Discussion » Questions » Jobs » For all my fellow shift workers: Which is your favorite shift to work?
Rizz

For all my fellow shift workers: Which is your favorite shift to work?

It’s a toss-up for me between day shift and overnight shift. Both shifts have all the veteran correctional officers who make the job easier. Overnights probably have the edge because the inmates are sleeping and in their cells all but thirty minutes of shift. I’m going to try to transfer to night shift soon. 

Posted - October 13, 2018
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Responses


  • 22891
    i wouldnt care as long as i had a job
      October 13, 2018 4:24 PM MDT
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  • 10634
    Over the course of my career I've worked every shift possible, but my favorite was 3-noon.  
      October 13, 2018 4:33 PM MDT
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  • 53503

      At different times throughout my life the answer to this has changed. A few short weeks after high school graduation, I left home for Marine Corps boot camp, at the time I was working evenings and weekends at a Denny's restaurant. In the Marine Corps, there is no real concept of working shifts. I served three tours of duty there, and upon leaving military service, I worked various shifts in the civilian sector. I cannot pin down any particular one over another as a favorite because it depends on which job, the co-workers, the duties at hand, and of course whatever my home life situation was at the time.  There have been pros and cons of each shift.
    ~ This post was edited by Randy D at October 13, 2018 7:29 PM MDT
      October 13, 2018 5:08 PM MDT
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  • 1502
    I can only imagine the amount of hours you worked while serving in the Marine Corps.
      October 13, 2018 5:13 PM MDT
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  • 53503

      In the Marine Corps, I never developed the concept of "punching the clock" or "working a shift".  I had worked part-time jobs before joining, but I was a teenager living at home. I didn't have to work in order to support myself or a family, so my work-related mindset wasn't geared toward how many hours and for how much. 
      Once I joined the USMC and served three tours of duty, my entire work ethic soon took on a military slant: you work as long as there's work to be done. When I left the Corps and re-entered the civilian workforce, I did have a family to support and needed to make a living through full-time employment. Being held down to an 8-hour day and a 40-hour workweek was foreign territory to me. It was so easy for me to put in overtime hours as a matter of course that I didn't even think twice about it. 

    ~



      October 13, 2018 7:25 PM MDT
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  • 1502
    I’ve never had problems finding motivation to overtime. I see it as extra money to save, it boosts my retirement pay, and it gives back to the prison. After all, they gave me a job and I’m thankful for that. It pays the bills and has benefits. I had a strong work ethic to follow which was demonstrated by my parents. My mom called in sick twice in thirty-five years of work. Once when my appendix ruptured. Once when she had pneumonia and was hospitalized. My dad called in sick once in thirty years. He had the flu and had to go to the hospital. My siblings and I are the same way. I only missed one and a half days during high school. I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was a senior. It was in a Thursday afternoon. This post was edited by Rizz at October 13, 2018 7:36 PM MDT
      October 13, 2018 7:34 PM MDT
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  • 1502
    What was boot camp like? 
      October 13, 2018 5:15 PM MDT
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  • 53503

      A true adventure for me. To write about it here could not be encapsulated properly; there are too many aspects to cover that answer what it was like. It's almost as if you were to answer what being a correctional officer is like.
    As many Marines will tell you, Marine Corps boot camp was tough. It's supposed to be. Many of the stereotypical things that outsiders think go on there went on there. US Marine Corps Drill Instructors are legendary, and I can personally attest that there's a reason for it. Within hours of arriving, I was asking myself what I had gotten myself into.  After a period of self-doubt, I had to refocus myself on my goal of becoming a Marine, and that helped steel my determination.
    I will admit, though, that I was never really sure I'd make it through to the end, because boot camp was structured in such a way that it's never a given for any recruit that success is just around the corner.
    Almost ten years later, I returned to boot camp, only this time as a Drill Instructor myself. As such, I've seen boot camp from two varying perspectives. I kid you not in that I could write volumes not about boot camp, but about all of my years in The Corps. 

    Some things have changed in the decades since I was a recruit, and since I was a Drill Instructor, but one thing has been the same and will be the same for years: the United States Marine Corps has its own way of doing things, and turning young men and women into Marines is the beginning of it all. 



    (This is NOT my platoons platoon's graduation photo.)
    ~


    This post was edited by Randy D at October 14, 2018 9:53 AM MDT
      October 13, 2018 6:20 PM MDT
    2

  • 1502
    I want to thank you for your service and sacrifices for our country, freedom, and liberty. I worked with a retired Marine. He went through boot camp in the Vietnam era. He had stories. Lots of them. With what he told me they ensured durinf boot camp I’m amazed people made it. Even though he was older when I worked with him he was fit, strong as an ox, and could beat the crap out of people half his age. He and I had some battles together in cell houses. He will always be one of my favorite coworkers of all time. This post was edited by Rizz at October 23, 2018 12:48 AM MDT
      October 13, 2018 6:24 PM MDT
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  • MCRD ... the only place I've ever seen concrete shine. :)
      October 14, 2018 6:58 AM MDT
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  • 53503
    LOL!

    (For those who don't know, MCRD = Marine Corps Recruit Depot.  There are only two of them nowadays, they are located in San Diego, California and in Parris Island, South Carolina.  Lesser known was Montford Point in Jacksonville, North Carolina.  It was operated from 1942 to 1949 expressly for training black recruits. Prior to 1942, if you were black, you could not join the US Marines, and even when it was first allowed, segregation called for a separate location even for boot camp training, white recruits went to San Diego or Parris Island.)


    ~
      October 14, 2018 9:34 AM MDT
    1

  • I never could get adjusted to the night shift.  It's too hot to sleep in summer daylight.  
      October 13, 2018 6:00 PM MDT
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  • 34246
    I no longer work shifts. But in the past I have and the worst is 2nd shift...if you are married with kids in school. You don't see them. Day or Night is better. 
    For family life day shift is better for job purposes
    Night is better as far as the job....you don't have to deal with the higher up office workers at night.
      October 13, 2018 6:54 PM MDT
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  • 1502
    I liked 2-10 at the prison when I was young and enjoyed partying. Now I hate it as a supervisor in cell houses. 2-10 has all the newest people and party animals. Makes your shift rough. On day shift I have veteran officers. I’m trying to go to nights so I can have it as easy as possible my last twelve years. There’s a lot of seasoned staff on overnights as well. This post was edited by Rizz at October 13, 2018 7:27 PM MDT
      October 13, 2018 6:58 PM MDT
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  • 34246
    Yes 2nd shift is great for singles who want to party.  But otherwise is crappy. 
      October 13, 2018 7:15 PM MDT
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  • "Swing Shift" ... (3:30p - 12:00a)

    Not the greatest shift for a married man, but I didn't have to take care of chores on the weekend, face Los Angeles rush hour traffic twice a day, stand in line in every store I went to, put up with the Day Shift Bosses and take little white pills so all that could be possible!  :))

    Also ... there was always overtime for the swing shift, if you wanted it, unlike the day shift that only got overtime in case of an emergency.
      October 13, 2018 7:17 PM MDT
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  • 17592
    My first job out of high school was in a production office that operated 12 hours per day but we all worked 7.5 hours.  I worked 9:30am to 6:00pm.  For a single girl that was perfect!  I would ride the bus into the city and my boyfriend would pick me up at 6.  I loved those hours but hated the job.  I transferred to another position after six months, and retired from that company 31 years later. 
      October 13, 2018 11:57 PM MDT
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  • 16763
    Afternoons (12pm-8pm or 1pm-9pm). That's when I'm at my sharpest, I am NOT a morning person.
      October 14, 2018 12:48 AM MDT
    2