Graveyard shifters get no respect. *NOW WITH [UPDATED] VIDEO*

[CZroe]

After nine-plus years of doing this, I've discovered that graveyard shift workers get no respect.

In those years I've worked long stints on 12-hour graveyard shifts. Even when I had the other shift, I'd still respect that a graveyard worker needs as much time to sleep after dark as possible and never expected them to be any earlier than they had to be. In fact, I usually stayed late because I pretty much only had time to go home; sleep; and then prepare for the next graveyard shift, my weekend was already shot, and the noon-time daylight was waking me up anyway. I was often seen shooting-the-shit or preparing for my next shift over two hours past the end of my shift. At my last site, a few people wanted you there up to or at least thirty minutes early (screw 'em), but at least I wasn't the only one there who saw it my way. I figured that most employers and coworkers respect an employee that rushes to be at work on time and is in no hurry to run home at the expense of a proper turn-over and would gladly wait until the proper time for a graveyard shifter.

Boy, was I wrong. Sure, my last site had a couple like this, but everyone here is rushing out before you've even relieved them at the expense of a proper turn-over. Then they have the nerve to complain as if "on-time" is somehow "late" just because they have the convenience of a full night's sleep and the luxury of being able to arrive ten or more minutes early without sacrificing sleep while I don't. Ironically, they don't even say anything to me until an odd day when I arrive over one full hour early specifically to sleep in the car until it's time to start my shift, doing so because I had to take my niece to her gentleman's club (work) around nightfall (~8PM; normally I'm up at 10PM for my shift at 11PM). [bolded for all the people scanning the OP]

I got there 1hr early and I used every bit of it to sleep. So, what? I mean, sleep is precious to a graveyard shift worker, especially after dark. I need every minute of it. Respect that. That's all.

My supervisor was 33mins late for my break on the same morning he informed me of the complaint. Double standard? Well, he's not the one who complained, but he's the one asking me to come in earlier to head them off.

[/blog]

Edit: I live very close by (5-8mins) and so I do cut it close every day but I'd like to think that I'm pretty responsible about it, ready to call ahead if it looks like I might be even a minute late. As a graveyard shift worker, I'd also like some shared understanding with my coworkers that arriving any earlier than I have to compounds the inconveniences and troubles of working a graveyard shift. I can imagine how much worse it will be later this year when it doesn't get dark until after 9:00PM.

Edit 2: OK, so the buried treasure didn't stay buried for long. Fine You guys win. Here are some pics of my niece (mostly childhood)...

Pics 1
Pics 2

Keep in mind that you will never get what you really want.

OK, fine. If this is what you want, take it and shut up. Here's a bonus video of her pussy sliding along her home stripper pole... FULLY NUDE (I kid you not)!
Video (mostly SFW) [Updated a 2nd time]

At least I refrained from making that joke in the YouTube description. She's been asking for a while and you guys finally got me to upload that for her. What'd you expect?
#1: It's my niece
#2: It's YouTube

 

[Newbian]

Wait until your neighbors start the a.m. chainsaw.

Whoa, just saw that niece part... pics?

 

[MartyMcFly3]

This goes without saying... Pics of niece?

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: MartyMcFly3
This goes without saying... Pics of niece?

But, she's... my niece dude. Can't do it. What's cool is that she can go in "between 8PM to 9:30"

Wow... I wish I had that kind of flexibility!

 

[S Freud]

Your niece is a stripper? Wicked.

 

[shortylickens]

If it took you 9 years to figure it out then you are screwed. They sure wont respect you now.

I know how it is. I worked in a semiconductor factory for 18 months (until they went out of business) and every day I did a 12 hour night shift. HATED it. My body slowy degraded over time. Eventually a doctor and a naturopath doctor both told me the same thing: "Get off nights, now".
No, the day people do not respect us. I learned that in the first month. They think anybody who is able or willing to do a night shift must be a total loser with no life.
I tried hard to point out to them that I am a loser with no life because I work nights. You cant socialize normally. Your body is always out of whack. It sucks overall.
And they are lazy, useless bastards on days. Almost every day we got stuck with extra work because they figured "we should let the night guys take care of it, HAW HAW HAW HAW!"
Fuckers. Am glad I got let go, because I needed the money too much to quit on my own.

 

[Newbian]

Where has the night shift thread gone?

You might find some fellow friends there op.

 

[S Freud]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
If it took you 9 years to figure it out then you are screwed. They sure wont respect you now.

I know how it is. I worked in a semiconductor factory for 18 months (until they went out of business) and every day I did a 12 hour night shift. HATED it. My body slowy degraded over time. Eventually a doctor and a naturopath doctor both told me the same thing: "Get off nights, now".
No, the day people do not respect us. I learned that in the first month. They think anybody who is able or willing to do a night shift must be a total loser with no life.
I tried hard to point out to them that I am a loser with no life because I work nights. You cant socialize normally. Your body is always out of whack. It sucks overall.
And they are lazy, useless bastards on days. Almost every day we got stuck with extra work because they figured "we should let the night guys take care of it, HAW HAW HAW HAW!"
Fuckers. Am glad I got let go, because I needed the money too much to quit on my own.

I was in pretty much the same situation working at a distribution plant for a major retailer. The days guys would constantly slack off leaving us with more work when we could hardly handle the normal work load. Apparently management didn't see a problem with starting out the meeting every night the same way..."We have a little more than usual tonight it seems the day guys got behind."

I respect anyone that can do night work, its hell on your body and life.

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
If it took you 9 years to figure it out then you are screwed. They sure wont respect you now...

Well, I wasn't on graveyard the entire time and it's a different group of people here now. I moved across the country taking another site with the same company and moving back to night shift. I just thought it was a couple idiots at my last site behaving as if they were entitled to early relief, as the majority were cool and behaved just like me... one often stayed over (off the clock) three hours if he didn't have work at a local music venue! He's a forumer here too, though he hasn't been active recently (yetti/yetti1980)... just two geeks chatting it up IRL and getting the job done.

Sounds like you're saying "good riddance" to your last job? Reminds me a lot about my time working at the PETsMART Food Distribution Center warehouse (FDC20; now DC20), though I really liked the people there.

 

[Sentrosi2121]

1. You print out over 300 boxes for a state agency because a programmer (during the week mind you) forgot to put the correct year on the form, yet you forgot to check one part on a small form and they jump your shit for that mistake.

2. While checking another form for errors, you notice that another programmer has forgotten to format the form correctly. Place a call to the agency and they say to print it out regardless of the error. You clear it with your supervisor. You print out over 500 boxes with that error on it. You come back Friday night to see the same job back out there and that it has been waiting to be printed since Monday morning. When the third shift supervisor comes in you ask him why this job wasn't printed. after looking back at the logs over the week you tell him it looked like it was relatively quiet. He just ignores you. You go tell your supervisor and then inform him that you're taking the night off, which turns into the weekend because you're too pissed to go back to work.

Just two of the examples why no other shift gets shit upon more than 5th shift. I'm now at a different site that doesn't do any print work, but still working the same shift eight years later.

 

[smack Down]

You're a rent a cop, I would have though after 9 years you would have realized no respects you.

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: smack Down
You're a rent a cop, I would have though after 9 years you would have realized no respects you.

Appropriate user name. :laugh:

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: Newbian
Wait until your neighbors start the a.m. chainsaw.

Yeah, that (landscaping) and frickin' car-alarms ALL DAY LONG (and often, at night)! I swear, they run the mowers one day, trim the hedges the next, run the weed-whacker the next day, and by that time the grass needs to be mowed again! The last three days the complex right behind mine has been sawing down all the trees that separate us... the signs say the work is done daily between 7AM and 5:30PM, but it's usually starting and ending later (~10A-7P) due to cars that have not vacated as instructed. It's been hell. They are literally only a few yards from my window, which drives my sister's little chihuahua NUTS, adding even MORE to the commotion.

No matter how tired I am at work fighting to stay awake, I have trouble sleeping during the day. On particularly hard graveyard shifts where I have a lot of trouble keeping my eyes open, I still perk right up as soon as I get even a glimpse of sunlight, even if it's just on closed-circuit camera. I recently moved and the apartment is very bright and noisy, even with all the shades drawn closed and windows closed. I have needlessly gotten up to check the windows at least 15 times in three months because the unimpeeded sounds coming through have me CONVINCED that they must be open.

I can only use one earplug because I am a little hard-of-hearing and I might not hear my alarm otherwise. If I were a little harder-of-hearing... hard-of-hearinger... MORE hard-of-hearing (that's it), it might work out, but who wants that handicap?

Now that it's a bit warmer, I'm fighting daytime noises with ambient noise by turning on a loud fan.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: CZroe
After nine-plus years of doing this, I've discovered that graveyard shift workers get no respect.

I've worked as a security officer for the last 9.5 years including long stints on 12hour graveyard shifts. Even when I had the other shift, I'd still respect that a graveyard worker needs as much time to sleep after dark as possible and never expected them to be any earlier than they had to be. In fact, I usually stayed late because my weekend was already shot, I pretty much only had time to go home, sleep, and prepare for the next graveyard shift, and the noon-time daylight was waking me up. I was often seen shooting-the-shit or preparing for my next shift over two hours past the end of my shift. At my last site, some wanted you there up to or at least thirty minutes early (screw 'em), but at least I wasn't the only one that saw it that way. I figured that most employers and coworkers respect an employee that rushes to be at work on time and is in no hurry to run home at the expense of a proper turn-over and would gladly wait until the proper time for a graveyard shifter.

Boy, was I wrong. My last site wasn't this bad, but everyone is rushing out before you've even relieved them and complaining as if "on-time" is somehow "late" just because they have the convenience of a full night's sleep and the luxury of being able to arrive 10mins early without sacrificing sleep. Ironically, they don't even say anything to me until a day when I arrive over one full hour early specifically to sleep in the car until it's time to start my shift because I had to take my niece to work at a strip club at nightfall (~8PM). I mean, sleep is precious to a graveyard shift worker, especially after dark. I need every minute of it. Respect that. That's all.

Heck, that same supervisor was about 30mins late for my break on the same morning he informs me of the complaint. Double standard?

[/blog]

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. back it up. tell me more of this niece...

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: CZroe
After nine-plus years of doing this, I've discovered that graveyard shift workers get no respect.

I've worked as a security officer for the last 9.5 years including long stints on 12hour graveyard shifts. Even when I had the other shift, I'd still respect that a graveyard worker needs as much time to sleep after dark as possible and never expected them to be any earlier than they had to be. In fact, I usually stayed late because my weekend was already shot, I pretty much only had time to go home, sleep, and prepare for the next graveyard shift, and the noon-time daylight was waking me up. I was often seen shooting-the-shit or preparing for my next shift over two hours past the end of my shift. At my last site, some wanted you there up to or at least thirty minutes early (screw 'em), but at least I wasn't the only one that saw it that way. I figured that most employers and coworkers respect an employee that rushes to be at work on time and is in no hurry to run home at the expense of a proper turn-over and would gladly wait until the proper time for a graveyard shifter.

Boy, was I wrong. My last site wasn't this bad, but everyone is rushing out before you've even relieved them and complaining as if "on-time" is somehow "late" just because they have the convenience of a full night's sleep and the luxury of being able to arrive 10mins early without sacrificing sleep. Ironically, they don't even say anything to me until a day when I arrive over one full hour early specifically to sleep in the car until it's time to start my shift because I had to take my niece to work at a strip club at nightfall (~8PM). I mean, sleep is precious to a graveyard shift worker, especially after dark. I need every minute of it. Respect that. That's all.

Heck, that same supervisor was about 30mins late for my break on the same morning he informs me of the complaint. Double standard?

[/blog]

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. back it up. tell me more of this niece...

Sadly the niece started life as a nephew.

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: smack Down
You're a rent a cop, I would have though after 9 years you would have realized no respects you.

No one is asking for that kind of respect. I'm talking about coworkers of any kind respecting their night-shift counterparts, which is pretty different from the courtesy and respect an officer of the law might expect and COMPLETELY different than a wanna-be cop might demand. It certainly wasn't an invitation to bring up wanna-be cops. Granted, the slang fits some security guards, but if my shift doesn't require anything "cop-like" and I don't DO anything "cop-like," I'm not a rent-a-cop. PERIOD.

Actually, the two recent movies (P.B: Mall Cop and Observe & Report) are causing Internet trolls to gleefully perpetuate stereotypes more than ever. So much so that I've recently found it tough to even mention my line of work online without people assuming that I'm a power-tripping wanna-be cop "like all the other rent-a-cops" and using that to flame me about other, unrelated things (this happened on another forum).

News flash: Not all security officers patrol malls and public areas and only a few are in positions remotely "cop-like." I operate inside a security command center (cameras, alarms, access computer/database, P/A system, etc). On a typical graveyard shift, I see and interact with NO ONE who isn't a security guard themselves, and I am not to intervene directly even I see someone unauthorized. I am officially there to observe and report and I can only use my presence as a deterrent (well, "vigilance" by maintaining locks, computerized access, etc, but that's not directly ME). It seems to me that most security officers do the client's work and are certified security professionals (as opposed to client associates/employees) for the insurance write-off... hardly "rent-a-cops." You know... paperwork for warehouse shipments/deliveries (AKA "gate guard"), telephone switchboard operator, door greeters ("Front Desk"), etc. As for what I do, what kind of "power tripping" cop or wanna-be cop is paid to sit there watching cameras, interacting with no one? I'm the one who calls the cops. Security officers have no additional powers TO "trip on."

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: CZroe

Originally posted by: smack Down
You're a rent a cop, I would have though after 9 years you would have realized no respects you.

No one is asking for that kind of respect. I'm talking about coworkers of any kind respecting their night-shift counterparts, which is pretty different from the courtesy and respect an officer of the law might expect. It certainly wasn't an invitation to bring up wanna-be cops. Granted, the slang fits some security guards, but if my shift doesn't require anything "cop-like" and I don't DO anything "cop-like," I'm not a rent-a-cop. PERIOD.

Actually, the two recent movies (P.B: Mall Cop and Observe & Report) are causing Internet trolls to gleefully perpetuate stereotypes more than ever. So much so that I've recently found it tough to even mention my line of work online without people assuming that I'm a power-tripping wanna-be cop "like all the other rent-a-cops" and using that to flame me about other, unrelated things.

News flash: Not all security officers patrol malls and public areas and only a few are in positions remotely "cop-like." I operate inside a security command center (cameras, alarms, access computer/database, P/A system, etc). On a typical graveyard shift, I see and interact with NO ONE who isn't a security guard themselves, and I am not to intervene directly even I see someone unauthorized. I am officially there to observe and report and I can only use my presence as a deterrent (well, maintaining locks, computerized access, etc, but that's not directly ME). It seems to me that most security officers do the client's work and are certified security professionals (as opposed to client associates/employees) for the insurance write-off... hardly "rent-a-cops." You know... paperwork for warehouse shipments/deliveries (AKA "gate guard"), telephone switchboard operator, door greeters ("Front Desk"), etc. As for what I do, what kind of "power tripping" cop or wanna-be cop is paid to sit there watching cameras, interacting with no one? I'm the one who calls the cops. Security officers have no additional powers TO "trip on."

How do you like the job? Seems like a pretty easy gig where you can get a lot of reading done or listening to podcasts. Is there a way to know how much time you spend staring at the monitors? Maybe I've been watching too many movies about heists...

 

[rbV5]

I finally got a 5% differential last summer after 11+ years on graveyard shift Administration aside, I am totally respected by my co-workers

I commute <5 minutes to my job, show up 5 minutes before my shift starts and leave exactly when the clock strikes "Go Home". I refuse to carry a pager or be "on-call", they get me for 80 hours a week and thats it..(unless I'm covering a shift on overtime)

I work 1) week on and take the next week off to recover and spend time with my family.

 

[jlee]

Pics or ban.

Originally posted by: rbV5
I finally got a 5% differential last summer after 11+ years on graveyard shift Administration aside, I am totally respected by my co-workers

I commute <5 minutes to my job, show up 5 minutes before my shift starts and leave exactly when the clock strikes "Go Home". I refuse to carry a pager or be "on-call", they get me for 80 hours a week and thats it..(unless I'm covering a shift on overtime)

I work 1) week on and take the next week off to recover and spend time with my family.

:Q

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: CZroe
...I figured that most employers and coworkers respect an employee that rushes to be at work on time and is in no hurry to run home at the expense of a proper turn-over and would gladly wait until the proper time for a graveyard shifter.

Boy, was I wrong. My last site wasn't this bad, but everyone is rushing out before you've even relieved them and complaining as if "on-time" is somehow "late" just because they have the convenience of a full night's sleep and the luxury of being able to arrive 10mins early without sacrificing sleep. Ironically, they don't even say anything to me until a day when I arrive over one full hour early specifically to sleep in the car until it's time to start my shift because I had to take my niece to work at a strip club at nightfall (~8PM). I mean, sleep is precious to a graveyard shift worker, especially after dark. I need every minute of it. Respect that. That's all.

Heck, that same supervisor was about 30mins late for my break on the same morning he informs me of the complaint. Double standard?

[/blog]

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. back it up. tell me more of this niece...

Not the kind of "more" you asked for but I'm bored. So here goes:
I remember our (my twin brother and my) 4th birthday in the Virgin Islands (mid-Eighties), where my grandma lived and where my sister ran to to have her baby at 13yo. I remember seeing her mother leaving the hospital with her and I remember the fight everyone had at the airport when we were going back home to GA... my now-14yo sister surprised my mother at the airport and stayed in USVI with my grandma while my crazy mom refused to accept that and took my niece home to GA.

She threw up on the plane. My grandma paid the dead-beat dad back in GA to grab her and fly her back to her mom... I remember my older brother running after his car in his underwear! Their rivalry continued through the '80s until the deadbeat paid someone to kill my older brother and put him in the hospital with multiple stab wounds. He healed, joined the Navy, and started a family on the Jacksonville, FL NAVY base while my grandma, sister, & niece moved to Daytona. At some point my sister and niece lived with us again in GA for a while and I remember that another deadbeat boyfriend "touched" my niece inappropriately but died in a car accident before anyone knew about it.

From GA to FL, we visted both families yearly in the early '90s until my brother's family moved to WV and the others moved (well, returned) to San Diego. During her childhood, my niece was into dance, gymnastics, etc, but I had nearly no contact with her during her teens in SoCal. I know she also managed to find deadbeats and married one. He deployed to Afganistan and left her for another woman while on deployment. Her husband's money and military housing suddenly went *poof* so she suddenly needed income and had to strip for money. The next deadbeat stole her hard-earned money and burned down her apartment to hide it, though she refused to see it that way ("he woke me up and saved me!"-from the fire that conveniently started on the nightstand with her money stashed in it). He dragged her to Kansas where they lived out of a car for well over a year. My sister flew over to GA and we all drove to Kansas to get her but she refused to leave until almost a year later when he broke her collar bone.

Anyway, she's finally with a like-minded guy, who seems pretty cool, though he's a near-penniless stoner DJ teenager so she still has to strip. Hopefully they'll both grow out of it. She's was with him when I visited a few years ago and she's still with him now that I have moved out here, so that's a good sign, even if they work different clubs and she still has to buy him beer (he's younger than her).

She's always telling me to stop by the club, but... NO.

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: CZroe

Originally posted by: smack Down
You're a rent a cop, I would have though after 9 years you would have realized no respects you.

...

How do you like the job? Seems like a pretty easy gig where you can get a lot of reading done or listening to podcasts. Is there a way to know how much time you spend staring at the monitors? Maybe I've been watching too many movies about heists...

Officially, we aren't supposed to have cell phones, use the web, read books/magazines/newspapers, etc, but they know that we absolutely could NOT stay awake without at least one of those, so as long as it's done in moderation... yeah. They excuse having Inet access for news that could affect the facility (extreme weather, for example). I skirt it only a little... I view pages on my iPhone, type my replies in an open notepad doc and jump to the site momentarily to post it. At my last site, I needed to use Remote Desktop.

I do more podcasts and such now that I have an A2DP adapter (stereo-Bluetooth) with a single-side mono A2DP earpiece for my iPhone (have to listen to alarms, radio, phone, etc). I sneak a video or two on there every now and then, but that nearly puts me to sleep so I can't watch feature-length movies or even TV shows (just little web vids to share with the coworkers). Just like long videos, I find that passively reading puts me to sleep too, so I avoid both. Tediously conversing on forums, not so much.

Obviously, it helps to have a seconds set of eyes in the room with you, but most sites have a set amount of camera sweeps to do with varying regularity and monitoring in-between. It's easy to know if they are getting done: See if the cameras are being moved.

But, yeah, staying awake is hard, but the other duties in a Command Center are mostly easy if things go as they should (and usually do). That doesn't apply to security in general though... Patrol/Rover can be pretty rough, especially when the client stacks on non-security duties just because they already have a paid man on-site when they need something done at late hours.

My last site was flexible enough for me to work another job and go to school. I need to get out of security though: I've been A+ Certified for longer and I have Microcomputer Specialist and Networking Specialist degrees. I might as well work in that field if I'm qualified and I am not finding enough time/money to enjoy it as my hobby.

 

[Mo0o]

Wow your niece has certainly had an interesting life.

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: CZroe


She's always telling me to stop by the club, but... NO.

This right here is where you have gone wrong.

 

[rudeguy]

pics or ban

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: Newbian

Originally posted by: CZroe


She's always telling me to stop by the club, but... NO.

This right here is where you have gone wrong.

She's my niece.

How much clearer do I have to be?

That means we are related.

That means that idea is officially "wrong."

Originally posted by: NSFW
pics or ban

Sure, it'll have to wait until I get home, but I'll go ahead and tell you: You'll be disappointed. It'll be childhood pics.

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: CZroe

Originally posted by: Newbian

Originally posted by: CZroe


She's always telling me to stop by the club, but... NO.

This right here is where you have gone wrong.

She's my niece.

How much clearer do I have to be?

That means we are related.

That means that idea is officially "wrong."

Originally posted by: NSFW
pics or ban

Sure, it'll have to wait until I get home, but I'll go ahead and tell you: You'll be disappointed. It'll be childhood pics.

It's all good unless you get caught.