as a new job “perk” at a hospital I get to choose what days I work: because I get differential if I work weekends, I wrote I want to work everyday but Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Now I wonder if I should have chosen Mondays and Fridays. On Mondays people act all stressed out (beginning of the week) and on Fridays they’re also insufferable (they all want to go home ASAP)
I’ve never inverted my weekend like this so if you ever worked like I’m about to, how was it? Any drawbacks?
Split days off sounds pretty bad to be honest. Wednesday and Thursday doesn’t sound terrible and has its advantages, but as a M-F worker I would have a hard time meeting up with someone working a schedule like that.
I would suggest taking off Friday-Saturday or Sunday-Monday. Little bit of the best of both worlds, plus you can avoid some of what you mentioned earlier.
Pros: you have a weekend when other people don’t. So wherever you want to go, there will likely be less people there (thoug do account for morning and evening workday traffic). Some places you may need to go to may be closed on weekends, but you won’t face this issue.
Cons: you have weekend when other people don’t… If you want to do something with other people, you will likely be limited to evenings.
It’s nice if you have a close person who can have similar week schedule like you, or if you just want to do stuff by yourself. I did use work like that (though I didn’t have fixed days) and it had its perks for sure. Split days off may be manageable sometimes, but it is a terrible idea longterm. Might work forbyou, we are all different - but I’d advise against it. Go for it sometimes if you need to change shifts with someone (especially if you could get a 3 day “weekend” out of it), but I’d advise against having it fixed like that.
Socializing is going to be tough. Most people want to get together on the weekends.
When I worked 6 am to 2 pm I had to get up early, but I had afternoons free. If I had to work on a holiday or weekend I could still be off in time to hang out with people. Pushing back a holiday meal to 3 pm isn’t hard on the family. If the people you know like late hours, 12 pm to 8 pm or 2 pm to 10 pm works well. You can stay out until 2 am and still get enough sleep.
Reiterating that split days off suck. I didn’t mind having non-weekend consecutive days off, but weekends were much better.
Personally I’d take Thursday/Friday off if it’s possible because things still happen socially on those days. If that matters to you.
I work 7 nights, 8 off, 7 nights, 8 off and so on…
All I can say is that ending my 7th nightshift coming out monday morning it is great to go shopping, it is great to go to the local spa, it is great to basically do any activity cause no crowds.
The downside is that I am usually the only person low age and rest are retired people. Or my friends that work shifts too and are off, thats great.
If I wouldn’t have a wife that has only off weekends and works a regular 9 to 5 I’d probably try to work every weekend and take days off monday to friday. Weekends suck imo cause everything is crowded.
I like to go to the gym monday to thursday, I’m usually alone at 10 in the morning with a few old people doing random exercises. But they don’t block the leg press, the benches and the pull up bars.
In general I am very grateful for working shifts (especially night) cause more money, less stress at work (quiet at night) and no management. And I can go to the gym when no one is there.
I also second that having 2 days off in a row, is better to recharge.
Now as far as making them not the weekend…
Pros:
Great for all the millions of takes forever tasks that can only be done durring business hours… need to update your drivers license, have any taxes, negotiate with the bank on things, or anything else that can only be done mon-friday in business hours… fricking awesome ease of options.
As also mentioned, socializing is the drawback… want to meet with a friend, date etc… well that’s a bit less fun, best bet is to do it on a worknight but still be ready to come home early enough to not be dead on your ass at work.
Pretty glorious.
If you want to go out and do something: have lunch, go to a movie, or whatever, it’s not nearly as busy and you can have a more peaceful time.