I just started a new job working nights and tonight is my first shift. This week I'm doing 10pm - 6am mon - fri.

I was just wondering if anyone else here works night shifts and how they find it. Is it easy to adapt? How much does your social life suffer?

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in the US thats commonly refered to as "swing shift" night shift is more like 5pm to whenever, 12am or something



ive yet to have a swing shift job. it may kinda isolate you from the rest of the world tho. it better pay well for full time.


what kind of work?

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I work for Asda, who the American company Walmart bought not so long ago. I'll basically be on the fruit n veg section. The money is good like you say, but I don't know if it will be worth having no life outside of work.

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The longest baggers work at Schnucks is till 10:30 pm. Except on some holidays, where we may work until closing time, which is midnight.

As far as working till 10:30, it's not bad, esspecially during the summer when it was hot as hell during the day. The 6:00pm-10:30 pm is my favorite; Baggers usually have to bring carts in at the beginning of their shift for about an hour or less, and at 6 the sun is just about to go down and it's not as bright or hot outside, AND it's that this time that more of the little people (ALL customers who don't possess the power we baggers have) start to leave and the whole ratio of people coming/leaving is reduced (more people leave faster than people come in). And it's practically dead at around 10.

Although, there was this time a couple weeks back when a storm hit and knocked out the power in several large areas of St. Louis and St. Charles and all the counties around it. Several stores in our area were shut down and we were one of the few opened, and people kept pouring in, buying alot of ice because their power was out. Fucking busy throughout closing time. And it sucked when you were stuck with a few retard (literally) baggers or lazy baggers who don't do their cart duties when they are scheduled to... but that's a rant for another time.

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Yeah man i used to work for Lowes night stocking and the night remerch team.

Dude seriously we worked sunday through thursday nights from i think 8-5. So we had friday nights and saturday nights off. And i woke up each day at like 1 in the afternoon. There is nothing to do.. and nobody is around to hang out in the morning early afternoon time anyway.. so sleep that shit off. Trust me its the best fucking shift ever. Except moving up blows in the night enviornment. You easily adjust to it. Trust me i think you'll find you'll like it. It would only suck for somebody who has like significant responsiblities and what not.. I.E. children and families and stuff, but even then.. not so much.


Trust me your social life isn't effected. Everyweekend off and peak times for other people to hang out.

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i used to work in a factory, from 01:00 to 08:00.

it was awesome. the only drawback is that, since i had trouble sleeping during day time, i would go to work with 2, 3 hours of sleep everyday.

I've done a couple of nights myself, its not too bad, you don't have any customers about (obviously this isn't the case if it's 24hr ). You get more money, so i think its worth it. With the new extended licensing laws, if you do a slightly 'later' shift; ie. 10-8 or 11-9, you can go to the pub when you're done, and be the first to have a pint

However, you do get some pretty odd people on the night shifts, and the intellectual conversation doesn't exist Quite fun every now and again i find though

EDIT: seeing as you'll be doing fruit and veg, make sure not to do your back in, that stuff is pretty heavy!

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Similar problem for me when I've done night shifts has been getting sleep during the day. People like to mow their lawns and do nosey shit when you're trying to sleep. I would also get twats phoning me, trying to sell shit or as one instance where an old dear had the wrong number so I'd get 10/15 calls a day from her asking to speak to Irene Solution....unplugged the phone and if I did wake after 3 or 4 hours, I'd get up have a cuppa and a snack play guitar for an hour then head back to bed and usually get another 3 or 4 hours.
Another tip: Don't have anything to drink after 3 or 4 o'clock, believe me that 5am tea will be your 11am piss!!

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I worked in an iron foundry if that wat it's called from 23:00 - 07:00 it was awesome plus awesome pay

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I have a girl friend who often works 18 hours a day, the second consecutive shift being a night shift She's thougher than me, I'll say that much.

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I wouldn't mind a job where I would occasionally have to work all night (after I get out of college, of course). I stay up all night half the time anyways, and I drink a shitload of cola. Probably why I have had this headache that goes away after a couple pain pills, then comes back when they wear off.

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I used to work nights as a security guard at a government-licensed mental asylum from 5 PM to 7 AM every day except Saturday. There was never a dull moment, cops would have to be called over at least twice a week.

Things I like about night shift is that, in my case, I was the only one there after hours, so the place was pretty much mine. I could use the phone, do whatever basically except I couldn't leave. It also paid better for almost doing nothing all the time, except the couple of instances where I had to actually whoop ass or got my ass whooped or had to call the cops. Patients would try to sneak drugs or other people [read : whores] in the premesis and it was kinda fun to fuck around with them when they deserved it. I even brought my guitar there every night and put in a good 2 hour practice session every day.

Things I didn't like about night shift were that it totally fucked up my biology and made me nocturnal. I got used to waking up at 4 in the afternoon, taking a shower, having my cigarette and breathing in the oncoming night air, eating at night, doing EVERYthing at night. To this day, I have to force myself to fall asleep at night, and I don't want to take any sleeping pills. Another thing I don't like about night shift sounds kind of dumb, but I researched it when I thought this was affecting me mentally and physically - and it turns out a lack of sun can really fuck you up.
Another thing that sucks is, say you have to cash your check at the bank or need to do some shit at the bank, the bank opens at 9:00 AM, 2 hours after my shift at the loony bin ended, so I had to force myself to barely stay awake to complete tasks like that or going to the DMV, you know, everyday shit.

So, I'm saying at the time, fuck yeah it was cool as fuck, but two years of doing straight nights 6 days a week without vacation like I did is too hardcore to have a 'normal' life.

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i cant imagine itd hurt your social life that much, unless hanging out at playgrounds during the day is how you pick up dates


really, say you get a friday off, whos gonna notice if you meet up with your friends in the city at like 8pm or something? most people push towards being nocturnal every weekend then get back on track during the work week

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I've thought about becoming a security guard. A cop, actually, like my dad. But I'm so fucking weak that I wouldn't be able to be one. I still can't bench more than like 60. Trying to be a cop would kill me..... plus, I have friends who smoke weed, and there would be this moral pressure.

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I've stripped floors overnight a few nights over the summer and I liked it alot better than working durring the day. The only thing is I would end up getting home at 9 in the morning and have to go work my main job at like 11am. It sounds pretty sweet to me as long as you dont have a girlfriend/wife,kids,school or anything like that to worry about.

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A job for a vampire would've suited me very nicely in the summer. I was going to sleep at 8 am and waking up at 6 pm anyway.

i might also add that, while working night shifts, i once spent 2 and a half days awaken.

i tried to sleep on the bus on my way to work, but the fact that 9 out of 10 passengers were women discussion the anatomy of a blowjob, it was impossible.

another cool thing is that there's less co-workers with you. in my assembly line there were only 7 people besides me and you get to really know each other. we were so few because we did mostly spare parts to balance daily production (i.e. day shift did 2000 parts, we only did 200). lot of breaks to eat and piss, great chance to meet some women and we only spent 30% of the time working.

sometimes, we were so ahead of scheduled that we still had half shift with nothing to do.

i miss it.

Well to comment on this and what has said before, this sounds like my friend with the sleeping deal. But he has extreme we'll say.. personal problems (not saying any of you do) and he always attempted to get attention any way he could so he would stay up for like 4 days in a row. It was redicuious. I don't have ANY problems sleeping.. haha so i always slept good. i infact would wake up feeling TOO refreshed. I mean i'd wake up and be like man i feel great. But tahts my story on the sleeping thing.

Its just up to you on your sleep, or if you are unfortunately one of those who don't sleep well, best of luck.

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I work at a grocery store as an overnight stocker, 10 p.m. - 8:30 a.m. 4 days a week ( sometimes 5 ). It does'nt really affect your social life, but there will be times when you're hanging out with friends and you're glancing at the watch because you have to be home no later than 9.

I'm fucked.



Anyway, I did my first shift last night and it wasn't actually too bad. And to the person who said watch my back with all the lifting, all I'll say is potatoes are fucking heavy. Anyway it's still only the first of five shifts in a row I've done so I'll see how I am by Saturday.

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Swing shift is working different shifts and not just certain hours constantly. You might work days one week and nights the next. It's hard to adjust to because there's no set pattern to get used to.

My eldest worked night shifts at "wallyworld" for a couple years because he basically can't stand people. He loved those hours and even after he moved he continued to stay awake nights and got another job working nights. He sleeps during the day and works from about 10:30 til 6 or 7 am. His fiance that lives with him goes to college during the day and she works also. She's a lot more social than he is generally so I doubt it's a problem with them.

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