The Night Shift Experience: Survive or Thrive
Do you now or have you ever worked night shift? Have you adjusted to it, or do you struggle with it? Either way, if you work night shift, I applaud you for your dedication and mental toughness!
Why do manufacturers need night shift employees? Well, it’s all about asset utilization. Company’s invest in assets and they need the assets to be in operation in order to turn a profit. Idle assets simply don’t pay the bills.
My Experience Working Night Shift
I worked a few years doing shiftwork. I spent a year on a rotational shift as an operator at a Congoleum Floor factory in Pennsylvania. Then I worked for two years on night shift at a Frito-Lay plant in Binghamton, New York. I myself was never really able to adjust to those darn night shift hours. I was constantly tired and always out of sync with my family and friends.
I did enjoy the rotational shift assignment at Congoleum. I was young and single at the time and the rotation provided some diversity. Really what I liked was working day shift and second shift on the swing. But night shift, that was always rough. When I was on that night shift swing, the clock seemed to slow down to a crawl. You wouldn’t think it was noticeable in a dark industrial factory, one without windows, but it was noticeable inside my own psyche. Windows or no windows, my mind just knew that I should be sleeping instead of working.
After I graduated from Widener University, I was hired as a night shift supervisor at a Frito-Lay plant. There I was responsible for 60 employees and a process that yielded 5000lbs of potato chips every hour. While I enjoyed my position, I hated night shift hours. Working night shift felt like a prison to me. What made it even worse were the long hours and weekend work.
At Frito-Lay, supervisors were responsible for staffing their shifts such that daily schedule attainment could be achieved. In order to staff their upcoming shift, supervisors needed to arrive two hours before their crew’s start time. This allowed for a staffing assessment and a review of employee callouts prior to the shift start. This was particularly important for a night shift supervisor, because if we had positions to fill via overtime hours from the other two shifts of employees, we had to arrange it in advance. Keeping employees over from the second shift was easy. I just had to ask the on-shift supervisors to arrange it.
However, calling-in someone early, someone from day shift, someone to come in at 3:00am, this was tricky. That is why I had to arrive to work at 9:00pm every night. I had to quickly figure out my staffing plan and then start calling day shift employees at home and ask them if they would be willing to come in early. It’s a tough ask. Employees who did volunteer to come in early would only get about five hours of sleep that night. And as for me, I started working at 9:00pm for an 11:00pm shift. Two hours of unpaid time every day in an effort to staff my shift and meet the schedule requirements. Let’s just call it snack food dedication!
Then, during the shift, I did my job. I managed my 60 employees, coordinated production, maintained my admin tasks, and communicated with the other night shift supervisors as needed. Every hour that passed felt like an eternity. All the coffee in the vending machines couldn’t prevent my slow crash into exhaustion. At 4:00am every morning, I looked at the clock and thought to myself, “what the am I doing in a potato chip factory at 4:00 in the morning?” Eventually, 4:00am slipped into 5:00am and the homestretch was coming, not for me though, just my employees.
I spent the hour from 5:00am to 6:00am prepping for the incoming shift. This meant getting my crew to clean-up, wrapping-up my paperwork and writing my shift notes for the day shift supervisor to read. At 6:30am, the sun would rise, and managers would start rolling in. At 7:00am the night production shift officially ended but I still had lots of work to do. From 7:00-8:00am I reconciled the production counts with the shipping supervisors, I entered the production data into the production database, and I met with my boss and the day shift supervisor for a recap. Then, at 8:00am there was a production meeting with all the plant leaders in attendance. After that, there were often other meetings that required my attendance. On a good day, I could leave at 9:00am. I worked 12 hours day-after-day. It was tough, but what was even tougher was working these long hours on the night shift.
What about weekends? Yes weekends. Definitely Saturdays and about half the Sundays. It was brutal. I was burnt-out but kept trudging through it. Eventually, after two years of working this crazy night shift schedule I was promoted and moved to day shift position. Things got immediately better for me.
Your Dailly Routine Matters!
While I do know some people who have made a long-term commitment to night shift. They adjusted and settled into the hours and adopted a lifestyle that works around their hours. But as for me, although the experience made me a better leader, I could never go back to it.
The reality is that working night shift creates a circadian rhythm disruption which causes physical and mental health issues. These issues have been confirmed through various studies over time. Social and family life can also be adversely affected when working nights. It’s just difficult to get in mental and physical sync with everyone else who operates on a normal day shift schedule.
If you settled into a night shift role, congratulations! But if you are struggling with it like I was then do some research. There are some tricks that will help you. For example, Melatonin may help you get into a good sleep pattern. Here is a link that will help you learn more about it. Additionally, here are 12 other tips that may help you stay healthy while working night shift. If you want to thrive in your night shift position, then establish a daily routine and commit to it.
You see I failed to establish a consistent routine and thus always struggled on nights. You can do better than I did. But know that your company appreciates you and I appreciate you too! Stay healthy!
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