Wed, thurs, fri days 7.30-7.30 for four weeks then sat off and sun, mon, tues days for four weeks. week off then repeat on nights. Done these since 1989 and struggle more as i get older. 3 or 4 hours sleep during the day when on nights is the norm.

used to do 2*12hour days, 2*12 hour night, 6 days off, – repeat-

approx 20 hours extra to be done over the 12month period

was good as it gets I reckon

I used to do 3 12hour nightshifts Thursday to Sunday and that was my weeks work done. Came home at 8:30
Sunday morning and didn’t sleep that day so only lost Friday/Saturday days although I only usually slept till mid afternoon. Wish I could do that now rather than 9-5 slog.

Standard NHS hours.

5 days of 3 Early shifts 0700 – 1500 and 2 late shifts 1330 – 2130

Not done nights yet, they are 2100 – 0700 4 nights a week.

Amazing to see how many variations of shift patterns there are.

Technically 9 to 5. With 1 hour unpaid lunch. Monday to friday. But usually 8.30 till gone 6 (ona quiet week) no lunch, and working at home at weekends to catch up. Shame it’s salaried so no ot.

To OP, i do ‘t understand the 23 shifts back bit??? Can someone explain? I’m probably overtired

2x 12 hour days. Day off. 2x 12 hour nights. 3 days off, including sleep day. So its an 8 day cycle, and there are 4 shifts employed. Tend to lose track of what day of the week it is, and body block a bit messed up…but at least not there day in day out having to work overtime at weekends like on the old 3 shift (8 hour) pattern.

All over the place, mine!

I finished nights at 8am yesterday and started days as of half past midday today. Finished my 20.30 finish late shift at 2300 with and achey body and blood (someone else’s!) all over my shirt.

Of course I am a nurse. We have rules about working hours and so on but (I suspect like prison officers, police and ambulance crews) we have a duty of care that overrides any time of day or night the european working time directive, our families or personal lives might stipulate that we clock off.

14.5 hr days then sleep-in,usually 7 hrs the next day. Home, then same again.

seven – Member

To OP, i do ‘t understand the 23 shifts back bit??? Can someone explain? I’m probably overtired

The 23 shifts back are to fulfill your contracted hours. Rather than change the amount of hours (pay cut) you “owe” hours.

I used to work for a well known Lager maker. I was contracted to do 2080 hour per year (40 a week). But they could request you to do extra hours and shifts. When you had worked your contract hours the rest of the year was yours. It also meant they could drop shifts this week down to 8 hours. Only work one day a week for a month and suddenly you could end up in deficit. Result would be weeks on end with no breaks. Got out of there as fast as possible.

Work in social care no pattern to my shifts at all except for getting every second weekend off.

This thread is just one, long, boring list. In these days of no-fixed-hours contracts, you’re lucky to have any set shift patterns.

But just for the record, the easiest student job I ever had was one week on, one week off, working nights in a garage. Nine o’ clock lectures were tough and by 11, I was nodding off. Got paid for the week off so wasn’t complaining….

i’ll post it up when I have had some sleep….

Used to do :
4 12hr days 6am-6pm
4 days off
4 12hr nights 6pm-6am
4 days off
Never did like that shift pattern. We now do:
Week 1 : mon to fri 6am – 2pm
Week 2 : mon to thur 10p – 6am
Week 3 : mon to thur 2pm – 10pm then fri 2pm – 9pm
25 days holidays that we can take whenever + bank holidays
Overtime is either 12hr days or nights @ 1+1/2 during the week or 12hr days or nights double bubble on a Sunday
Much prefer this shift pattern 🙂

Thurs/Fridays off and a mix of lates and earlies sat to weds.

I’m all over the place at the moment but in a previous job(merchant navy engineer) I worked 6hrs on, 6hrs off. This was about 10 years ago on a British ship, I would do this for 4 months solid. This was tough going trying to fit in sleeping, eating, showering, laundry, watching film etc into the 6 hours off. The worst thing was the days went so slow.

@ Amplebrew I loved that shift pattern! as they also used to throw 1 or 2 12 hours shifs into the 6 days every 3 months we got 6 days off in a row (extra RDIL for the hours) so was brill!!! current shift pattern pants..hoping I won’t be on shift for much longer 😉 we’ll see though as the long days off are nice.

Munqe-chick – Member
@ Amplebrew I loved that shift pattern! as they also used to throw 1 or 2 12 hours shifs into the 6 days every 3 months we got 6 days off in a row (extra RDIL for the hours) so was brill!!! current shift pattern pants..hoping I won’t be on shift for much longer we’ll see though as the long days off are nice.

The 2-2-2 pattern is fantastic and much nicer than my old Lanc’s shifts. It means that only 6 days leave gives me 2 weeks off.

We did used to ‘spare days’ every so often to make up our hours, but we now work 12hr shifts on our weekend nights to cover the shortfall.

I think I’d struggle to go on a Mon – Fri role as shifts are great for getting things done. It’s also lovely being out and about in the peace and quiet whilst everyone else is at work.

amplebrew – Member

I think I’d struggle to go on a Mon – Fri role as shifts are great for getting things done. It’s also lovely being out and about in the peace and quiet whilst everyone else is at work.

Exactly.

I was offered a job a couple of weeks ago. It would have been going back to classic 3 shifts Monday to Friday. I compared the hours and days at work. 16 hours difference over the year. New job was 230 days @ 8 hours. Existing job 152 days @ 12 hours. That would be 72 extra days at work.

I used to work
00:00-08:00 x2 then
08:00-16:00 x3 then
16:00-00:00 x5 then
5 days off

now I work Mon-Fri 08:00-17:00 plus 1 week in 6 work a Saturday and on call for the whole week, I’m also on call for the rest of the team if they have issues on their oncall shifts, when I’m not on call.

This is where we need TJ to tell us all that we shouldn’t work more than 20 minutes a month!

For me: start 08.00, finish 6 or 7ish or whenever, 5 days a week plus a bit at weekends.

Ward shift pattern is 3 to 4 12.5 hours shifts a week – 07:00 to 19:30 (19:00 to 07:30 for nights). It’s an emergency admssions unit, and it’s pretty much go 24/7.

That said, it’s fugging great for riding empty trails mid-week. 😀

6am – 2pm Monday to Thursday and 6am – 11am Friday.
Following week, 1.45pm to 11pm Monday to Thursday and so on.

Set shutdowns and 5 floating days.

It’s surprising how quickly you can adapt to different working hours and patterns.

I went from needing 8 hours sleep when I was in car sales to half that when I changed to my current job.

Currently doing 07:00 – 17:30 days.
next week is 15:30 – 02:00 and on call over the weekend.

When I am on OPS I do 12:00 – 01:30 7 days a week for 14 weeks. That is fun !!

ononeorange – Member

This is where we need TJ to tell us all that we shouldn’t work more than 20 minutes a month!

most of the shift workers who have posted here seem to average out at about 40 hours a week, it’s the craziness of the hours not the amount. IIRC TJ did/still does his 37.5 hours a week in loopy nursing shifts too.
On the other hand there was that crazy thread last year some time with folk in law/banking/finance/sales being chuffed that they put in 80 hour weeks and thinking that they were as dynamic, efficient and productive at 10pm as they were at 8am that morning.

Of course (I’ve had a couple of sleeps since my last miserable post on here) everyone knows the upside to crazy shift work is mid-week quiet trails, much less trafficy/aggro commuting, being able to be in for the washing machine repair man, and getting round the shops in half the time it takes on saturday or sunday. 😀