I’ve worked 2nd (afternoon), swing (evening), and 3rd (overnight) shifts for the majority of my life. I recently moved into a training position where I’m Monday through Friday, 8am to ~5:30pm (I get OT while I’m cleaning up and writing reports).
As much as the 2nd/swing/3rd shifts screw with your life in other ways, the difficulty in scheduling any kind of life services outside of working hours is maddening. Doctor’s appointment? Nope. DMV? Maybe Saturday, if you’re lucky. Chaperone your kids field trip? Hahahhah no.
I don’t want to burn sick time for a doctor’s appointment (I need to save those for when my kid is actually sick), and I sure as hell don’t want to use up a “vacation” day for it. How tf are you supposed to get anything done?
When I tell people I work 3 days, 12 hour shifts. They say something like “That’s way too long I could never do that.”
They don’t think about the fact that I get a 4 day long weekend… EVERY WEEK!
I could never go back to a 5 day schedule.
I did that for 10 years and it was great indeed, but it was a cushy job though. I reckon I couldn’t do manual labour or serious thinking or concentrating for 12 hours a day. Just to say, it’s probably not ideal for all professions.