Night Job

37chief · Jun 16, 2011

I know there are a lot of people who work nights, and also have a day job, farming or whatever. I worked the swing shift for a lot of years as a maintenance mechanic in a computor factory. I also had my mowing and discing business. I would get to bed around 1 am, and get up around 6:30 Head out the door around 7:30 to do my mowing, or discing. Try to get home at 2:00 to clean up, and eat and be to work by 3:30. That went on for around 4 months. during the weed season. Since I retired, I don't think I could do that now. How many do that today? Stan

pete black · Jun 16, 2011

i"m 64 and been retired for 6 months. took awhile to adjust after working for 45 years. keeping busy with family and small farm, looking forward to a little traveling. actually lost a few pounds, changed some sleep habits and learned to relax. not nearly as focused on a schedule, time of day or day of week. i too would find it difficult to return to full time work.

Deere Scotty · Jun 16, 2011

I will have worked a 5pm - 3:30am Monday - Thursday shift for 11 years as of June 30th. Only worked 2 days this week; Got to use vacation or loose it July 1st; then its starts all over again. Nice thing about the hours... You get 40 hours in 4 days. I get a lot of 3 day weekends every year when the overtime drops off. I was on day shift for a few months, & I never got used to it. & every normal farm business closed just after I left work. I couldnt get anything done when I wanted too. Also the best thing of all. No rush hour traffic getting off work!!! Going in to work everybodys going the wrong way!

Anonymous-0 · Jun 16, 2011

learning how to relax is just as hard as learning a new job. Im still learning how to relax but finding very difficult

JMS/.MN · Jun 16, 2011

In college I worked a graveyard shift for about 15 months, averaging 3-4 hours sleep per evening..did an evening shift for about 2 years...way easier, but I was in my mid 20s then. Never less than 15 credits per quarter (3/4 of full-time), actually finished my BS Degree in Animal Science in less than 4 years, courtesy of some Army time credits, and quitting two jobs and taking 19 credits for awhile. After 30 years of dairy farming, sold the cows, worked at a local quarry. Did a 6 week stint as the only guy on nites (totally illegal by MSHA rules), and it was way more difficult than when I was 25! Get home at 10 am, couldn"t sleep for more than 2 hours, multiple times each day. Semi-retired now, seldom set an alarm clock!

bison · Jun 17, 2011

I married at 22,had a fulltime day job from 8 to 6.as mechanic .The same year My dad fell ill and i took over his dairy farm with 20 cows, that made my day a wee bit longer.
i started at 4 am to do the chores,then to the day job till 6 and back to the dairy chores till 9 pm. after that i often did some moonlighting fixing cars and tractors till midnight.
working 18 to 20 hrs a day.
i did this for at least 7 yrs,slowed down a bit after but not by much,never less than 15 hr/day for as long as i can remember.
I can't do that no more,nor would i want to.

RMinVa · Jun 17, 2011

I've done it for 40 years. I work a lot of 12 hr shifts and rotate from nights to days. Run 40- 50 beef cows and do it alone for the most part. I'm 59 now. Had one heart attack back in Jan. I raised 2 children and put them through college. I'm starting to slow down now but do the best I can to keep everything going here on the farm. Just getting started in freezer beef so I still have a plan. LOL

Oh and I've heated with wood all my life. Life has been busy for me. Plan to get married sometime this year too. I've slowed down some but keep plugging along as my old body allows.LOL

alg · Jun 17, 2011

Worked steady midnights for 22 yrs. Loved it. Now working shift work .HATE IT.!!!!

dhermesc · Jun 17, 2011

Through part of high school and all of college I worked night shift (four to midnight) while attending school full time. Since I didn't have the connections it seems I always had a 8:00 class and averaged about 6 hours of sleep a night. But I graduated without any debt.

El Toro · Jun 17, 2011

Before I was drafted in 1953 I was working for the US Government and helping my dad with the morning milking. We were up by 4am and I left
for the Proving Ground around 0630 to catch my ride. I would get off work at 4:30pm and the Korean War was on and at times I would take the car and go back and work 4 hours overtime. We wouldn't get off until 10pm. Get home around 11 and shower and up at 4am. We were working weekends too. When I finished basic training and ended up at Ft Bragg I thought I was on vacation. We were up by 6am and go for a run and come back and go to breakfast. Then you had to brush your teeth. I always shaved in the evening. Still do that. We would work late if you had company duties like KP. Normally we were off by 5pm. Was rehired when I was discharged back at the proving ground as a returning vet. Still worked a lot of overtime and my dad had to give up farming as he was getting up in years. I was going with my wife back in 1952 and sometimes I wouldn't get in until late until it was time to get up. I would nap on the way to work and on the way home. My older brother had joined the Air Force in 1951 to escape the draft and he didn't come back to the farm. I also married in 1953. Hal

Sidekick · Jun 17, 2011

I've been working 10 pm to 6am for 20 years now. I have enough seniority to hold dayshift but I'm staying on nights for as long as I can. It gives me the freedom to get a lot accomplished during the day. I get along with the sleeping just fine.

Allan in NE · Jun 17, 2011

This year I'm not even gonna try to bust my butt. One tankful of fuel a day and that's enough ('bout 5 or 6 hours).

Think it might have something to do with this medicene I'm on. Seems I just really don't give a fig neither. :>)

Allan

WyoDave · Jun 17, 2011

I do it during haying season. A lot of times I'll be up till midnight or 1, baling hay, and then I'll get up around 5 in the morning to rake the next evenings hay. Then I cut hay, or stack bales during the heat of the day. I usually try to grab a 30 minute nap around lunch time.
David

BANDITFARMER · Jun 17, 2011

For 10 years I worksd a 12 hour nite shift, They called it a German shift. One week you worked Monday, Tuesday off Wensday and Thursday and work Friday Saturday and Sunday. The next week you were off Monday and Tuesday work Wensday and Thursday and off Friday Saturday and Sunday. Me and dad were farming 200 acres and there were alot of days I would wake up thinking I was going to be late for work. I would get dressed and leave for work and 5 miles down the road figuar out it was an off day or get to work (35 miles) punch the time clock and go down on the floor and figuar it out. One day I got to thinking.... This Aint Worth IT! I no longer work for that Company, We cut back on the farming and now I enjoy my wife and family and farming now more than ever. Life is to short to work yourself into an early grave! The money is not as good as it use to be but I could care less about that. Now I can take my wife for an hour drive to get some good ice cream at Youngs and enjoy the day! Thats what its all about now! Bandit

Anonymous-0 · Jun 17, 2011

done Crazy hours for 30 yrs . Wanted to farm ll my life , made enuf in home iMprovement to Buyand PAY for
EVERYTHING. Many a nites I would be feeding the fat hog floor at midnite after a evening of tractor work, lucky to be in bed by 1 ,with the wife that loved an hour of play and got luckier , then had to be up at 6 am ,big breakfast would run me most all day doing siding and trim business work , Those years were for a young man ,,

enjoyed the siding business as long as it was a art , never liked the busnez end of it , somethimg had to give , , Aint no way would have the drive to do it today ,, Life is too SHORT for that stuff ,but YRS AGO , NO ONE COULD sTOP ME from Doing All I did .. at 55 , once a King always a KING , but Once a kNIghT is enuf.... Still gets a little wild around here , starting at planting and spraying time time , thru 1st cutting hay , eases up somewhat afterwheat harvest , august is a easy month

buickanddeere · Jun 17, 2011

Chronic sleep depravation is one of the Western Worlds greatest health concerns.
Lowered immune system response, weight gain, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type II diabetes.
Altered brain chemistry affects mood and perception which can lead to all manner of incidents otherwise best avoided.

pete black · Jun 17, 2011

so that explains what wrong with me, it not age after all. 19+ years of shift work; now i'm slow, fat and lazy.

John S-B · Jun 17, 2011

I just transferred to a (MUCH) slower firestation, the old one I probably took around 15-20 runs a day on average. Sometimes we'd have 4-6 runs after midnight. My new station averages 2-5 runs a day (24 hrs), I spent 20 years taking a beating, it was time for a change. I've always had one or two part time gigs since I was in High school, not including the National Guard. I'll be 49 this month, I can't beat my body like I used to and stay healthy. It'll be nice to be able to get a decent amount of sleep most nights for once.

Spook · Jun 17, 2011

I worked in factories for 36? years. Usually 10, 12 or more hours, 6 or 7 days per week. Helped my wife at her business, and went to college at different times. Retired a couple years ago, don't want that grind again.

kyplowboy · Jun 17, 2011

I work nights, 7p-7a three nights one week, four the next. Work'n half the time in town gives me time to take care of 30ish momma cows, 4 acres of tobacco, and a little bit of corn and beans. I have gave up on hay. I hire a neighbor to cut and bale our's and then buy some here and there. With the tobacco set'n and row crop chores all come'n due at the same time and it seems to always rain on my day's off. I don't have money for good/fast equipment and wore out hay equipment doesn't set well on little sleep.

Dave

redtom · Jun 17, 2011

I work 11pm to 7:30am for 9 yrs now as a mechanic in a large plant. I hope it never changes. Way too many f.. or I mean pinheads running around in the plant on days. Gives me a chance to get my work done at night without red tape. I sleep in the am till afternnon just fine. If I need to do something I can stay up-saves on vacation days. I started out staying up or getting up early to do projects but shorting sleep caught up with me.

JK-NY · Jun 17, 2011

I worked nights as a bus mechanic for 12 1/2 yrs - started on 3-11:30 Wed-Sun. Then went to 10:30pm-7am with weekends off for about 9 years. Also farmed closer to full time then and drove school bus the last 8 years on nights and plowed snow in winter. Benn working days since 2002 and dont think I could stand the pace I kept up back then. I functioned on 4-5 hrs sleep OK when I was younger but need 7-8 now. Still have the snow plowing business (27 years )Still do some hay farming - no more crops.

Mark - IN. · Jun 17, 2011

Stan, I work 8 - 4:30 Monday through Friday like most. I'm on-call during all off hours after 4:30 Friday until 8 the following Friday morning, every other week. Thats 26 weeks a year of on-call. Weds I went to work for 8 in the morning, didn't get off until 5 yesterday (Thurs) afternoon. Today I went to work for 8 in the morning, didn't get off until 10 tonight. I didn't even start on-call this week until tonight. I'm 51 years old. The on-call that I and another guy split are for 9-1-1 system repairs. They cannot be told "A guy will be there in the morning".

It is what it is. I have a job, so I am not complaining. Next life though? I want to be an orphan found by a harem of 20 year-old beauty queen multi-billionaires. As long as I'm healthy and there's 20 or 30 of them while I'm still young, I won't care if they have tractors or not. I swear it. Grin.

Glad you're doing ok Stan. I remember once when you posted here a year or so ago that you changed your name to...Satan. Just joking Stan. I know it was a mistake, but that was funny. Satan. Made me laugh.

Mark

Mark - IN. · Jun 17, 2011

Me too. I paid a doctor to tell me that.

Mark

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