 4pm till 2 am.

Me! Always 8 hour shifts. Latest finish was 11pm during my 6th form job at McDonalds. Now i’m allegedly a grown up it’s normal office hours, 8-4.

Another paramedic here. 12 hour shifts are the norm with regular shift overruns making it 13-14 hours. We get one 30 minute break which is supposed to be between the 4th and 8th hour but often isn't.

For example, today my shift was 0600-1800. I got my 30 minute break at 1522 and finished work at 1930. I worked longer before my break than a lot of people work in their entire day.

@CurlsandCurves I work on the signalling side
Of installation so we can't start work till the trains have stopped haha. Used to be on the signalling fault team so lots of 12 hour days or nights

Never done a 12 hour shift. I used to work in pubs so I've done late shifts - 3pm until 1am with a 90 minute break.

I've only worked office hours for the past 8 years, I would hate to do unsociable hours these days although it was a lot of fun in my teens/early 20s when I had no responsibilities.

I've only done it a couple of times but I have been on call. Once was millennium night and the other was when my employer was moving offices and needed to keep the call centre and control room open for emergency calls (water industry).

Me. Although at times I've done two different jobs at my place of work and gone straight from one to the other and that's been eleven and a half hours. Never done a night shift.

Lots of people haven't read the thread title or OP properly.

Had to wait to handover this evening, then got off hospital grounds and found the keys in my pocket so had to go back. Argh! Finally got home at 2030, 14 hours after I left home! Only one break today. But was an ok day

I'm a junior(ish) doctor, so have done loads. My parents have both only ever worked in 9-5 office jobs and are sweetly incredulous at my shifts. "8pm to 9am? And you start at 7.30 on a normal day? " It also took them a while to realise that when I was "on-call" I wasn't just sitting at home waiting for the hospital to call me!

I’ve never done actually shift work but even in my office job I used to have busy days / weeks and I’m sure I’ve stayed in the office for 12+ hours a number of times.

I've worked 12 hour days, 14 hour days 8am-10pm and nights 10pm-8am.

If you do regular nights you just adjust and I didnt find it too bad (although I'm a insomniac so I have to be really careful about changing sleep patterns), the 14 hour days where REALLY hard and often backed straight onto each other, in complex behaviour care so didnt get set lunches/breaks as where expected to eat and do things with residents. We also dealt with a lot of violent/aggressive and threatening behaviour so it was also hugely mentally exhausting as well as physically. Have worked 12-14 (up to 16) hour days as one off on open days and events before and tbh didny find those too bad as had set breaks and lunch and was much more relaxed.
12 hour shifts are fine (but I've always struggled as I sleep at least 8 hours a night to function) and once I commuted I physically didnt have the time >.< .
On the other hand my DH and a few friends worked 12 hour shifts for years without any problem!

Never. Only retail or offices.

I’ve done loads of 12 hour days, 9am to 9pm. Office work. Never done a night shift.

Nurse here. Have done 12 hour shifts for years including nights. I’m supposed to get two half hour breaks but if I’m lucky I get one of those.

My DH only works 12 hour shifts - 7 across a fortnight, half days, half nights. He’s done this for 20+ years. Can be tough, but he values the time off it gives him. I’d be a gibbering idiot. I do work at least one 12 hour day a week though, as I have a second job and go straight from one to the other.

One of my first ever jobs was at a 24 hour petrol station doing 8 hour shifts i did all shifts on a rota but I actually preferred the nights, the time seemed to pass quicker for me and lack of sleep didn’t seem to bother me, the major downside was if the next person whose shift it was didn’t turn up you had to cover it if they couldn’t get anyone else to come in so a 16 hour shift in total would be dropped on you with no warning I was there around 4 years and it happened more often than I care to remember, now I’m in my 30’s and 3DC later, I don’t think i could ever go back to a night shift

As a student nurse in the 70s I did a week of twelve hour nights, so 84 hours, every four weeks. Finishing on the Monday morning at 8am then back to work at 1.30pm on the Wednesday for a late shift. By the time you’d got back to normal it was time for the next week of nights. Amazing what you can do when you’re young.