Monday, June 05, 2006

Working for the Weekend

My god, I need a vacation.

Really, my job is easy enough. I go in, hang out for eight hours interacting with a few computers in the name of Science, and come home. If there isn't some kind of crisis, anyway, which most of the time there isn't. It's sort of boring work, except for the periods where it's not, but it's laid-back, and I like that. But lately... I just hate the thought of having to drag my ass in. And it keeps getting worse.

I'm taking some time off next week, actually. Call it a mental health break. I would have done it earlier, in fact, but I wanted to time it so I'd be skipping my second week of day shifts. Because it'd get me out of a week of day shifts, which I loathe, and it'd also mean I wouldn't have to worry about shifting on to days while I'm gone, which is difficult for me.

So I only have four more days, but the wait is killing me. Gaaah. I do not want to go in today. See, the problem with day shifts (in addition to the fact that they muck up my sleeping patterns) is that a) they involve mornings, and b) they involve being around people. Neither of these is my favorite thing, individually, but the two in combination... Ugh.

4 comments:

  1. {hugs}

    You do sound rather stressed.
    Actually, now that I think about it, your lifestyle is probably stressing you -- yes, it is a laid-back place of work, but simply having to change over from day shift to night shift to day shift is probably stressing your body regularly.

    What's their reasoning for keeping on changing the shifts?

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  2. I don't think "stressed" is quite the word I'd use... Mostly, I'm tired and bored and desperate for some time I can call my own.

    As for the shifts, well, sure that's a contributing factor to stress. The rotation I'm on right now (and have been for quite a while) is pretty comfortable, but it does involve changing sleep patterns on a fairly regular basis, and that has been proven to put some strain on the system. But, while I'm sure it's not helping much, it's certainly not the proximate cause of me feeling crappy right now. I've been doing it for ten years; I'm pretty used to it.

    The rationale, more or less, is that all three shifts have to be covered but nobody wants to stay on the same inconvenient shift forever, and it would be unfair to tell person X he could have shift Y instead of person Z, so this way it's equal for everybody. And I've occasoninally said that the only thing that would be worse than rotating would be having to stay on nights all the time, which never gives you a chance for a normal sleep schedule. Or evenings, which never gives you a chance for a social life. Or, god forbid, days, which just suck entirely.

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  3. Go work in the PO. Gauranteed your would be working the nite shift your whole career. Thats if you were in a larfe office rather than your local office.

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  4. I think I'll pass, thanks. :)

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