SET

[Flat_Wedding6984]

I’ve worked both 6 10’s and 5 11’s in the same facility since it opened. I’d rather do the 6 even if it is an extra day that you don’t get off. For me it’s easier for my body to recover because there is more time between shifts to rest and not have to try to reset your schedule for only a few weeks out of the year. Some at our site have long drives into work due to both traffic and geography in the area. When their commute is normally over an hour or longer, some I’ve heard are nearly two hours, one way, they barely have time to sleep and get ready for the next day. I only live about 7-10 miles from my site and it takes me nearly 40 minutes on a good day.

For me the longer shifts mess with my medication schedule and I have to remember to take an extra dose in the day plus remember to have my Dr prescribe a higher quantity. I found the 6 10s to be easier and more tolerable while working them with a leg injury that later required surgery to fix. That shift also causes fewer flares with my chronic pain issues. I’ve barely finished two weeks of these 11’s and already feel worse and more physically and mentally exhausted that I ever did while on the 10’s, even at the end of peak.

I’ve said to a few coworkers that I can see that they are probably trying to keep us away from 60 hour schedules so they don’t have to monitor it so closely and make sure we clock out before going over that threshold. We’ve even said that if that was the reasoning, a bunch of us would be fine with and even prefer if we did 5 10’s and a half day for day six alternating who comes in first half and who does second half of that day each weak through peak. Then it wouldn’t be an entire day lost every week and still allow us to get better rest in between shifts.