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?
I’m fortunate enough that my last and current jobs have been accommodating if I need to duck out for an appointment. In general the expectation is to make up the time, but that’s flexible depending on how much time is missed.
Other than that, I decided to not have children, so it’s just my wife, me, and our dogs. My wife is 100% wfh, and I’m wfh 3 days a week, so we always have someone here when needed.
Before that when I worked retail and there was no leeway, I neglected things I need to do like going to the DMV, doctor and dentist appointments, and other things that technically could wait, but shouldn’t. In emergency situations, I was expected to find coverage, and one time when I couldn’t, I turned in my two weeks because they weren’t budging.