Working Lots of Hours

[smegballs]

So about to start new job next week (security guard) and have been told I'll be working 12hour days in blocks of 7 days. ie 84hours a week. This rotates in a 7on-3off-7on-4off manner. I am actually going to ask if I can reduce this to a 7on-7off method so I average 42hr/week over two weeks.

12 at work + 8 for sleepy times + 1 communting = 3 hrs to do everything else. I'm gonna struggle just to do my personal admin (cooking, eating, laundry, shopping, errands etc) in this amount of time let alone any resemblance of a recreational/social life in the 'on' week.

I live alone, well shared house, so no gf/wife/etc to help out at home and relieve some of the burden of day to day stuff. Anyone got any tips on how to navigate this kind of extreme hours? I'd rather like to not end up as a kind of amphetamine/modafinil monster.

[MaybeGuy]

Do your eating/sleeping/showering on their time instead.

Is the money really good? If not, fuck that shit...

Should have jerbed in Aus. $25 an hour for Mcdolands
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[someotherguy]

Quit.

[Mattaria]

That doesn't make any sense to me, why not just employ two guards?

Are you sure you heard them correctly? And if atleast half of those hours aren't time and a half find another job.

[groovylee]

i currently work 12 hour shifts - 7 days, 7 off, 7 nights, 7 off.

anyone who hasn't worked it, doesnt like the sound of it. everyone who has worked it, wont change

yes, the 7 nightshifts suck, but the 7 off make up for it.

as for shopping, laundry etc - do the shop on the way home after a shift. you're still awake enough to do it, even after nights, so dont worry too much. laundry - put the wash on before you go to sleep, hang it out when you get up, usually dry by the next day when you get up again

save any banking or high street stuff for your days off, you'll have enough of them.....

food - for days, prep lunch the night before. eat when you get home, breakfast when you get up. for nights, i have breakfast before going to bed, hot food when i get up, and pack tea (sandwiches etc) for during the night. organisation is key.

pretty much write yourself off socially for the 7 day block, especially nights, you'll just be too battered.

one tip - first night shift of the seven, try to have a late night the night before and sleep in late. if you try to get up at 7am, do stuff during the day, do a 12 hour night shift, and then go to bed 24 hours after you woke up, you will regret it. i do it every time, and it's shit

it's not bad when you get used to it

Lee
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Current - 2002 Aprilia RSV1000R & 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R

[Mattaria]

[Pete.]

Extreme hours? It's only 56hrs a week average. Most security guards can do that in their sleep.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Itchy]

It depends entirely what your end goals are.

During my 20s for years at a time I managed 80+ hours a week. If you look back far enough to my posts I would work multiple jobs. I did accountancy for a practice which worked out at 50h a week. Then spend weekends working as a chef. I saved an enormous amount of money.

During my stay in China I was setting up one of my companies 80h a week was normal.

What to expect? Your social life simply vanishes... as a side effect the ageing process accelerates. A lot of BCFers at the time told me I was pushing myself way too hard. I lost GFs who said I was never there for them.

You get up go to work come back and sleep. Rinse and repeat. In China I often didn't go home for weeks at a time.

Was it worth it? I'm not sure I lost my 20s, I went nuts at 28. I saved lots of money because I had no time to go out and spend it. I also had a high hourly rate and I was trying to set up my companies. BUT as a result of my sacrifices I am financially now in a very very good position.

Without a clearly defined end goal to motivate you a high hourly grind isn't worth it.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Hetzer]

Living to work, never a good idea, even if like Itchy it sets you up financially. "Oh look, I is now wealthy. And old, with my best years behind me, in which I did nothing but work."
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[Andy_Pagin]

I did stupid hours shift work when I was in my teens/twenties. You either just find ways to adapt to the lifestyle, a bit like a vampire you become something in this world, but not of it, or in a matter of days you find you can't cope and jack it in, something I saw many times.
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the men in white coats are coming to take me away.
Yamaha Vity -> YBR125 -> FZS600 Fazer -> FZ1-S Fazer

[chickenstrip]

[daffy]

My normal mon - fri week is 50-70 hours. Food is a big problem as its too easy to just buy shit from the shop rather than spending time making healthy stuff at home. Wouldnt change it for the world tho, the amount i save and have to spend on the weekends is mega.
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2000 zx6r

a b be b1 c ce c1 c1e f k p 10m swimming

[daffy]

My normal mon - fri week is 50-70 hours. Food is a big problem as its too easy to just buy shit from the shop rather than spending time making healthy stuff at home. Wouldnt change it for the world tho, the amount i save and have to spend on the weekends is mega.
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2000 zx6r

a b be b1 c ce c1 c1e f k p 10m swimming

[smegballs]

If I can get down to 7off I'll be laughing, that's enough time to just hop on the bike/ryanair and just go somewhere in europe for fun which will be cool.

I've just arrived back from straya with -£2k, so my immediate goals are to get out of that debt and start rebuilding savings up. Plan to go live in france for a few months next spring then tour europe on moto/bicycle next summer so this job will be more about grinding through the winter to pay for next summer, than a long term thing.

[Skudd]

Welcome to the new real world. Public sector holiday jobs are getting fewer and due to the mass social engineering we had then the mass illegal immigrants jobs that used to pay premium rates now only pay basic and you are expected to work all hours. You need to too just to put a basic roof over your head.
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Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[Pete.]

[monkeybiker]

[dydey90]

I don't think I could do 7 shifts in a row. Currently doing 12 hour shifts in what's basically a 5-on 5-off pattern, doing both days and nights in a set. The job is physically demanding and I come home drained every day. My pedometer averages about 15k steps per day and that doesn't include all the lifting, carrying, swinging hammers and general graft. Our security guy just sits in his portakabin though.
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This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[Andy_Pagin]

[smegballs]

[Joncrete Cungle]

Go for it the carrot of pottering around France sounds pretty good and you hopefully won't be stuck doing it for years. Food pick some up on the way home, enough to last a couple of days put it in rucksack / topbox / under seat. Take sandwiches / soup / cereal & milk etc to eat with you rather than buying crap. Or could you cheekily arrange a small supermarket delivery to your place of work while no one else is there?

Clothes you are a security guard, do you really need a fresh clean set of everything every day? Put washing machine on before you leave, take washing out and hang it on clothes horse when you get home? Buy some extra socks and undercrackers?

[monkeybiker]

[-Matt-]

Agree with pretty much everything Lee said - its hard to adjust to at first but once you get used to it, having lots of days off at a time is well worth it IMO. I'd never want to go back to working monday-friday/weekend off type hours again, i'd feel like I was working more even if it was a lot less hours per week.

Not sure i'd want to do 7 in a row regularly though with just 3 days off before the next 7. Most of my shifts are 12 hours and i'll quite often do 5-6 days or nights in a row, but then have 3-5 off and there is flexibility to juggle things if I need an extra day off now and then. I wouldn't be so keen if the shifts were always in blocks of 7 set in stone.

Shopping and cooking I need for the working week I do on my last day off and freeze a load of meals so I don't have much to do between shifts. I get by on 5-6 hours sleep between shifts usually though - if I was sleeping 8 hours and had a fairly long commute like you I think it wouldn't give me enough of a break between shifts really.

[smegballs]

[Mattaria]

I used to take one maybe two nights off a month, at the time I just got on with it, it was just how it worked.

Now i'm pushing a 20 hour work week. It's awesome.