Re: The job search begins here

Best of luck Floydy,I've done nights for far too long and understand your wish to abandon them,message to the youngsters,if offered nights don't do it.

Re: The job search begins here

Too true. Usually we have 'sold our soul' for the financial gain and for whatever reason that may be. The problem is that we could also have sold our health and quite often usually our circadian rhythm too. I know after 22 years working permanent five-night shifts and now retired, my sleep pattern is terrible. Other aspects of health issues could be down to this too. High blood pressure is one and apparently vitamin D levels could be a problem too. It's all to do with the way proteins are activated during daylight hours so if we seldom see the sun that can cause health issues.

We were never designed to work at night so something has to give if we are unlucky, some get away with it for a short while but not all of us.

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Nights are for owl's and thieves.

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No, not always. People like their newspapers in the morning, or used to before online newspapers. Fresh milk for your cereals is usually nice. Fall ill during the night and needing an ambulance is helpful. Or perhaps have a criminal robbing you, the police are welcomed then. Maybe you are unlucky enough to have a small fire, call the fire service. All require people to work at night. Big cities like London, where I worked never sleep, there is always someone around.

Incidentally you admitted to working nights for far too long, so which are you, owl or thief, as if I really need ask?

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OMG, that reminds me of when I lived and worked in London in the 70's. I worked for a communications company, dealing with America. I workED 10 pm until 8 am. Monday to Friday. The money at the time was fantastic, but it almost killed me. I was working on my own, which I didn't know, was illegal even back then. I used to take my lovely Labrador Ben, into work with me for company, but locking the office door, then the building door plus the iron gate - every early morning about 2 am to walk Ben around the dark deserted streets of London was really scary.

Every morning, I would leave work and walk Ben the two miles home to Marylebone, walking directly through Regent Street, Oxford Circus, Oxford Street, Marble Arch and into Hyde Park upto Marylebone and my bed, was hell, especially as I was half-asleep and passing all these dewy-eyed freshly made up other girls happily heading into work.

I stuck it for about 3 months and then gave my notice in.
All the money in the world couldn't convince me to continue working nights ever again.

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I actually enjoyed working nights in the 1970s and 1980s. Plenty of work and travel into London was easier, everybody else was driving out while I was driving in. Parking was right outside where I worked. A little awkward if working on in the morning though as the parking meters started then. The same coming home in the mornings, a nice quiet drive.

It's an entirely different 'buzz' working nights with deadlines to keep. London was and still is a very small place in printing, a lot of it's now gone though as Fleet Street is now relocated on the Isle of Dogs. In those days there was always someone appearing who you knew from the past. Yes, they were good years for me.

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I had the same experience in the 1970's, as a mainframe computer shift leader. I worked a 4-week days/evenings/nights/weekends cycle - apart from days, everything was easier, apart from the workload, which required scheduling in the evenings.

My salary, which was good anyway, was supplemented by a 33.3% shift allowance for every shift but having time off in the day was what I really liked, although losing evenings meant a lack of continuity in leisure pursuits.

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Those shifts sound very difficult, although just one week of nights in every four is probably better than permanent nights. The workload on nights was always heavy, plus the urgency with deadlines. It was also mentally draining work anyway, no problems sleeping.

My week was basically a four-night week, the pay was good with the fifth night (Friday), worth half a week's wage and was part of the working week most of the time.

Social life if working nights doesn't exist, other than weekends which meant packing everything into those two days. I seemed to spend any spare time driving. My children I had access to every other weekend which was a round trip of 100 miles. My parents lived a 250 mile round trip away. The journey to work each night was 50 miles round trip. Trying to juggle all that was difficult but would have been almost impossible if working days in London.

Most of us do what we have to and that is exactly what I did – worked the hours to suit what was wanted out of life.

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I wish you luck young fellow!
Do you have any areas of expertise?

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You won't believe this Baz, but I won £30 on the Lotto last night. Must be because we were talking about it lol!

Thanks bud
I certainly wouldn't recommend it Caricature (nice to see out resident Mr. White back btw!), but it turned up at the right time for me and has helped me pay back a lot of my debt. Without the nights I don't know what I would have done to be honest.

Cheers Besoeker
Only my current workplace experience these days bud. I had qualifications galore when I was in the RAF and just after service but they all became obsolete having not used them. There are options available though and I have written away fro another two jobs this afternoon.
As I say though, I'm still working so there's no haste to panic into anything I don't wish to go for.