continental shift work

hello everyone,

Recently i have started working on a new role as Systems admin or Systems support @ Noc

My shift timings are 7 pm to 7 am ( basically 6 pm to 8 30 am including travel time etc)

now i have got used to of staying up late all nights but my problem is on my days off

i dont know how to stay up late all night untill 8 am in the morning all by myself alone

. i get really sleepy and end up going to bed early before my time and wake up within an hour and than not being able to sleep AT ALLL AFTER. which really makes me feel sick for days.

was wondering if anyone else who does same kind of work on same kind of shift has any suggestions etc. Shift workers how do you guys manage?

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Comments

varelg

Your shift timing isn't healthy at all to begin with. And it is impossible to compensate for ruined sleep cycle.
You could for example try to darken your bedroom to the max, pitch dark and super quiet. And stay in your bedroom mentally as well, not letting your mind to wander to work or school or whatever ambition you are pursuing.
I grew up with motion sickness and falling asleep helped me on bus rides. I don't have motion sickness anymore but I can get myself into sleeping mode at any time anywhere.

echo_time_cat

I've done shift work like that before and know exactly how you feel. The only way I was able to get restful sleep was to use earplugs and have a fan in my room (aimed away from me) for additional white noise to drown out the normal day to day noises.

Years later I still feel affected by it. I feel like it turned me into a night owl, where I was not one prior.

azi90

echo_time_cat wrote: »

I've done shift work like that before and know exactly how you feel. The only way I was able to get restful sleep was to use earplugs and have a fan in my room (aimed away from me) for additional white noise to drown out the normal day to day noises.

Years later I still feel affected by it. I feel like it turned me into a night owl, where I was not one prior.

Thing is my work day sleep is not an issue. i come home and have a quality sleep

issue is on my days off. i have no idea what to do 4 in the morning to keep myself awake until 8am(which is when i normally sleep).

so was wondering people who have been in my shoe, what did they do and how did they kept themselves busy middle of the night when the whole world is sleeping.

Kinet1c

I did similar for 1 year and couldn't take it anymore. I don't mind working weekends or an odd shift rota but nights were just too much. I got my experience and moved fast, would never ever go back to them.

yuddhidhtir

If you add the travelling hours then I leave home at 7 PM and reach home around 7:30 AM. I can understand what you are going through, during weekoffs I mostly watch Movies or some randon non technical you tube videos.

bermovick

If you don't have a family or reason to transition back to a diurnal (day) schedule, there's always something to do to (more or less) keep yourself up until close to your normal bed time: movies, TV, studying, gaming, etc. The tough part is if you have to switch between sleeping at night & sleeping during the day, and THAT is rough.

When I worked nights, that was 2 days per week I was screwing up my sleep schedule. Eventually the other night person and myself changed our schedules so that instead of 3 days on / 3 days off, we worked a 6 on/6 off schedule. It was a bit easier because it was only about 1 day per week you had to suffer (and having nearly a week off at a time was nice), but I doubt that's something that'll get approved most places.

I agree with the previous posters. Unless you have a lifestyle that's flexible enough, moving on as soon as you're ready is the best way to go.

shawn488

I am currently active military and about 3-4 months a year we have to work nights. 7p-7a. It's overall horrible for your mind, body, and health. I hate it with a passion. At least in the civilian world you're compensated for your loss. We just have to suck it. I've been doing this for 4 years now and have NEVER gotten used to it. Needless to say, once I leave the military I will NEVER work nights ever again. I don't mind working through the night or late into the night but going to work at night and sleeping during the day just doesn't work for me.

azi90

Glad alot of people here realize my experience...

Where i work It operations, its really dead at night. Most of shift (10 hours out of 12) goes towards browsing, watching vdos etc.

Doing the same thing on my days off to kill Night time gets really boring. I feel like very soon ill be heading towards depression

and i agree with most of people. I had a really simple Helpdesk job that i left for this. Just so i can get experience and move up to a better position

si20

I worked continental shifts for around 10 months. That was enough for life. I'd never, ever go back to it even if you paid me $1,000,000 (i'm serious). I put on loads of weight, I was eating unhealthy, I felt drained on my days off. I could never adjust to the working pattern and felt like I was putting myself in danger when I got on the road after leaving work. Needless to say, I quit. I now work a 9-5:30 and if I get a new job it will be 9-5.

Phileeeeeeep651

I know your pain. I currently work 6p - 6a 3 days a week and its absolute hell trying to manage your off days. I work Monday-Wednesday(Monday night to Thursday morning) and transition back to a days life on my off days. I do this:

Sunday- night stay up until 2 or 3am, sleep until I wake up
Monday- wake up usually around 11 or 12, get somethings done around the house and get ready for work.
Tuesday- work/sleep
Wednesday- work/sleep
Thursday- get home at 7 sleep until 4 stay up until midnight or 1
Friday- wake up at 8 or 9 depending on my mood

I know its probably not an ideal plan but my dog and girlfriend would completely hate me if I stayed on my nights "schedule".

ande0255

Yes people who work overnights in IT basically want to hang themselves after a year or so of it, my gf works 7 days on 7 days off doing overnight shifts, and she looks so miserable when she has to go into work at night.

If it's messing with you mentally I'd get out ASAP, I've heard people start crying about how much they hate themselves and their lives, because they signed up working overnights doing mundane IT functions for a company and stayed doing it for their entire adult work life. I would not make that hefty a sacrifice my personal life for the sake of my work life.

Dakinggamer87

As others have mentioned their experiences mine is very similar if not the same. I did it for 6 months - 1 year and I wouldn't ever go back to it. It affect me personally in many ways and I will never do it again. My sleep schedule, health, etc.. was all out of sync because of the time differences and my normal day-to-day patterns were shifted way too dramatically. The work was very routine and simple. I was doing many maintenance based tasks that were very remedial and not very challenging. So my recommendation is to get out of it ASAP.

azi90

Thing is... how do i get out of it

im looking for other IT opportunities and most i can see is going back to helpdesk position or desktop support. I want to do more than that. Like System admin or Systems support.

I tried looking for jobs like System admin or Systems support but even though its working on Servers they want CCNA certifications which im not good at.

thinking about getting certification doesnt workout with my current schedule(working all night and sleeping all day)

Phileeeeeeep651

I'm not sure how demanding your workload is during your shift but for me, I probably have about 3-4 hours of actual work and about 8 hours of downtime during a shift. I spend about 90% all of that downtime studying for school and certifications. In fact, most of the studying I do in a week comes from my time at work. In the last year I've finished 27 credits, completed 3 certs and I'm about to finish my CCNA by the end of this month.

It really boils down to, at least in my eyes... how bad do you want it?

I have plenty of coworkers who come in day after day and complain about not being challenged, complain about the hours, complain about being passed over for jobs within the company/outside the company. While they're all valid complaints, they aren't doing anything to change their situations. They come into work, finish some tickets, watch netflix/hulu, finish a couple more tickets, make personal phone calls, surf facebook, I think you get the picture here. There is only one other person that I work with that studies for certs/other educational things. It's truly hard for me to have sympathy for people like that when I'm working my tail off trying to get where I want to go and they seeming want to be handed that next level position for just showing up to work.

You say that getting certified doesn't work with your schedule? In your op you said that you didn't know what to do with all of your time alone on your off days, right there is a perfect opportunity to be studying! What technologies are you working with now? Leverage your knowledge of the gear you work with now into certifications, if that's the route you want to go.

Like I said before, how bad do you want it? It's very easy to get down in the **** and have a "woe is me" type attitude, working these kind of shifts. Figure out a plan of what you want to do, Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What do you need to get there? How are you going to make it happen?

azi90

Phileeeeeeep651 wrote: »

I'm not sure how demanding your workload is during your shift but for me, I probably have about 3-4 hours of actual work and about 8 hours of downtime during a shift. I spend about 90% all of that downtime studying for school and certifications. In fact, most of the studying I do in a week comes from my time at work. In the last year I've finished 27 credits, completed 3 certs and I'm about to finish my CCNA by the end of this month.

It really boils down to, at least in my eyes... how bad do you want it?

I have plenty of coworkers who come in day after day and complain about not being challenged, complain about the hours, complain about being passed over for jobs within the company/outside the company. While they're all valid complaints, they aren't doing anything to change their situations. They come into work, finish some tickets, watch netflix/hulu, finish a couple more tickets, make personal phone calls, surf facebook, I think you get the picture here. There is only one other person that I work with that studies for certs/other educational things. It's truly hard for me to have sympathy for people like that when I'm working my tail off trying to get where I want to go and they seeming want to be handed that next level position for just showing up to work.

You say that getting certified doesn't work with your schedule? In your op you said that you didn't know what to do with all of your time alone on your off days, right there is a perfect opportunity to be studying! What technologies are you working with now? Leverage your knowledge of the gear you work with now into certifications, if that's the route you want to go.

Like I said before, how bad do you want it? It's very easy to get down in the **** and have a "woe is me" type attitude, working these kind of shifts. Figure out a plan of what you want to do, Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What do you need to get there? How are you going to make it happen?

No No, may be i should have put more details in my last post regarding Certificate.

Its true i work may be 2 hours out of my 12 hours shift and rest goes down in drain doing nothing.

problem with my getting CCNA is that, i want it bad. really bad. But i need tutoring. As i literally have 0 knowledge of networking and watching videos online doesn't help. I had in my mind that i will find tutoring and along with that ill practice what i learn, at work. But i am unable to locate tutoring that can accommodate to my schedule in some way( like mid afternoon class). its either they are super early or late evening(during my shift). That is only the problem. What i am thinking of doing is may be using my vacation days so i can go attand classes for few weeks...

Phileeeeeeep651

Honestly, if you have zero knowledge of networking I would really recommend looking into CompTIA Network+ first. I'm sure some people will disagree about the ROI of CompTIA certs but before my current job I was working with Cisco routers in a small network environment doing tasks because "this is how we do them" not really understanding what I was doing. Network+ really helped get those concepts aligned for me. After that I would jump to Cisco and do the 2 test route of ICND1 and ICND2 (CCENT AND CCNA).

Also, I apologize if I came across harsh on that last message.

azi90

Phileeeeeeep651 wrote: »

Honestly, if you have zero knowledge of networking I would really recommend looking into CompTIA Network+ first. I'm sure some people will disagree about the ROI of CompTIA certs but before my current job I was working with Cisco routers in a small network environment doing tasks because "this is how we do them" not really understanding what I was doing. Network+ really helped get those concepts aligned for me. After that I would jump to Cisco and do the 2 test route of ICND1 and ICND2 (CCENT AND CCNA).

Also, I apologize if I came across harsh on that last message.

No u werent harsh

i just wasnt descriptive enough regarding my situation.

i will consider doing either network+ or just sucking it up somehow and do CCNA straightup.(I mean i know a thing or two about networking like ping etc lol)