Recently overheard in the breakroom, "Right now, I feel as if today will be history tomorrow. Yesterday I had a similar thought."
One might think by now that there would be better methods of defining a set amount of time. I am speaking of what a a good bit of the world uses, one Earth rotation, commonly called a "day," which is used here in the United States.........by dayshifters.
When I worked nightshift, I was amazed at the difference in the answer to the question, "What day is this?" I started my shift on Sunday nights. At 3:00 AM on Monday, it could still be Sunday OR Monday. I went to work on a calendar day and got off the next. BUT.... I also got off on one calendar day and had to come back to work on the same calendar day. I think I was tired because I didn't have mental satisfaction of having a period to sleep and waking up on another day, altogether. AND.... in my mind, nightshift lasted f o r e v e r. Going to work on Sunday and not getting off until Monday. In the words of the Bush Bean dog, "That's crazy."
I was born at midnight and my first meaningful job, eighteen years later, was on the midnight shift. For the next forty years, each job I had was either on nightshift exclusively, or I was subject to be working nights on a moment's notice. Waking up at night and going to work that night was one thing but waking up one morning, going to work and given the wonderful opportunity of going back home to sleep so as to come back that evening and work twelve hours at night, is in the vernacular of my daughter-in-law, wickedy-wickedy whack! To make the pain more vivid think about this. What do so many folk do as soon as they flush the toilet...YES, make and drink a few cups of coffee, depending upon how awake folk want to be at work. Coffee is, shall I say, sleep hindering agent to that person sent back home to sleep a few hours and come in and work 10 to 12 hours at night.
Twenty-some years ago one of my friends, and fellow nightshift cohorts, WCC, came up with an ingenious method of time tracking for night shift workers. Evening shift "days" were Sun-Mon, Mon-Tue, Tue-Wed, Wed-Thur, Thur-Fri, Fri-Sat, and Sat-Sun. This made/makes no sense to a dayshift worker but it was a circadian rhythm synchronizer for those of us on nightshift.
One might think by now that there would be better methods of defining a set amount of time. I am speaking of what a a good bit of the world uses, one Earth rotation, commonly called a "day," which is used here in the United States.........by dayshifters.
When I worked nightshift, I was amazed at the difference in the answer to the question, "What day is this?" I started my shift on Sunday nights. At 3:00 AM on Monday, it could still be Sunday OR Monday. I went to work on a calendar day and got off the next. BUT.... I also got off on one calendar day and had to come back to work on the same calendar day. I think I was tired because I didn't have mental satisfaction of having a period to sleep and waking up on another day, altogether. AND.... in my mind, nightshift lasted f o r e v e r. Going to work on Sunday and not getting off until Monday. In the words of the Bush Bean dog, "That's crazy."
I was born at midnight and my first meaningful job, eighteen years later, was on the midnight shift. For the next forty years, each job I had was either on nightshift exclusively, or I was subject to be working nights on a moment's notice. Waking up at night and going to work that night was one thing but waking up one morning, going to work and given the wonderful opportunity of going back home to sleep so as to come back that evening and work twelve hours at night, is in the vernacular of my daughter-in-law, wickedy-wickedy whack! To make the pain more vivid think about this. What do so many folk do as soon as they flush the toilet...YES, make and drink a few cups of coffee, depending upon how awake folk want to be at work. Coffee is, shall I say, sleep hindering agent to that person sent back home to sleep a few hours and come in and work 10 to 12 hours at night.
Twenty-some years ago one of my friends, and fellow nightshift cohorts, WCC, came up with an ingenious method of time tracking for night shift workers. Evening shift "days" were Sun-Mon, Mon-Tue, Tue-Wed, Wed-Thur, Thur-Fri, Fri-Sat, and Sat-Sun. This made/makes no sense to a dayshift worker but it was a circadian rhythm synchronizer for those of us on nightshift.
