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?
That’s the neat part. You don’t.
Okay but really, you have to take time off.
Also depends on the country you’re in. In my case “sick leave” doesn’t have a limit. If you’re sick or you need to take care of someone who is, you just don’t work. There’s no day limit.
Also, if you need to go to a bank appointment or something like that, most places will either not even ask you to “recover” those hours or (at worst) you’ll just work an extra hour a few days.
In addition to what you’ve mentioned, in my country if you have a government job doctor appointments count as work. And works days are 7.75 hours a day in winter and 7 in summer, including lunch.
Scrolling down to this actually made me burst out with a laugh. Well done.
It’s so fucn true though haha
That’s the neat thing, you don’t.
We don’t. We just exist. And then we die. It’s monstrous.
The concept of burning vacation / sick time for a doctor’s appointment is weird to me (canada). I just say “hey boss, doc appointment this day” and he says “okay”.
I feel like it depends on the company here, but I don’t think I’d stay long if they made me use my time off for that.
Same thing here in Europe. You can then get a special permit from the doctor to show your employer that you were actually at a medical appointment and not smoking weed
This feels personal… I’ll have you know I can smoke weed AND go to the doctor.
In United States of Shit, you can get a doctor’s note to show employers. Most times I’ll make an appointment and get the date on a doctors card and show my manager. All unpaid of course
Ey! My GP’s notes don’t mention I wasn’t smoking weed. I’ll have to ask them to include it next time.
The concept of burning vacation / sick time for a doctor’s appointment is weird to me (canada). I just say “hey boss, doc appointment this day” and he says “okay”.
Look, I get that you live in a civilized country, but stop gloating.
It could always be worse. In much of Asia the standard work week is still 6 days per week. In China for example it’s often 9-9-6 which is 9am to 9pm 6 days per week.
This almost feels intentional though. If you’re working all the time you have less time to grow and realize how injust much of the world is.
We don’t. We come home around 7 and start doing the bare minimum to keep up the household letting daycares and schools raise our kids.
We clean and cook and pay our bills then we go to sleep irritated and tired and sick of the rat race.
We have sex once or twice a month and go to fucking florida once a year. That’s it.
I see you, stranger. I hope you can find some flavor in the shit that life has become.
You’re not supposed to do anything other than generate value. Society doesn’t care about your DMV needs. Just work and consume.
I guess reproduction didn’t make the cut, hence the crashing birth rates.
This. If I take another 1st shift job, I will make sure it’s 10hr shifts with the same week day off weekly.
4-day work weeks are great, especially if you have a significant commute, because you’re cutting 20% of that right out. the adding 2 hours to every work day, not so much; but the longer hours can mean that traffic is a bit lighter. the guaranteed week day off is huge when you have ‘stuff’ to do.
I absolutely hate commuting. If there’s one thing I learned in the spring/summer of 2020, it’s that not driving to work is awesome.
The people who still had to commute places during that time also learned commuting is not stressful at all when theres barely any people commuting
Almost like theres just too many people expected to commute to work, all at the same damn times
Almost like if there was someway to offset start times and keep as many people WFH as possible, our lives would be 20x better
But no. Fuck you. You show up at the same time as the rest of the city, and you make profits for the overlords just like everyone else, fuck your life and happiness
worst time to commute is 7-9am, and 5pmish.
Oh I know all too well
However, lately in Toronto those times barely matter anymore and you get traffic from 6am or earlier until 730pm
Truth
Driving is really fun unless you’re just sitting in traffic, the problem is not getting paid for the time you spend commuting
A few months ago there was a major leadership change at my job. The guy who was 50% of the interviewers who recommended hiring me is now second from the top and my direct manager (I’m not third from the top, my company’s hierarchy is confusing).
Suddenly, after most of a decade of it never once being a problem, I have been forced from my 4x10 schedule into a standard 5x8. I fucking hate it.
I feel for you. That sucks to have your life thrown into chaos for a decimal number on the balance sheet.
I thought you were saying that the other way around, and was hoping to hear why you like 5x8 more
because yeah, I like 4x10 more. actually, I like having the flexibility to do either one based on how I feel that week and the needs of the company. I like knowing that I can get my 40 hours in and fuck off whenever I want Thursday afternoon for a 3-day weekend, or I can bleed into Friday as much as I want if there are meetings that need to have happen or other work I want to get done by end of week.
I get that some people would prefer 5x8 because they have before or after work obligations, but that’s not me so I would rather have a proper weekend.
So are you hiring?
… generate
valuewealth for the filthy richFTFY
I communicated with my manager and came in late or left early. I’d usually do dental and medical appointments in the morning, and governmental stuff in the afternoon, but whatever I could schedule.
It helped that I was salaried, so the missing hours didn’t affect my take-home pay. But also, I could make up the hours by staying late, if needed.
I know this won’t work for everyone, and it would be good to change the system to work for more people.
Thats the neat part, we dont.
I simply do not understand managers/supervisors/companies who do not realize that employees with a good life/work balance are more productive and less likely to leave. And be more expensive to replace.
I have three permanent work from home (but who come into the office for special occasions if they want) three that like to leave the jobs at the office when they go home so prefer to work in the office, and two who are a mix depending on what’s going on in their lives (both have young kids and bought houses recently).
My department is the envy of all the other exec managers; there is no gossip, no drama, no dissatisfaction. Like not bragging here, but seriously other departments point at mine and say to their boss “but they get to do that!”
But my gals and guys understand we have so much freedom specifically because we get our shit done and always cover for each other. And as long as that happens, my boss, the owner will continue to let me run my departments however I see fit.
Burn PTO. Already get up at 6 to get the kids off to school, straight to work, straight to dinner, pick one chore until i pass out, get up at 6
If you have PTO. Contractors do not. Finding full time employment these days is hard. Finding full-time contracts is a lot easier.
If you can’t take time off as a contractor then you aren’t actually a contractor.
PTO, not unpaid time off
Companies love contractors. No benefits to pay and doesn’t count as a full time hire.
our contractors take UTO :/
Eat
Sleepe̴̡̙͈̼̬̼̜͈̯͌̓̊͛͠x̵̧̧̦̮̪͚̭̫̞̭̙̮̏́͛i̵̛̳̲̻̲̹̞̼̭͎͖͓͎̔̓́͜͜͠s̷̛̟̩̯̊̈̌̓́͂̓̈́̄́̑̀͋̿͜t̴̢̢͉̹͚͔̗̱͖͉̖̐͆͜ͅè̵̖̪̻̝͔̬͎̯̉͂͗̓̑͌͒̓͘n̵̢̢̧͚̤̖̞̪̺̭͈̞̙̈́̈́̇̌̂͌̄͛̃͋̒̽͘ţ̶̛̺̜̘̝̘̣̪̝̳̭͚̹̒̽̓̏͂̄̈́́͂̽͗̉͜͝i̵̛̖̭̗͚̟̲̼̪̰̙͇̭̟̿̋ͅa̴̢̨͙̤̺̱̮̠͙̾̀̿͆̈́̊͜l̶̢̢̡̖̭͙̩̻̯̺͔͓̬͉͚̈́̔̓͒̍͗́̃͒͆ ̴̩̩̯͍͔̯̽́̔̊͛͒̀͌͗̚͜ͅș̵͚͚̲̠̻̫̹̹̞̈́c̷̠̹̅̀̀̑́̑͌̐̕͜͝͠r̴̨̨̡̫̘͖̱̼̫̦̬̼̞̲̩̓̊̑̈́́́ȅ̸̞̗͖̩̯̝̰̝͕̞̏̓̃͊́͌͘̚͝ͅà̴̠̗͍͔̮͐̀͌͑͋́̔̓̾͜m̵̡̝̘͈̘̗̌̇̌̀̕̚i̸̜̱̯̞̬͎̖͑̐̎̊́̑̈́̾̕͠n̶͕͇̯̘̤͚̮̙̙͔̝̩͛̽̌̂̎͌͜͝͝g̸̢̺̻͈͆̿͝
Repeat
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It doesn’t work for anyone. People use up their vacation days.
This is why the rich don’t understand how the poor “can’t work”. They have kids yo. And lower end jobs oftenhave very strict hours. But the upper end jobs have lots of flexibility. And the rich of course just don’t volunteer at their kids school, or they have a parent home with the kids to do all those things.
Last month, I was looking for advice for burnout.
The advice I found was inevitably “take a leave of absence from work and get a therapist.”
What a sick fucking joke.
My solution has been THC and exercise. Your mileage may vary.
Wonderful combo that.
Maybe this is my pedantry showing – I would say not THC alone, but cannabis in general. I like my THC at a low-ish level, and balanced out by the other cannabinoids and terpenes, for a full-spectrum entourage effect.
why dont you just go to your summer home for a few months???
Have you considered forming a homeless band?
I worked in a callcentre for many years and had changing shifts every two weeks. Having to come in at 6am and then getting that switched to 4pm wreaked havoc on my body and after doing this for quite a while, I just crashed and got burnout.
Recovery took me two years, where I basically just slept. Five days a week are just too much, it’s a system designed to squeeze the last bit of labor value out of you and I fucking hated it. Nowadays, I’m not able to physically work for more than four days, or else I’ll crash again.
I had a lot of luck, so I can now work entirely from home. No commute, Fridays are off. Sounds super cozy and amazing, but the thing is: I need that Friday for myself. A lot of times I’ll just sleep so I can have some energy on the actual weekend.
When it comes to doctor’s appointments, I just tell my boss I have one and that’s it. As it should be. We are humans, not machines.
