To find this shift pattern brutal?

[3on3off]

Three days on, three days off. 12 hour shifts (7-7), alternating between days and nights every fortnight. No flexibility as everyone in the department does the same shift pattern.

It's only been a few months and I feel completely exhausted by it. I'm grateful to have a job but completely exhausted. Work days I feel like a zombie, I come home eat and go straight to bed. I miss having down time in the evenings and time to relax. I miss so much by having to work weekends pretty often. I missed the entire Easter weekend, multiple Bank Holiday weekends and I'm working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day as my leave requests have already been rejected.

The department has been having issues with poor staff retention. All my colleagues are drained by the shift pattern.

AIBU to think this shift pattern is actually difficult and I'm not just being whiny (as family members who work a Monday-Friday 9-5 tell me I am being ).

I find people who don’t work nights have a poor understanding of how exhausting it is. In the past a few people have been amused or surprised that I need to sleep during the day, after a night shift!

Working shifts is hard going. There is a reason it takes years off your life.

Personally think it's quite baffling how people who work Monday to Friday 9-5 are telling you that you are being stupid. They are working 8 hour days with an I assume half hour to one hour break. You are working 11 hours I assume with a one hour break. Either way you are working a lot more and unlike them you also have to work weekends and holidays. I can't imagine how exhausted you must be OP. I know a job is a job and in society if you have a job you have to be grateful all the time because you are getting paid 🤔 but this isn't a good job and it isn't a life. Please find somewhere else.

Very difficult. I’m a support worker regularly doing 15 hour shifts. It’s illegal but yet I work for a large, National company. Currently job hunting, I’m wiped out. It’s no life.

My Dh works 7-7 4 on 4 off days and nights mixed and yes it's brutal it took months to get used to it

Yep I do hours like that . I do 3 on 3 off and my hours are currently 4-4, 6-6 or 7-7. It’s tricky but I love my job and wouldn’t change it.

I’m also a shift worker, yes it’s awful. On the days you work you have no life. Getting up at 5 and not getting home till 9pm is so draining. I’ve just been able to get flexi working so I will be doing set days and no more nights- if your work doesn’t offer this I’d consider looking for somewhere that does

Sounds awful OP.
I’d be job hunting.

Honestly sounds better than my rota most of the time! It is hard and people who don’t do shifts like that and especially night shifts have no idea how hard it is.

My shifts are 4 nights 1 week, 3 another. I do 3 together and the 4 shifts are spread out. All 12 1/2 hours, just done 2 managed 6 hours hours sleep yesterday. Night off tonight and I'm still awake.

Couldn't go back to working days, more stressed on days.

Yes it's horrible . I work 07.45-20.15 it's far too long and knocks me sick ( worse since being pregnant and having pregnancy complications) I want a normal job.

My husband is a driver and does 6-6 5 days then 2 days off. We live 1.5hrs from depot so alarm goes at 4.15am and he's home about 8.30pm (once paperwork is done) when he eats, showers and goes to bed. Some evenings he stays at the depot and sleeps in the car. He's 64 and I know it is slowly killing him - the company is going to introduce night shifts alternate weeks so he'll effectively be asleep on his 2 days off. I'm so sorry for you, OP, life is very shitty for shift workers.

Right now I'm doing 7 on 2 off. One shift I found I finish at midnight and next day in for 7am. Was like wtf think duties have got my shifts wrong hahaha.

@thebakeoffwasntasgoodthisyear

I find people who don’t work nights have a poor understanding of how exhausting it is. In the past a few people have been amused or surprised that I need to sleep during the day, after a night shift!

I've never done nights. But my partner did for a few years (alongside days on a mixed rota) I totally get how awful they are. I think people who don't are being purposely difficult!

YANBU op. I think there's also the issue with not having enough time to get squared around after the three shifts. Especially if you spend the day after sleeping. You effectively then have two days off as you would a weekend. But without your evenings that a 9 to 5 would give you on work days.

Yes it's awful. My husband works 4 on 4 off with a mix of day and night shifts- each shift 12 hours. So this weekend he is about to start on earlies and because of our children he hasn't had a sleep in on the days off. It's just crap and feels like a huge merry go round of tiredness. It's awful for him and tiring me for too (of course in a totally different way)

I could never do a mixture of days and nights. I would be worse than I am now.

Yes it's awful and people who have never worked nights or long shifts really have no clue how it affects you long term. I'm similar (12.5 hrs but no pattern...can be months of nights or can be mixed in the same week) and its grim. I love my job though so it's part of it I accept whilst I can physically cope. If you dont love your job I would be looking for other options.

12 hour shifts are brutal, even more so at nights. Is there a reason they are so long (such a shame that the UK opted out of the working time directive, the shifts would have been capped...)

The department has been having issues with poor staff retention. All my colleagues are drained by the shift pattern.

This is the same conversation as the one on AIBU where the café owner can't get staff to work pretty shit shifts. Employers are going to have to have a bit of a rethink if they want to gain and retain staff and one of the main things they should look at are working conditions (as well as wages)

I worked a really fucked up shift pattern back in my army days - we only had two sleep days (after night shift) and one day off in every 8 days - and if there was any military training we had to be available from 2pm on a sleep day and all day on our day off. (we eventually managed to persuade the colonel that doing NBC training on our day off was evil, and that people working days didn't have to sacrifice a day off so he put them all on Saturdays. Such whining. It was glorious)

I digress. What i found whenever i did nights was that you simply have to make sure you get up and don't just sleep the entire day away. So If you get home at 8, it would be: clean teath, get in jammies and go to bed. And then get up at 2 or 2:30 to have anything like a remote chance of having 2 relatively normal days/nights afterwards.

After your days off, do you sleep before the first night shift? I used to have a maximum of 2 hours before the first night, but a lot of people thought this just made their sleep patterns even more fucked up and preferred to get up much later on that day.

One shift I found I finish at midnight and next day in for 7am. Was like wtf grin think duties have got my shifts wrong hahaha.

this is worrying. I thought that even in the UK there were rules about rest periods between shifts?

I reckon this type of shift pattern wouldn't be so bad if it was the norm for most people. So I don't think it's the shift pattern (per se), but the fact that the world is mostly set up for Mon-Fri 9-5. So whilst you're working your butt off on 12 hour back to back shifts and alternating night/days, everyone else is going 'Oh well you've got 3 days off in between, must be great... I wish I had a 3 day weekend (as they then enjoy their evening, a consistent sleep cycle and the ability to run errands on their day off cause they're awake at 'normal' times)'.

I don't think I'd cope well with this sort of shift pattern. My sleep cycle is really strong, I think switching between sleeping days/evenings would be an absolute killer for me.

What you're describing seems quite normal for NHS workers by the way. I honestly don't know how they do it. Although it used to be a back to back 8-hour shift system apparently. So there literally wasn't even enough time to get home, sleep and then get back to work before your next shift started... and these were the people then in charge of people's medical care? You can definitely tell the person who suggested the system wasn't the one living with it.

Thank you all for understanding, it helps to know that I'm right to feel drained by this and it's not just me. I'm working nights this weekend and just feeling really fed up. I hate sleeping in the day on weekends knowing that every person in my life is enjoying their weekend. I'm hoping that the poor staff retention will force them to change the shift pattern eventually as we are all burnt out but I highly doubt it.

@Curiosity101 I work for the NHS. I understand why the shifts are set up this way (to reduce the amount of staff handovers) but I don't agree with it. There is no way I can handle this long-term. I'm already looking for a new job as are nearly all of my colleagues.

I've worked shifts in the police for 15 years now.
Currently on 12s mix of days and nights, then either 4 or 5 days off.

Best pattern I've worked is 6 on 4 off but these weren't 12hrs. 2 earlies, lates then nights.

I personally think 12s are shite, I get home from a day shift have a couple of hours including having to eat, then I need to think about bed as I'm up at 0530.

My team chose to do 12 hours shifts as it allows people with children to more easily manage (as full time is mostly 3 days a week rather than 5). I guess the idea is that the extra days off you get are where you get your down time. It doesn't sound like it works for you though. Might there be other jobs with different shifts?

That is completely rubbish. I work 12 hr shifts (ITU) and used to do the rota. Things we allow (all for happy nurses ):

1. 6 request per rota - always honoured.
2. work either Christmas or New Year, never both. Alternate each year.
3. no more than 6 nights and 2 weekends per rota (unless requested)

This means the rota is slightly hard work, but it can be done. We also allow people to swop (grade for grade) if something unexpected crops up.

There used to be an idea that the ideal shift pattern for 12hr shifts and shopping between nights and days was 2 long days followed immediately by 2 night shifts ie 4 shifts together. Lots of people seemed to like it - you weren’t killed by 3 days in a row, and with at least 2 days off post nights you were able to recover from hectic shifts, plus you had a reasonable amount of away from work time.

Shift work is hard enough, it absolutely should work for the staff working it. You all need to complain.

swapping not shopping....