Hot, still, dull and boring day for me today so.....

[walkin jack]

.....I started digging around in my computer files to see if I could find something that might be half way interesting to this august body.

I found an old fishing report I wrote about 15 years ago while I was still working. It reminded me about one of my favorite subjects, sleep deprivation. I'll post the report in a minute but first I want to ask y'all a few questions and make a few comments about sleep. I worked shift work for 25 years. Rotating 8hr shifts for about 21 years and and rotating 12 hour shifts for about 4 years so this is a subject that is near and dear to my heart and I feel like somewhat of an expert on it.

So, how many of you are shift workers past or present. if you are still working how long have you been at it. It you are retired how long did you fight the good fight. I'm going to make some statements and give a little detail on how it went for me. I'd be interested in how closely my experience matches with yours.

In 1938 my dad went to work for an oil refinery on the Houston Ship Channel, Sinclair oil. For 42 years he worked a rotating 8 hour shift. Some people are more suited to that than others. He had no problems. He could sleep for 8 hours and get up and eat breakfast and go right back to sleep or he could stay awake for 3 days (without the aid of any chemicals I might add) You could say that he was born to it. A natural born shift worker,

I inherited his ability in this. I have had 3 lifelong and most serious passions in my life: guns, motorcycles, and fishing in no particular order. When I was on days I could and often did go fishing after work. On the evening shift I could fish before work. On graveyards I could go fishing right after work and stay as long as I wanted to. Sleep was always optional to me in those days.

My attitude was always "I can sleep when I get old". That turned out to be a most prophetic statement. I could never do shift work now. Towards the end of my career we voted to go on 12 hr shifts. That was a life changing deal for me. I could no longer fish on any day that I had to work. But I never worked more than four days in a row and I was off for 7 days in a row every month and by that time I was getting 6 weeks of vacation a year. So I can't really complain that I wasn't getting enough time to fish.

But when I turned 50 things begin to change for me. It got harder and harder for me to get up in the mornings when I was on the day shift. I had to get up at 3:30 AM. I have been somewhat of a night owl all my life and I was rarely able to sleep before midnight. The closer I got to retirement the worse this problem got and by the time I hung up my hard hat and steel toed boots I was having a real problem.

I have made the statement and I fully believe that no one that has not worked at least a few years of rotating shift work can possibly understand or fully appreciate sleep. It is just one of those things that you must experience to know about. No one can describe it.

It can be hard on family life too. I grew up in the home of a shift worker so I had a bit of an advantage at first and I was able to get my family on the same page as me.

To the kids: When Daddy's on graveyards NO noise, like loud music or slamming doors. And if you do wake me up for an "emergency" somebody better be dying.

To the wife: If I'm on nights don't wake me up and 10:00 AM to ask me if I want to go shopping or go over to your mothers to have lunch. If you wake me up for and "emergency" somebody better be dying.

I've read reports that claim that studies have been done and reveal the fact that people who work rotating shift work for a career die on the average of 8 years sooner than they would have if they'd had 9 -5 M - F jobs. I'd like to see the mathematical formula used to come up with this. Not saying it isn't true just how did you arrive at that figure. I think it would depend upon the individual and their over all health, ability to do shift work, and general life style. I believe that in general human beings were designed to work in the daytime and sleep at night. But I know that there are exceptions and that SOME people can get along just fine. I'm happy that I was one of them because I earned a good living and retirement and had the time to still enjoy my life and my family and friends.

To rephrase the words of the immortal Garrett Morris of the old Saturday Night Live show "Shift work been berry berry good to me!"

So to illustrate what it might be like for a person who is sleep deprived I offer this fishing report. It was only later that I even realize that I'd written it in 3rd person.

F I S H I N G R E P O R T

...It's almost dawn. As the eastern sky slowly begins
to grow a little brighter, the pale, unenthusiastic
sun struggles to rise under a heavy, gray sky that
looks like one solid cloud. He pulls his Ford Ranger
over into the parking lane along the seawall, next to
the pier and kills the engine.

He sits, dazed, for a
moment or two, having worked all night and feeling
hpynotized from the 50 minute drive to get to the
beach. His reverie is shattered by a passing truck
that goes by so closely that it gives the little
Ranger a good shaking. He opens the driver's door and
steps out, and stands facing the crashing surf and
struggles to extricate himself from the somnambulistic
stupor which is trying to overtake him. He inhales
deeply, filling his lungs with the fragrance and
"texture" of the gulf. His heart begins to pound and
adrenaline coarses through his veins as the
anticipation of the day washes over him like a gentle,
yet completely enveloping wave.

Now, fully alert from
the excitement, he quickly unloads his gear and sets
up his pier cart. As he is walking onto the pier those
of his friends that are already there greet him with
big smiles and enthusiastic speculation about who will
catch the biggest this or the most that. He rigs up
his rods, baits up and makes his first casts of the
day. Flawless. His friends can only watch in jealous
wonder (they have never even HEARD of Rocket Fuel).
They stare in silence at the water, and wonder if
there could really be any fish that far away from the
pier. We're talking about never-before-fished water!


The hustle and bustle of the first part of any fishing
day soon settles into a lazy, quiet period and, with a
certain alarm, he is aware that no one is catching any
fish, and worse, no one is even getting any bites. He
Clings doggedly to his confidence and enthusiasm,
after all, it is still very early. He reflects on the
countless times that he has been sitting around day
dreaming when the fish turned on all of a sudden and
everyone with a hook in the water was fighting a fish.
He is certain that such an event is eminent.

The morning wears on, and , with reluctance he is
forced to accept the reality that "they aren't biting
today". He is enjoying the morning anyway, as the wise
cracks and laughter entertain the luckless fishermen
and help to soften the disappointment which all are
feeling, but no one wants to acknowledge. All are
aware that it is the balance of good day/bad day that
makes fishing the exhillerating sport that it is.

Now, with no hope left in any of the gang, they all
begin to put away their rods and pack up their tackle
boxes. As he waves goodbye and offers the always
encouraging, "we'll get 'em next time", he feels good
inside because he has given it his best. He knows that
a "skunk" once in a while only serves to sweeten the
days when he pounds them into submission.

Back at home now, he kisses his wife and relates all
the events, or lack there-of, and gets caught up on
the home front goings on. Eventually, he staggers into
the computer room and it occurs to him that he has
been awake for nearly two days. In his current mental
state, he realizes that he would most certainly be
capable of some tall tales that would exceed even his own
usual abilities, which are considerable. The wheels of
consciousnes begin to turn, slowly at first and then
begin to pick up speed. He sits down at the computer
and pauses, searching for the right beginning. The
clouds in his mind mysteriously part and he begins to
type: "It's almost dawn. As the eastern sky slowly..."

 

[feralmerril]

I should be a expert cum de lau (sp?) at it! 35 years a guard at lockheed, about 33 of it graveyard and a couple more years of graveyard in a foundry and a cannery. The main topic when you get to work with the guys is always how little sleep you got that day or who screwed you up out of it.
The guys that got in real trouble with it was those guys who thought they would do errands etc when they got home only to find people would screw them out of the sleep they were planning to get that evening before going in to work. On top of working graveyard I also took all the OT I could handle and there was always OT. I sometimes worked two or three months before I would take off, and that usualy would be a gambling trip. I honestly belive that I went about 17 years in my new house and actualy slept about 5 or 10 nights in that house. (Of course there was a divorice).
Here is how I did it. Whether I worked only 8 hours, usualy 12 hours and often 16 hour double shift about once every week; I always slept about 3 hours as soon as I got home. For whatever reason, I found I could not go downtown, work in the garage, yard or anything else if I didnt. I could not fall to sleep later no matter what. I also need ed to go to bed again for about two hours that evening prior to going in at midnight.
On my job I got a fair bonus for working on graveyard and all my other hours were based on that, even holiday and vaction pay. It was too good to pass up. Life did somewhat by pass me. However on most jobs graveyard is a more laid back shift with less supervision and BS. On my job day shift most often you were chained to a gate or lobby all day if you couldnt get a radio car duty. Nights I was prowling most of the night or walking detexs and it made the job easier, also cooler working on the desert. We had to shape up to let the wheels in.

 

[walkin jack]

I always preferred the graveyard shift too. It paid the best. Seldom bothered by the shoe clerks from the office. Operating fractionation columns and chemical reactors is kind of like baby sitting. As long as the baby is sleeping (operating properly) things are usually pretty laid back. there's time to cook or do running maintenance on your unit etc.

But when the baby cries (the unit gets upset, usually because of some equipment failure or weather event) then you have to "tend the baby". sometimes it gets a little hairy but if you keep a sharp eye on your unit and catch problems early while they are still small it is mostly a peaceful Job. I have heard other operators refer to that kind of job as riding the rocket.

What ever it is called it can be.....interesting.

 

[perrazi]

never really worked actual shift work, but I did work in the operating dept. of a railroad. on call 24hrs a day 7 days a week. trips were 10-12 hrs. and if you ran out of time on the work law, it would be a couple of hours more before you got into the terminal and sleep when you got home or the hotel. sometimes do it all over after 10hrs. off.

 

[wundudnee]

I worked shifts for over 43 years the first 37 rotating 8 hour and the last 6 straight 12-8 shifts. I worked for DuPont in a process control lab for 27 years then went to the power house for the last 10. I also tried to farm, fish, hunt and raise kids at the same time, mostly turning out well.

I was fortunate in that I was able to sleep any time I laid down so that made it easier to fit in to the day folks schedules. I did miss a lot of my kids school functions and I regret that.

DuPont sold the plant to a low life outfit at the 26 year mark. The new company milked the plant for 11 more years before they went belly up. During that time I was in the power house and watched it deteriorate. As Walkin' Jack so aptly put it, it was like tending the baby or riding the rocket.
When it was good it was very, very good. But when the alarms go off at 0:300 and you're the only one there it gets real lonely.

When they shut the plant down I was 57 years old with hair on my face and looking for a job. I was fortunate enough to get a job with the State of Kansas in a boiler plant. That was straight 12-8 during firing season and 8-4 during the summer teardown and maintenance. We ran 3 300HP and 1 400HP boilers. Everything was kept in top mechanical condition and I nearly felt guilty watching them run. The only bad thing was they still had those infernal alarms and it was still lonely when they went off

Working shifts made me a very good living wage and a couple good pensions. I've been retired 10 years this year and have forgotten everything I ever knew about working. Life's good.

 

[wyccad915]

Ive worked graveyard a while. There were these two momths I was working at a refinery as a guard that I had to work when each shift came in (they worked 12hr shifts). I certainly dont think I could work 12hrs, but to get my 8hrs a day I had to come into work 4-8am and 4-8pm. Worst 2 months ever. I believe also that people arent meant to be up at night and of course it can be done regardless, but I do believe those people should be compensated more than a person working days. Like I said, right now I am working graveyards and the guards working in the day get paid the same. It kind of irks me but as far as getting my 8hrs of sleep, I get close enough to it. I can sleep but I often wake up a few times.

 

[shouldazagged]

Lest we forget to comment on it, that was a nice piece of writing.