Working hours, start 06:30

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Cyril Haearn
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Working hours, start 06:30

Post by Cyril Haearn »

I just had an offer of an interesting job with fixed times, start 06:30, Fridays finish 11:45, I declined

It was an easy decision

I would have had to get up at 04:30 and I know (?) it would have damaged my health, although I don't go out late to the pub in the evenings and I like to go to bed early, one might have thought the body could adapt but it was clear, I will not try it

Who has experience with early or erratic hours? How do workers on rotating shifts manage, the bus driver who has to get people to work for 6:00 for example? Seems to me they are sacrificing their health for the good (?) of others

Now it gets politrickal - surely our rich societies should not need so much unsocial hours and shift work?
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softlips
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by softlips »

Work in medicine so lots of unsocial unpredictable hours. Today should have been 05:00 till around 15:00 but will now be until 22:30.

You just get used to it.
mercalia
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by mercalia »

getting up in the dark esp in Winter is the worst?
Tiberius
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by Tiberius »

I worked shifts for most of my working life. Early starts/late finishes etc.The shifts were also in rotation so you never really had the chance to get used to it, but you sort of got used to not getting used to it.....if that makes sense ??

Anyway, it never did me a scrap of harm and I always prefered the early starts. I'm an early riser anyway so getting up for (say) a 06:00 start was neither here nor there.

I'm retired now and still get up between 05:00 and 06:00. I live on the coast, the mornings are lovely.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Tiberius wrote:I worked shifts for most of my working life. Early starts/late finishes etc.The shifts were also in rotation so you never really had the chance to get used to it, but you sort of got used to not getting used to it.....if that makes sense ??

Anyway, it never did me a scrap of harm and I always prefered the early starts. I'm an early riser anyway so getting up for (say) a 06:00 start was neither here nor there.

I'm retired now and still get up between 05:00 and 06:00. I live on the coast, the mornings are lovely.


+1 for that phrase, get used to not getting used to it is.. A driver on the Great Orme Tram said, *one never gets used to the views* (positively meant I think)

I don't mind getting up early sometimes, I love the gloaming
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PH
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by PH »

I work in logistics, the work goes on 24 hours a day 364 days a year (Only closed Christmas day)
This seems to be what society wants, all those happy posts you read on here "ordered Monday arrived next day..." are made possible by people working unsocial hours. It seems people want the supermarket to be open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week... but not to pay anymore for it...
Then there are of course those whose job needs doing at night, but I expect that's a small minority. Most of it is simple economics, the longer hours the facilities are working the more cost effective they are, that's the same for warehouses,retail,factories and operating theatres. Money makes the world go around...
I changed jobs in the Spring for one that had rotating shifts, 6am - 2pm, 2pm - 10pm, 10pm - 6am, I couldn't do it, I think I'd have been OK with any one of them, but the changes were making me ill. I'm now in a different role for the same company, working evenings from 6pm, it's classed as unsocial hours, but it suites me (And my cycling) great.
Last edited by PH on 18 Sep 2017, 4:09pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Paulatic
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by Paulatic »

I think it's the often changing shift times which damage health. As PH has discovered.
I can't see how getting up early on a regular basis can damage your health. I'd have found the prospect of finishing at 11:45 very enticing. My own work used to see me rise at 4 in the summer. Needed to be out on the hill and gather sheep, before the sun got too strong, and have them penned up before 9 at the latest. Could still be working at ten at night though. That was the hard bit.
Not a valid reason for refusing an 'interesting' job in my book.
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thirdcrank
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by thirdcrank »

Tiberius wrote: ... Anyway, it never did me a scrap of harm ...


I'm pleased to hear that but not everyone is so lucky. Otherwise most of my experience is similar to yours. It's good to be commuting outside peak times. You see a different world in the middle of the night. And so on, but when I was still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed an older colleague referred to rotating shifts as coffin nails, and I fear he was right.
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Cyril Haearn wrote:I just had an offer of an interesting job with fixed times, start 06:30, Fridays finish 11:45, I declined

It was an easy decision

I would have had to get up at 04:30 and I know (?) it would have damaged my health, although I don't go out late to the pub in the evenings and I like to go to bed early, one might have thought the body could adapt but it was clear, I will not try it

Who has experience with early or erratic hours? How do workers on rotating shifts manage, the bus driver who has to get people to work for 6:00 for example? Seems to me they are sacrificing their health for the good (?) of others

Now it gets politrickal - surely our rich societies should not need so much unsocial hours and shift work?


What was the finish time on other days?
I'd shift my day that early... I'd be going to bed at the same time as the kids, but that's fine by me...
I'd have had all afternoon with them, which is lovely.
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by Cyril Haearn »

[XAP]Bob wrote:
Cyril Haearn wrote:I just had an offer of an interesting job with fixed times, start 06:30, Fridays finish 11:45, I declined

It was an easy decision

I would have had to get up at 04:30 and I know (?) it would have damaged my health, although I don't go out late to the pub in the evenings and I like to go to bed early, one might have thought the body could adapt but it was clear, I will not try it

Who has experience with early or erratic hours? How do workers on rotating shifts manage, the bus driver who has to get people to work for 6:00 for example? Seems to me they are sacrificing their health for the good (?) of others

Now it gets politrickal - surely our rich societies should not need so much unsocial hours and shift work?


What was the finish time on other days?
I'd shift my day that early... I'd be going to bed at the same time as the kids, but that's fine by me...
I'd have had all afternoon with them, which is lovely.


Knocking-off 1530 mon-thur I think
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Mick F
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by Mick F »

mercalia wrote:getting up in the dark esp in Winter is the worst?
I worked in the West of Scotland for a couple of years, and I didn't see daylight for the winter months. I did see it at the weekends though, thank goodness.

I would cycle away from home at 7ish in the dark for a one hour commute. I did a full day in a building without windows, then rode home at 4.30 in the dark. I seem to remember that the rain stared in October and didn't finish until February one year.

Awful and horribly depressing.
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Cyril Haearn wrote:
[XAP]Bob wrote:
Cyril Haearn wrote:I just had an offer of an interesting job with fixed times, start 06:30, Fridays finish 11:45, I declined

It was an easy decision

I would have had to get up at 04:30 and I know (?) it would have damaged my health, although I don't go out late to the pub in the evenings and I like to go to bed early, one might have thought the body could adapt but it was clear, I will not try it

Who has experience with early or erratic hours? How do workers on rotating shifts manage, the bus driver who has to get people to work for 6:00 for example? Seems to me they are sacrificing their health for the good (?) of others

Now it gets politrickal - surely our rich societies should not need so much unsocial hours and shift work?


What was the finish time on other days?
I'd shift my day that early... I'd be going to bed at the same time as the kids, but that's fine by me...
I'd have had all afternoon with them, which is lovely.


Knocking-off 1530 mon-thur I think


Not quite early enough to collect the kids from school - shame, still early enough to be at home for a significant proportion of their day.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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SimonCelsa
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by SimonCelsa »

Why on Earth would getting up early damage your health???

I used to work a 4hr on 8 hr off watch system onboard ship; getting up for the midnight to 4 watch, or 4 to 8 in the morning could be hard after a few beers but once you'd had your first couple of fags and coffee you were right for the next few hours!!! Even worse was the 6 on / 6 off in port, where you'd also try and get ashore in your off duty time and have a skinfull, dance, serenade etc etc.

I tend to work daylight hours now but I don't think the watchkeeping did me much harm. Maybe we are all a little bit too precious now?? I wonder what the lads in the trenches would think of our pontifications....

All the best, Simon
tatanab
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by tatanab »

I spent many years getting to work at 06:00 for an 08:30 start just so that I could have a couple of hours peace to do some thinking work before the madness of the day. In the USA I worked in a place where my hours were 06:00 to 14:00 for historic reasons. That was pretty nice because I could do domestic stuff and then go for an evening ride. I am an early riser anyway so I do not believe these times did me any harm, with an appropriate early to bed.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Working hours, start 06:30

Post by Cyril Haearn »

softlips wrote:Work in medicine so lots of unsocial unpredictable hours. Today should have been 05:00 till around 15:00 but will now be until 22:30.

You just get used to it.

Surely one cannae think properly and makes mistakes if one works so long
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