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 an X-Ray tech at a University hospital with Level 1 trauma. It’s a lot of physical work. A few miles a day of walking, pushing x-ray plates under patients, moving patients to and from the table. It’s also cognitive work, problem solving. Deciding what order to do exams in. Coming up with a way to get the image when the patient can’t move properly. Is this exam even right? Does it make sense? Do we need extra images due to a fracture, or fewer images because the patient says only this part hurts, not the whole arm that was ordered?
I can say to everyone, any job you can do for 8 hours, you can do 50% longer. It’s surprising.
Sadly, it’s been shown that in general, cognitive performance takes a nosedive after hour 8 of mentally straining work. Of course not everyone is the same, but the long hours especially in the medical field (where everyone involved should know better) should be reduced and allow for a level of rest appropriate to the potential cost of mistakes.