Working a Graveyard shift - What to expect?

ChickenNuggetz

I was recently approached by a recruiter for a position in a NOC. I've interviewed for it and was offered a position working the 11pm-7am shift. I've never ever worked any sort of graveyard shift like this before, and I'm not sure what to expect and I'll need to give them my response early this week.

I'm not sure what the implications would be on my social life or on my significant other. Those of you who have worked these hours before, what were your experiences? What are the possible pitfalls? The pros and cons?

instant000

The thing to watch out for is staying up all day long, then going to sleep that afternoon.
If you can condition yourself to get to sleep within two hours of getting home, it will work great.
If you stay up all day, and wait until 2 or 3 in the afternoon to go to sleep, then you're going to miss your significant other every afternoon.

There are a few good things about working a late shift:
1 - You get a chance to work maintenance windows, so you can do a lot of learning from the implementations/troubleshooting that takes place.
2 - You will have less distracted time (hopefully, unless coworkers are especially annoying) and you can study.
3 - Look out for the busy work. There is a tendency to give busy work to the night shift "since they have nothing else to do."

Pros:
- Traffic is a LOT BETTER
- Increased study time
- can take care of appointments without taking a day off

Con:
- Must closely watch sleep schedule
- May have difficulty falling asleep in the day time
- Hopefully the shift doesn't rotate too often, as rotating shifts are HORRIBLE on the sleep schedule

Hope this helps.

jmritenour

I did it for a while, and I liked it - it was fairly slow paced, but not absolutely boring. Lots of time to study, and to get some exposure to different technologies, but without the breakneck speed of a day shift.

I probably wouldn't want to do it now due to family obligations and whatnot, but I pretty much echo instant's pros & cons.

Psoasman

I've worked a few grave shifts. There are definite pros and cons. Generally pretty quiet, with plenty of study time. My main con was lack of sleep.

astrogeek

If you are young and can hang I would do it, especially if this would be your first networking job because a lot of people tend to start out on the graveyard shift of a NOC. It can take some time to get used to the different hours, it really throws your entire schedule around. A lot of times you will have to tell family or friends that you can't go to a certain event/party because you need that time to sleep, it sucks but you should be able to figure out a new schedule with them that will work. I once went to the movies with some friends when I should have been getting some sleep, but it was a Saturday night and I just wanted to go out anyway. About 10 minutes into the movie I was fast asleep and didn't wake up until my friends were kicking me to get up as the credits were rolling....what a waste of a movie ticket! lol

Some NOCs have more work than others, where I'm at the graveyard shift guys basically make sure the chairs don't float away so there is plenty of time to study. Just make sure you are getting enough sleep because it's really hard to concentrate on a technical book when you've only had a couple of hours of rest. I did graveyard for about 2 years, it can take a toll on your health in the long run so I wouldn't recommend doing it for a long time, but to gain experience it is sometimes necessary. As long as you can find a particular schedule and get in a sort of groove you should be fine. Some people try to do graveyard while also staying awake for most of the day and that's really not a good idea at all.

If you do this you definitely want to get some blackout curtains, (don't get the cheap temporary ones from home depot, get some quality ones that REALLY block out all outside light). You should also ask your family to try to be quiet while you are sleeping. I always have a problem with turning my alarm clock off while sleeping so I would have to move it accross the room so I would have to physically get up to turn it off. For me I always preferred to sleep in the afternoon, I also was starting at 11pm and I liked waking up and showering right before heading into work, but it just depends what your preference is. I'm also a single guy so if you have kids and/or a wife that'll be something to think about as well.

Psoasman

astrogeek wrote: »

I'm also a single guy so if you have kids and/or a wife that'll be something to think about as well.

Good advice with the curtains.

Definitely easier if you don't have kids. Trying to sleep during the day, when you have some overactive boys running around is challenging

the_Grinch

I did it for a couple of months and loved it. I worked 8 pm to 6 am, so Friday I didn't come in. I had a ton of downtime as I was the only guy there and I was basically there to respond to any critical alerts along with checking the backups nightly. We supported a couple of places that were 24/7, but honestly after 10 pm I wasn't getting any calls for the most part. I'll second the busy work because "they aren't doing anything anyway." We sold an antivirus client and they would put the installs on me at night. The day NOC wasn't that busy, so you'd assume they'd at least have a list of machines that needed remote desktop enable and *gasp* maybe perform the remote regedit to enable it if not. Of course they never did.

The big thing with that shift is to make sure you document everything you do. First, it keeps the dayshift from calling you. I made sure my tickets were very detailed so no one was ringing me at 11 AM saying Grinch "what did you do with this?" Second, it's very much a cya. I couldn't tell you the number of times I'd be at a monthly morning meeting (these occurred on Friday mornings so I'd hang for the meeting) and the Customer Service Manager would come flying up because a customer said I didn't contact them when I was suppose to (or they'd have the Director of Ops contact me at the beginning of my shift). I'd calmly show them the ticket, the email from the ticket, the email I sent so I had something in Outlook, and the call log for when I made the call along with the time the call lasted to show I left a message. Finally, you document so people stop saying you don't do anything all night. I'd document everything because patching takes time, software installs take time, and the endless amounts of alerts all take time.

As for sleeping, I was good at getting home around 7 am and being in bed by 9 am. I'd even be up by 4 pm so I could read through the days emails (do this, there have been a number of times something from the day shift would change something on nights and if you didn't read through your emails you wouldn't know). Also, it provided me more time to actually start working out along with saving money because nothing was open so I brought food from home. Finally, as far as social life is concerned you'll find your friends don't do as much as you think when you make the switch. It was a little easier since every weekend was a three day weekend for me and we always did things on weekends.

N2IT

Man I loved that shift. I would get off at 7 am and go to a local bar that served breakfast. I would knock back 2 bloody marys and bacon and eggs. Before I left I would smoke a cigar and drink a glass of scotch and tell them have a good day I'm off to work Of course I was joking I was going to bed.

pumbaa_g

N2IT hope you were looking over your shoulder on the way home :P I am sure you must have had some very dirty looks when you left

olaHalo

Really like that shift. Plenty of downtime to study. Make sure you document everything

spicy ahi

I've worked a few night shifts myself in my time. My two favorite were 10p-6a (working lunch, 4/10's, Th.-Sat. off) and 6p-6a (two on, two off, then alternate days off the rest of the week) Like everyone else said, it's generally slower on the night shift, you have lots of opportunity to learn since you're more than likely going to be the one doing maintenance during downtime windows, and you'll have tons of time to study. I can't emphasize enough to everyone to take that time to study!!! Traffic is also good so there's little stress coming to and leaving from work. I usually advise if at all possible to sleep as soon as you get home (bring a granola bar or something small and destroy it on the car ride home) and then schedule a trip to the gym right before you go to work if possible to give you that added boost of energy before you head in. I found that doing that and eating your heaviest meal at lunch (or whenever you wake up) bracketed by light snacks before and after work worked better than loading up on energy drinks and lots of food. Food, sadly, is your enemy on night shifts. With so much free time boredom tends to make you want to snack and before you know it you'll have packed on the pounds. Doing the above and then bringing whole fruits and veggies (carrots, celery, apples, etc.) to eat while on shift worked best for me. Come to think of it, the only time in my working career that I lost weight was during night shifts! Maybe I should look for another night job...

ramrunner800

I work graveyard right now, and have been for 2 years, and I actually quite like it. I recently turned down an opportunity to move to our day shift because it would increase my commute time from 50 min round trip to 4 hours round trip. From the spring through fall I find I actually get lots of time out in the sun, because I'm arriving home during sunrise. It's pretty awesome, though my neighbors still give me funny looks when I'm grilling a steak and drinking a beer at 7am.

I can definitely second the importance of blackout curtains in staying asleep. I'd also recognize a white noise machine or a fan, it really helps keep any noise from disturbing me while I sleep. I would also recommend using a full spectrum light to make sure you get enough light exposure, and get your Vitamin D levels regularly checked by your doctor. I found out about a year into working nights that I had a dangerously low Vit D level, and it is amazing what an impact that can have on your psyche.

I find I have to make a solid effort to keep up my social life, but it really is a great shift. As everybody said, it's a great opportunity to study, and finish up a degree or gain some certs in an area you're wanting to expand into.

Master Of Puppets

Were any of you guys doing some kind of sport or just working out during your night shift times?I'm just wondering how someone highly engaged in sports or who hits the the gym regularly would deal with this.

Psoasman

I managed to find some exercise time, P90X works well for me. My job also requires quite a bit of walking around, so that helped, too. Some of the other techs would hit the gym before coming into work and that helped stay in shape.

WiseWun

1) Make sure you get good sleep, don't rely on coffee/energy drinks.
2) Pack some healthy snacks. (I have gained a few pounds)
3) Bring a book to read if time permits.

I do this shift every other month and I love it because there is lots of downtown and I'm able study (read, lab) and even sometimes surf the web which eventually gets boring.