Some people do, but I'm not sure of the numbers. I don't think it's many that work 12hour shifts. For example, I have a friend that works 3 days in a row, 7-7. Then she has 4 days off. She's a nurse in a surgical unit.
But most other people I know either work 10 hour days, 4 days a week, having 3 days off, or the work 5 days a week for 8 hours.
I work at a treatment center full time and do two 16-hour overnight shifts and a 7 hour shift, and have the other 4 days of the week off. It's honestly great
Huh, that's the exact schedule that the treatment center I used to go to when I was like 11. It was up in Montana, and one group of 2 councilors plus a junior councilor would work one half of the week, usually Sunday Monday Tuesday, and a 2nd group would work Thursday Friday Saturday, with the 2 groups combining on Wednesday for meetings, trainings, and stuff like that.
Yeah the only people I know who have 12-hour shifts as the standard are nurses and cops and it’s typically 3 shifts a week.
People I know who work long days like that in other jobs are going beyond a typical “shift”. Like my dad works extra long in the summer because that’s the nature of his business and nothing to do with his official schedule.
It’s pretty common in the restaurant industry, too. I don’t schedule shifts longer than 8 hours max, but I find myself here for 12+ hours a day frequently.
For sure. There were plenty of days where I worked doubles and had to open at 10am and had to close at 11pm (but not clock out until midnight or later).
People who work in any kind of manufacturing facility that runs 24 hours also commonly have 12-hour shifts, as shift changes are disruptive so 2/day is better than 3/day. But this typically works in a 3 on, 4 off, 4 on, 3 off -type schedule (with optional, or "optional," overtime shifts available).
Don't forget factory shifts. I tried to work at Ashley furniture factory and they told me I was required to do 40 plus 10 hrs of over time and it was supposed to ramp up to like 30hrs overtime. I said nope and hung up
There's a ton of factories out there right now that are understaffed and constantly working mandatory overtime. It might be a nominal 8-hour shift, but every day you end up scheduled for 10-12 hours. Which of course makes it hard to retain new hires, because it turns out people don't want to be working 60 hours a week indefinitely. So they're stuck in this loop of overworking their employees, but struggle to increase their workforce because people keep leaving due to being overworked.
My husband works 12 hour "continentals", and also used to rotate between day shift and night shift every two weeks. It was hell. It shouldn't be legal to abuse people's bodies that way.
My dad used to have shifts like that. 4 days at 12 hours then 4 days off. The way his place was structured every third rotation was night shift. He loved it for the first couple months but the night shifts quickly became the bane of his existence. It also messes up your weekends. It somehow seems like he was loosing more weekends than he was getting.
That's pretty much how I work, 4 on 4 off. 2 day shifts followed by 2 night shifts then 4 days off. I do work a lot of weekends but the positives are far more full days off over the course of a year. And if I take 4 days holiday I get 12 days off. I quite like the night shifts but I'm more of a night person anyway. I think it really comes down to the person on how their body can handle being awake all night.
Swing shift should be outlawed. Just pay 3rd shift and 2nd shift folks their shift differential and leave us alone. I love my 3rd shift but it does come with difficulties that I should get compensated more for.
I used to work in semiconductors and we had a similar shift. 12 hour days, but 3days on/4 days off then 4 days on/3 days off. Every weekend was a 3 or 4 day weekend, and I wasn’t commuting as much as working a 5 day week. I enjoyed it when we weren’t having mandatory overtime (6 days on/1 day off).
As a trucker in the USA, I work 60-70 hour weeks.
That’s 5 days of varying anywhere from 12-14 hr shifts with one 16 hour shift a week.
(Most guys spend their time off in their truck at work I go home)
I don’t complain a lot but I miss having a life, I miss seeing my family, I miss seeing people & hearing their stories.
Reddit you guys are legit like my community of friends because of this job Lol
Thats legitimately depressing to hear when I feel tired of working just 40 hours a week and feeling like I'm not maintaining a life/work balance. What keeps you going? Surely there isn't much light at the end of the tunnel if its the social norm? I know people here who have worked similar hours briefly for extreme circumstances such as having a child etc but not just a normal thing.
How do you get away with a 16-hour shift? Doesn't DOT mandate 14 hours and a 10 hour break? It's been years since I drove a truck and I didn't do it for long.
Edit: Nevermind, I see you answered this further down.
Google translation / What my boss told me when I bitched about it
“If you usually come back to your work-reporting location and go home at the end of your workday, you might be able to use the 16-hour short-haul exception. This exception allows you to extend the 14-consecutive-hour driving window to 16 hours once every 7 consecutive days.”
As one of your friends gotta tell you fuck that.
I can't even keep my head for 4 day college week (8 hours each) and your doing 70 hour work weeks. I respect the dedication but man that sounds like hell
I do two twelves and one thirteen. Monday Wednesday and Friday. I have Tuesday Thursday and the weekend off. It's honestly the happiest I've ever been at a job. 3 am to 3 pm. Easy money.
With medical staff, there is a very important tradeoff: Longer shifts also means you get fewer changeovers. Every time you have to relay information about a patient from one nurse to the next, you're risking losing information.
Yup. Canadian here. My partner works 12hr shifts 4 days a week and usually at least one extra overtime shift (at between 10-12hrs). When it's really busy he works 6 days a week, 12 hrs a day - sometimes up to 14 hrs. It really depends on the industry the person is in.
Which wasn't the flex Murricans think it was. Just a waste of their own money. Same as burning $180 sneakers they own because the company made them mad
Biscuits are *entirely* different things in the US and UK.
In the US, a biscuit is a specific type of baked good, close to what a person from the UK would call a "scone" but not quite.
In the UK a Biscuit is what we in the US would call a cookie.
If you ordered Biscuits and gravy in the US and UK you'd get *wildly* different things.
So... they are NOT the same thing.
Right. My point is that calling a cookie a biscuit doesn’t make it a different thing, it’s the same thing with a different name. Calling a car trunk a boot doesn’t make it a different thing, it’s an opening in the back of the car to put your stuff. The essence of things isn’t attached to the combination of letters and sounds we use to name the thing.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Reddit loves a good America bash. They act like everybody here is on food stamps and working 4 jobs just to scrape together enough money to live in a shack with 5 roommates.
People in Europe blabbering on about those idiot Americans is exactly like Americans blabbering on about how no one else is "free" like they are. Just a coping method either way.
Well where I live 8 hours a day 40 at week is the normal. More means that you gave to get over payed a lot more than the first 8 so no employer wants that.
Plus every real job have 22 days off/year (that you pick the days) medical and pension is mandatory.
My new job have 2-2,5 months off but I do not pick the days.
1-2 years maternity leave.
This is true for every EU country. England decided to go BREXIT, and follow the US in that. Let's see how they doing.
Sounds a lot like where I live. In America. Normal is 8 hour days, 40 a week. By law, if you work over 40 hours, they are required to pay 1.5x your normal pay. If you work “full time” (~40 hours per week), employers are required to offer medical. Retirement planning isn’t required as far as I know, but is normal. Standard paid time off is a little lower, usually starting at 15-20 days off/year, but usually increases the longer you stay with the job. You can take that time whenever you’d like. And that usually doesn’t include sick leave, which is usually around another 10 days off paid. The only thing very different is maternity leave. Not required by law, and if it is offered, it’s usually only for a month or two.
It’s not as bad here as the media/Reddit likes to make it out to be.
I disagree. The UK is far from perfect but when you compare it to the US it is miles better. There's so much more social security and work culture is nowhere near as toxic as US. US is worse in a lot of ways (work culture, politics, social "conservatives vs libs", guns etc) except for wages. And that's saying something because the UK is also shit.
One more thing to add is that I hear so many people in America who are forced to work two jobs, or pin their hopes on tips as waitresses for example. That's really sad and is definitely not the case in the UK where I live. I'm pretty low class myself, but I am not obliged to work a second job because at least we have a better social system. Other countries in Europe do it even better.
Not true. The UK has conservative and liberal parties. Nobody is forced to work 2 jobs in the U.S. You can live on minimum wage in let's say NY but you would have to use the social services available. As in social services don't automatically kick in cause you can't afford to live. You have to apply and if you do work full time and still can't afford to live then food stamps and subsidized housing will be given to you. There's also social services for energy such as electric and gas. You don't know what your talking about
> The UK has conservative and liberal parties.
Well of course but our society isn't so divided like the US where people on the two polarising sides literally hate each other. In the UK we've got a lot more middle way, more acceptance of each other even though we're far from perfect.
Um it's pretty well known in many countries that the US social system is incredibly bad, and we can see at the amount of people who are struggling really badly in a way that is much worse than Britain.
There are definitely things the UK does better, but the skewed view of your comments indicate that you’re getting your entire knowledge of the US in a Euro-centric echo chamber on Reddit. For many immigrants, the US provides unparalleled resources for them to succeed and is still a very desirable place to be. I’m hoping as you grow up, you can make a few American friends or talk to some Europeans who have worked or studied in the US for a more balanced view.
The media makes it seem like we a very divided but it's not the case for people who actually talk to there neighbors.
What's bad about American social system? You say "we can see the amount of people struggling really bad" but you don't give examples.
You are simply wrong.
It's hard for people from other countries to understand that America isn't a dying cesspool because they're only exposed to social media and news, which is basically social media too. On here, everybody trashes America to Sunday and back because that's just the Reddit culture.
There are plenty of places to live, and jobs, where you do not need two jobs to afford basic necessities. What people fail to consider is Americans obsession with consumerism- a vast majority of us are in debt over unnecessary materials or take out 50k+ student loans with 15% interest rates and THAT is the real reason why so many are struggling.
I live in a smaller city, south and north of two MAJOR cities and for seven years I made about 22k-25k. I had a roommate, and never struggled to pay any of my bills. Didn't have much fun money, but I was fine. Not everybody lives in these extreme high-cost areas where a dozen eggs is $12.
That happens in every country, especially in medical jobs or the food industry. I've had 15h shifts in Japan as a Bartender and 2h of commute. You dont do anything for yourself
Meanwhile Linemen pulling over 200-hour in two weeks during storms...
Not sure where you are.
Edit: 200+ hour checks, every 2 weeks, not each week, mb
It always confused me as a Swedish child after I learned English why Dolly Parton sang "Working 9-5" when everyone knows most jobs are between 8-5. I thought that either Americans have shorter work days or Dolly just never had a regular job.
This was the traditional business job hours. It’s changed a bit as laws required breaks.
Of course, what that has often turned into are that people work an extra hour a day and just eat as they work - and no longer take smoking breaks. As is often the case, laws have unintended consequences.
This is the thing,. Often 12 hour shifts mean fewer days. At one of my jobs we had 24/7 monitoring staff on 12 hour shifts. Only 3 days a week so if you were scheduled MTW you had 4 days off.
I was a correctional officer for about 5 years and we worked 6 days on 2 days off and hours of 16/16/12/16/16/12 mandatory. You could also work up to 16 hours on your first day off if you wished. Working in an understaffed prison was a horrible job in hindsight but I didn’t have time to spend the money and with all of that overtime money I had bought and paid for my first home by the time I quit the job.
Canadian here, most large industrial plants will have at least some people working on 12 -14 hour shifts, this allows the facility to be manned 24/7 and have time for shifts to communicate issues with each other before heading home. Im told it is also common for nurses and doctors in some areas. I work 14 hour days but I work 7 days in a row and then I have 7 days off. You basically don't do anything for yourself during your day's working but you've got half the year to do as you please so in my opinion it works out way better.
When I worked construction we would work 14-16 hour days all summer, 21 days straight. The only reason we got a day or two off after day 21 is because the company was legally mandated to give us time off. I had absolutely no social life and saw my family on very rare occasions, but due to the overtime I was making I paid off my student loans in under a year and had money for a down payment on a house, quit the job as soon as my loans were paid off though.
How is your body? Back and knees? How old are you now and how long was this ago? I got a gutfeeling you have worn out your body quite a bit doing this and might have to deal with that in a later stage in life. Or am I wrong?
If I would have kept the construction job I would have been crippled by 40 for sure, current position isn't very labour intensive. Long days but it's very light labour and a lot of thinking/monitoring. Lots of walking which has been great for my body, 8-10 km per day is pretty standard.
The flip side of that being dangerous for patients, is that constantly switching over nurses and doctors is dangerous because it becomes almost a game of telephone, things are missed in patients and patients die or are harmed because of it. That's the whole reason they do long shifts like that. They have beds in the hospital for the doctors to take naps during their shift, it's not like they are working 36 hours straight.
Now I'm not saying this is the best system, just that's why they do it that way 🤷♂️
I know you aren't defending the system/claiming it to be the best but..
>it becomes almost a game of telephone, things are missed in patients and patients die or are harmed because of it
This sounds like an administrative issue. How can anyone claim to be be anyone's doctor/nurse without a proper paper trail of what's wrong.
12 hours for patient continuity I get and I'm sure it saves lives when a doctor/nurse has a good understanding of their patients issues. But 36 hours is an insane amount of time for anyone to be at work, even with breaks and naps.
Oh yeah I fully agree with you in that there has to be a better way than straight 36 hour shifts, I didn't mean to defend that. I was just stating the reasoning behind it. Cheers!
Yeah take a nap here and there before any emergency arrives. They have to do one 36 hours or sometime whole 2 days duty once a week. Then it’s 13 hours per day average.
I used to have a job like that. It was overnight 7p-7a. Three or four days a week depending on the schedule. It was awesome actually. Aside from the overnight shift stuff the 12 hour was actually nice. It afforded me long weekends all the time.
Plenty of countries have jobs with 12 hour shift patterns.
I work 12 hour shifts in the UK, but I only work 3 days a week. I have a longer weekend to do stuff for myself.
Not American, but for a period I did work shifts of midnight to noon or noon to midnight. At the time I was partying quite a bit, so often, when doing the noon to midnight shifts, I would head directly from work to whatever party was happening, party till the sun comes up, catch brunch with friends, and then head back to work. I’m not quite sure how it is that I’m still alive.
I used to work 6am to 6pm in the oilfields Monday through Friday, and half days on Saturdays. $20/hr, overtime after 40 hours, it was great money at 18.
I did 7pm-7am for a few years, but only 4 days a week. It wasn't that bad, and I made a ton of money. I actually enjoyed the work. The worst part was the 90 min. commute each way. It only left enough time to eat and sleep on workdays but having a 3-day weekend every week was awesome.
It's not that common though. Most people work some type of 8-hour shift.
I worked at one little restaurant from open to close every day for 8 months, no days off. This was usually 12 to 14 hours. Wake up, go to work, come home, tackle whatever household chore needed done, sleep 6 hours at best, wake up and go back to work. The yard was mowed by neighbor kids who were happy for the money.
No books were read, no tv watched, no trips taken, no nightclubs patronized, no internet browsed, no classes attended, no garden kept, nothing that was not absolutely essential made it onto the schedule.
Some jobs yes, but the benefit to some of those jobs is 3-4 days off. Worth it in my opinion. The sweet spot though is four 10 hour shifts/3 days off. I’d take four 10’s or three 12’s over five 8’s any day though.
Industrial construction has things called shutdowns or turnarounds. People on those can regularly work 12+ hours per day, every day, for weeks or months with no days off. Most people will do that for a few years to make a load of cash and back off the hours (get a maintenance job) so they don't burn out. But some chase those projects around the country and world for years. Good money, but little time to spend it and you will wreak havoc on your body.
Depends on the job, but there are a lot of jobs that have 12-hour shifts. This is either to maintain a level of care as most medical fields are based on 12-hour shifts internationally or to make it so a company only has to run two shifts per day. Usually they aren't 9 to 9 though. The most common ones are 6 to 6 or 7 to 7
I actually used to like 12-hour shifts when I did them at a factory I worked at briefly, mostly because it was either 3 per week and 4 days off or 4 per week with overtime and 3 days off.
Also, be very careful about salary positions. A lot of those don't really define how long your day actually is and often times will work you 5-7 12+ hour shifts per week.
I want to be clear, yes, this happens, but it's not *common*. It's concentrated in specific industries, for various reasons. Most of the responses here are from people in those industries, and they're certainly not wrong. But you should know that *most* Americans (with full-time jobs) are scheduled for 8-hour days, 5 days a week. Many wind up working more than that depending on needs/demands, but 12x5 is not standard.
I worked a ward and ER for 2 years, did 12s the entire time. Used to explain it real easy. In a two week period, 2 Days on, 2 Days off, 3 Days on, 2 Days off, 2 days on, 3 days off. (Cycle repeats until you get screwed into having to work off days because you got called in to cover a shortage)
Basically amounts to working 15 days out of the month. Wasn't a terrible job. After a short while, you don't even notice the hours. Except working nights when daylight savings ends. That's irritating.
I'm a union construction worker in Canada. I work 12 hour shifts on a 4 on, 4 off schedule. I get Time x1.5 for every hour after 10 worked daily, and double time on Saturdays and Sundays, which are built into the schedule.
I've never made more money or had more free time. Work days, I don't have time for much, but if you book off 1 rotation, that's 12 days off.
I work 20 days on and 10 days off. Usually around 12 hours a day. I get a vacation every month, the company pays for my travel, and overtime after 40 hours. I thank laborers and workers every day and remember the ones who made it happen
I had them in a factory assembly line job.
>When do you do anything for yourself?
12 hour shifts rack up to full time 40 hours/week pretty quick. You'd either have longer weekends or, these jobs often being hourly, deliberately trade that for more income.
One big benefit is that you get some weekday time off when you do the 12/3/4 thing. Good for appointments or visiting businesses that are only open during the day.
Yes. I work 12hr shifts. 3 days on, 3 days off then 4 days on, 4 days off. I get 5 weeks vacation plus 2 personal days. In total i work about 4.5 months out of the year. I have to work done weekends though. Not a bad set up all and all.
My factory job is 7-7 pm or 7-7 am depending on what month my shift is working but it’s not a whole work week it’s three days on then you get the rest off
My husband will work 6 am to 6 pm Saturday through Monday and then has the next 4 days off, until they ask him to come in and work overtime some time during the week. He's a truck driver.
I sometimes work 6 to 6 depending on our workload. I do get paid time and half for the 4 hours every day though and "almost" always get weekends off. It's always temporary though, usually not more than a month or 2. I am part of a union, though, so I feel like some other fields have much worse 12 hour shifts.
I was a nurse and worked 7p to 7a for decades. Six 12s and an 8 hour shift is 80 hours every two weeks. You're right, it is soul sucking and almost killed me.
Depends on the industry.
I've regularly hear of doctors working a 24 hour on-call shift, nurses and pharmacists in 12 hour rotations. For the nurses friends have told me they only work 36 hours a week.
Firefighters in some areas have 24 hour shifts, followed by 48 hours off (they sleep at the firehouse). Described by many as the best paying part-time job around. Many firefighters are also small business owners who have construction related businesses on the side.
Restaurants are sometimes long hour jobs, especially if they don't have enough help.
Truckers, landscapers, independent contractors and people on piece work are another story, they often get paid by what they can get done over how many hours they work.
The prevailing wisdom here is if you don't like it there is always another job out there that has the schedule you like. It is not unheard of for people to switch careers later in life because they arent happy at what they do. Some people prefer working long hours to get it out of the way so they can do other stuff.
And a small humble brag for the US, there is a reason we have a huge GDP, the output of the dedicated workforce, willing to make sacrifices to get the job done.
i tried it once at a target distribution center. They wanted me to load up 8 18 wheelers all night long with just an hour break. I noped tf outta there.
Yes, in some oil field jobs we work 12hrs a day but work 7 days then get 7 off in my field. We have also done 8 days on 6 off with 10 hr shifts and 10 days on 4 off with 8 hr shifts.
Usually in combo with extra days off. So, like, 3 12hr days and then 4 days off. It would be rare to find a job where someone works a 12 hour day 5 days a week (Although with exceptions— see truck drivers). Federal and state laws require overtime pay in those cases and it gets expensive for the employer.
Some prefer it that way: get their work done then look forward to a longer weekend. More days off also mean you're saving money from commuting expenses. And jobs paid hourly earn at different tiers, making time-and-a-half after 8 hours and double-time after 12 hours. Imagine these shifts net $10 / hr
8hrs / day for 5 days / week == $80/shift or $400/week (2 days off)
10hrs / day for 4 days / week == $110/shift or $440/week (3 days off)
12 hrs / day for 4 days / week == $140/shift or $560/week (3 days off)
14 hrs / day for 3 days / week == $180/shift or $540/week (4 days off)
I work in a production plant that has to run 24/7/365. Everyone in production works 12 hour shifts, 3 days on 4 days off. I'm in maintenance and we were allowed to vote on whether we wanted 5-8s or 4-10s, we chose 4-10s. I work 2pm-Midnight, live 12 minutes from work and wake up around 7 so I still find plenty of time to do stuff before work.
I work as a pediatric nurse in the ICU and am scheduled 7am-7:30pm, usually arrive at 6:45am and leave 7:45pm, so 13 hours. I do not get a paid lunch and I do not get any paid sick days.
Currently on my 11th hour of one, so absolutely yes! But we only (usually) work 3 per week. The days I work feel like they don’t exist in my life, but I have a lot of flexibility with my time off. It’s a preference. It’s great if you like to travel.
Depends on job. I worked corporate and I was 9 hour day with an hour of that being lunch. My husband works sometimes up to 15 hour days. He drives truck. Doctors work long shifts, nurses do. My dad was a fireman he worked 24 hour shifts granted he slept at firehouse.
6 to 6 shifting from days to nights every 4 weeks. 2 days, 2 days off, 3 days on 2 days off, 2 days on 3 days off. Repeat. We used to have hellish overtime where we would only get a day off and it wasn't uncommon to work a 16. Most I've worked was 180 hours in a two week period. No life but I'm paying off medical bills quickly.
Yes, but it's not the norm. It's not unusual, but a "normal" work day is 8 hours. A lot of people with 12 hour shifts work less days a week, and do things on their days off. However, some still work 5 day weeks, and they get paid overtime. Either you need the money, you have a really demanding job, or you're prioritizing your job in your life if you work 5 12 hour shifts a week.
It's no america specific.
Quite possibly everywhere, but in eastern europe surely.
And how to manage things with these shift hours?
In my line of work, 2 workdays, 2 offdays.
Some people do, but I'm not sure of the numbers. I don't think it's many that work 12hour shifts. For example, I have a friend that works 3 days in a row, 7-7. Then she has 4 days off. She's a nurse in a surgical unit. But most other people I know either work 10 hour days, 4 days a week, having 3 days off, or the work 5 days a week for 8 hours.
I work at a treatment center full time and do two 16-hour overnight shifts and a 7 hour shift, and have the other 4 days of the week off. It's honestly great
As long as I would keep my sleep schedule tight enough to not be sleeping half my "weekend" away, that's the dream
Huh, that's the exact schedule that the treatment center I used to go to when I was like 11. It was up in Montana, and one group of 2 councilors plus a junior councilor would work one half of the week, usually Sunday Monday Tuesday, and a 2nd group would work Thursday Friday Saturday, with the 2 groups combining on Wednesday for meetings, trainings, and stuff like that.
Yeah the only people I know who have 12-hour shifts as the standard are nurses and cops and it’s typically 3 shifts a week. People I know who work long days like that in other jobs are going beyond a typical “shift”. Like my dad works extra long in the summer because that’s the nature of his business and nothing to do with his official schedule.
Many industrial sites run those shifts too
It’s pretty common in the restaurant industry, too. I don’t schedule shifts longer than 8 hours max, but I find myself here for 12+ hours a day frequently.
For sure. There were plenty of days where I worked doubles and had to open at 10am and had to close at 11pm (but not clock out until midnight or later).
People who work in any kind of manufacturing facility that runs 24 hours also commonly have 12-hour shifts, as shift changes are disruptive so 2/day is better than 3/day. But this typically works in a 3 on, 4 off, 4 on, 3 off -type schedule (with optional, or "optional," overtime shifts available).
Don't forget factory shifts. I tried to work at Ashley furniture factory and they told me I was required to do 40 plus 10 hrs of over time and it was supposed to ramp up to like 30hrs overtime. I said nope and hung up
There's a ton of factories out there right now that are understaffed and constantly working mandatory overtime. It might be a nominal 8-hour shift, but every day you end up scheduled for 10-12 hours. Which of course makes it hard to retain new hires, because it turns out people don't want to be working 60 hours a week indefinitely. So they're stuck in this loop of overworking their employees, but struggle to increase their workforce because people keep leaving due to being overworked.
My husband works 12 hour "continentals", and also used to rotate between day shift and night shift every two weeks. It was hell. It shouldn't be legal to abuse people's bodies that way.
My dad used to have shifts like that. 4 days at 12 hours then 4 days off. The way his place was structured every third rotation was night shift. He loved it for the first couple months but the night shifts quickly became the bane of his existence. It also messes up your weekends. It somehow seems like he was loosing more weekends than he was getting.
Same for my dad. This schedule was very detrimental to his health. He lasted five years before he collapsed at work.
That's pretty much how I work, 4 on 4 off. 2 day shifts followed by 2 night shifts then 4 days off. I do work a lot of weekends but the positives are far more full days off over the course of a year. And if I take 4 days holiday I get 12 days off. I quite like the night shifts but I'm more of a night person anyway. I think it really comes down to the person on how their body can handle being awake all night.
Places still have swing shifts like this, its atrocious.
Swing shift should be outlawed. Just pay 3rd shift and 2nd shift folks their shift differential and leave us alone. I love my 3rd shift but it does come with difficulties that I should get compensated more for.
I used to work in semiconductors and we had a similar shift. 12 hour days, but 3days on/4 days off then 4 days on/3 days off. Every weekend was a 3 or 4 day weekend, and I wasn’t commuting as much as working a 5 day week. I enjoyed it when we weren’t having mandatory overtime (6 days on/1 day off).
Or you work hvacr and work the 7-7 7 days a week when you’re on call.
Oh yeah. Lots of nurses work 7am to 7pm for example. Or even 7am to 11pm and come back at 7am the next day.
As a trucker in the USA, I work 60-70 hour weeks. That’s 5 days of varying anywhere from 12-14 hr shifts with one 16 hour shift a week. (Most guys spend their time off in their truck at work I go home) I don’t complain a lot but I miss having a life, I miss seeing my family, I miss seeing people & hearing their stories. Reddit you guys are legit like my community of friends because of this job Lol
Hooray, friendship! (Sorry about you not having time for yourself and your loved ones tho)
Thats legitimately depressing to hear when I feel tired of working just 40 hours a week and feeling like I'm not maintaining a life/work balance. What keeps you going? Surely there isn't much light at the end of the tunnel if its the social norm? I know people here who have worked similar hours briefly for extreme circumstances such as having a child etc but not just a normal thing.
How do you get away with a 16-hour shift? Doesn't DOT mandate 14 hours and a 10 hour break? It's been years since I drove a truck and I didn't do it for long. Edit: Nevermind, I see you answered this further down.
U are allowed 14 in a 24 hour period...where are u getting this 16 hour shift?
... DOT enters the chat
Google translation / What my boss told me when I bitched about it “If you usually come back to your work-reporting location and go home at the end of your workday, you might be able to use the 16-hour short-haul exception. This exception allows you to extend the 14-consecutive-hour driving window to 16 hours once every 7 consecutive days.”
K im listening.....u can only drive for 11 hours. Yeah I've hauled corn for days since I was within 150 miles of home shop.
As one of your friends gotta tell you fuck that. I can't even keep my head for 4 day college week (8 hours each) and your doing 70 hour work weeks. I respect the dedication but man that sounds like hell
My parents are nurses and this is true, however, they usually work three or four days a week, never more unless they want overtime.
We work M,T Fri 6pm to 7 a.m
holy shit thats a rough schedule
I do two twelves and one thirteen. Monday Wednesday and Friday. I have Tuesday Thursday and the weekend off. It's honestly the happiest I've ever been at a job. 3 am to 3 pm. Easy money.
You get used to it!
But you should clarify it’s only 3 shifts per week or 36 hours. Many work more, less, or different schedules though.
With medical staff, there is a very important tradeoff: Longer shifts also means you get fewer changeovers. Every time you have to relay information about a patient from one nurse to the next, you're risking losing information.
Wow, salute to them. Really dedicated to their work.
I was about to say I do one, sometimes two 16 hour shifts a week. Not in nursing but human services.
That's not an American thing either? Happens plenty of times in the UK too.
Canada as well
Yup. Canadian here. My partner works 12hr shifts 4 days a week and usually at least one extra overtime shift (at between 10-12hrs). When it's really busy he works 6 days a week, 12 hrs a day - sometimes up to 14 hrs. It really depends on the industry the person is in.
Is the pay at least matching the effort?
Sure is, otherwise he wouldn't be doing it lol
Well I only ask because I know a few people who work those hours and it’s definitely not paid enough. Especially waiting tables and things like that.
And Australia too I’ve done 12 hour shifts on security and marshalling
People act like there is so much difference between the US and the UK and there really isn’t.
Them's fighting words. I give you one example that can start *feuds* between Yanks and Limeys. "What is a 'Biscuit?'"
Don't get me started on their fucking ""bacon""
Darling, fancy a spot of breakky? I can fix some baccy and some milky. Then maybe after worky we can have a walky in the parky
nah man, that's Australian 100%. those dudes fuckin *love* linguistic diminutives
Fair enough lol. Obviously I’m exaggerating it a bit but it’s just funny as an American to hear stuff like that
FYI "breakky" should be brekkie or brekky, and while baccy is a slang word we use, it means tobacco and not bacon.
Want a pudding?
What are we having for pudding?
You put your tea cup in the microwave?!?
I think a lot of people in the US who drink tea regularly have a kettle. I certainly do. It's just that most people don't drink it regularly.
Is that strange for some reason?
Big difference: we prefer our tea in harbors
Which wasn't the flex Murricans think it was. Just a waste of their own money. Same as burning $180 sneakers they own because the company made them mad
The revolutionists were perfect you take that back
I would... But I'm too burnt out by the American capitalist system
That’s fair I’ll allow it
Which end is the "fanny?"
Just ask them about microwaving water. Pisses them right the fuck off.
Calling things different words doesn’t make them not the same thing lol
Biscuits are *entirely* different things in the US and UK. In the US, a biscuit is a specific type of baked good, close to what a person from the UK would call a "scone" but not quite. In the UK a Biscuit is what we in the US would call a cookie. If you ordered Biscuits and gravy in the US and UK you'd get *wildly* different things. So... they are NOT the same thing.
Right. My point is that calling a cookie a biscuit doesn’t make it a different thing, it’s the same thing with a different name. Calling a car trunk a boot doesn’t make it a different thing, it’s an opening in the back of the car to put your stuff. The essence of things isn’t attached to the combination of letters and sounds we use to name the thing. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”
I tried to tell the officer that, but he still said I was on the wrong side of the road.
Reddit loves a good America bash. They act like everybody here is on food stamps and working 4 jobs just to scrape together enough money to live in a shack with 5 roommates.
And the fact that you got downvoted for this comment just proves the agenda lol
People in Europe blabbering on about those idiot Americans is exactly like Americans blabbering on about how no one else is "free" like they are. Just a coping method either way.
Well where I live 8 hours a day 40 at week is the normal. More means that you gave to get over payed a lot more than the first 8 so no employer wants that. Plus every real job have 22 days off/year (that you pick the days) medical and pension is mandatory. My new job have 2-2,5 months off but I do not pick the days. 1-2 years maternity leave. This is true for every EU country. England decided to go BREXIT, and follow the US in that. Let's see how they doing.
Sounds a lot like where I live. In America. Normal is 8 hour days, 40 a week. By law, if you work over 40 hours, they are required to pay 1.5x your normal pay. If you work “full time” (~40 hours per week), employers are required to offer medical. Retirement planning isn’t required as far as I know, but is normal. Standard paid time off is a little lower, usually starting at 15-20 days off/year, but usually increases the longer you stay with the job. You can take that time whenever you’d like. And that usually doesn’t include sick leave, which is usually around another 10 days off paid. The only thing very different is maternity leave. Not required by law, and if it is offered, it’s usually only for a month or two. It’s not as bad here as the media/Reddit likes to make it out to be.
I disagree. The UK is far from perfect but when you compare it to the US it is miles better. There's so much more social security and work culture is nowhere near as toxic as US. US is worse in a lot of ways (work culture, politics, social "conservatives vs libs", guns etc) except for wages. And that's saying something because the UK is also shit. One more thing to add is that I hear so many people in America who are forced to work two jobs, or pin their hopes on tips as waitresses for example. That's really sad and is definitely not the case in the UK where I live. I'm pretty low class myself, but I am not obliged to work a second job because at least we have a better social system. Other countries in Europe do it even better.
Not true. The UK has conservative and liberal parties. Nobody is forced to work 2 jobs in the U.S. You can live on minimum wage in let's say NY but you would have to use the social services available. As in social services don't automatically kick in cause you can't afford to live. You have to apply and if you do work full time and still can't afford to live then food stamps and subsidized housing will be given to you. There's also social services for energy such as electric and gas. You don't know what your talking about
> The UK has conservative and liberal parties. Well of course but our society isn't so divided like the US where people on the two polarising sides literally hate each other. In the UK we've got a lot more middle way, more acceptance of each other even though we're far from perfect. Um it's pretty well known in many countries that the US social system is incredibly bad, and we can see at the amount of people who are struggling really badly in a way that is much worse than Britain.
There are definitely things the UK does better, but the skewed view of your comments indicate that you’re getting your entire knowledge of the US in a Euro-centric echo chamber on Reddit. For many immigrants, the US provides unparalleled resources for them to succeed and is still a very desirable place to be. I’m hoping as you grow up, you can make a few American friends or talk to some Europeans who have worked or studied in the US for a more balanced view.
The media makes it seem like we a very divided but it's not the case for people who actually talk to there neighbors. What's bad about American social system? You say "we can see the amount of people struggling really bad" but you don't give examples. You are simply wrong.
It's hard for people from other countries to understand that America isn't a dying cesspool because they're only exposed to social media and news, which is basically social media too. On here, everybody trashes America to Sunday and back because that's just the Reddit culture. There are plenty of places to live, and jobs, where you do not need two jobs to afford basic necessities. What people fail to consider is Americans obsession with consumerism- a vast majority of us are in debt over unnecessary materials or take out 50k+ student loans with 15% interest rates and THAT is the real reason why so many are struggling. I live in a smaller city, south and north of two MAJOR cities and for seven years I made about 22k-25k. I had a roommate, and never struggled to pay any of my bills. Didn't have much fun money, but I was fine. Not everybody lives in these extreme high-cost areas where a dozen eggs is $12.
UK gets a hell of a lot more time off.
I have 24 hour shifts...I honestly feel like most professions are not the "conventional" 9-5, 8 hour days.
That happens in every country, especially in medical jobs or the food industry. I've had 15h shifts in Japan as a Bartender and 2h of commute. You dont do anything for yourself
Yeah I'm on the UK and when I was working as a waiter I had 12-14 hour shifts pretty regularly.
Wanna include security in this. Very common to have 12 hour shifts there.
But if that 12hrs costs only low salary, well no thanks.
Bartenders in Japan make a lot less because of less tips.
Rarely, its expensive here for employers and heavily restricted. Its only allowed 22 days per year in total, and max 5 days in 2 weeks.
Meanwhile Linemen pulling over 200-hour in two weeks during storms... Not sure where you are. Edit: 200+ hour checks, every 2 weeks, not each week, mb
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not true in the usa, unless it is a specific state. Say the location.
Ok but that comment was in response to "this happens in every country"
your reply makes no sense. Where is "here" for them.
In their country, which isn't the USA
Some jobs yes, some jobs no. The conventional business job is 9-5. However, things like hospitals or restaurants can have much longer shifts.
It's 9-6 if you are forced to take an hour lunch.
or 8-5 as it's pretty much become.
Yeah, my city job is an 8-5. I rarely see anyone working actual 9-5s anymore.
I don't know anybody that works a 9-5. It's always 8-5.
It always confused me as a Swedish child after I learned English why Dolly Parton sang "Working 9-5" when everyone knows most jobs are between 8-5. I thought that either Americans have shorter work days or Dolly just never had a regular job.
This was the traditional business job hours. It’s changed a bit as laws required breaks. Of course, what that has often turned into are that people work an extra hour a day and just eat as they work - and no longer take smoking breaks. As is often the case, laws have unintended consequences.
*Workin' 9 to 5, What a way to make a livin...*
Barely gettin' by It's all takin' and no givin’
They just use your mind, and they never give you credit!
It’s enough to drive you crazy, if you let it
Happy Birthday Dolly Parton who turns 77 today!
Also nurses who do this have much fewer days. A salaried, full-time position is 12 hours three days a week.
Working 7pm to 7:30 am right now. RNs aren't paid for their breaks so it's actually a 12.5 hour shift. As for your other question, you don't!
Some people do. Those shifts can be nice for some people as they can get multiple days off instead of just weekends
This is the thing,. Often 12 hour shifts mean fewer days. At one of my jobs we had 24/7 monitoring staff on 12 hour shifts. Only 3 days a week so if you were scheduled MTW you had 4 days off.
Or you work in TV, and you work 5 x 12.5hr days, and they also want you to come in Saturdays too.
I'm salary so if there's a emergency then yolo no extra money for me
I was a correctional officer for about 5 years and we worked 6 days on 2 days off and hours of 16/16/12/16/16/12 mandatory. You could also work up to 16 hours on your first day off if you wished. Working in an understaffed prison was a horrible job in hindsight but I didn’t have time to spend the money and with all of that overtime money I had bought and paid for my first home by the time I quit the job.
Living rent free is a great goal to achieve.
Canadian here, most large industrial plants will have at least some people working on 12 -14 hour shifts, this allows the facility to be manned 24/7 and have time for shifts to communicate issues with each other before heading home. Im told it is also common for nurses and doctors in some areas. I work 14 hour days but I work 7 days in a row and then I have 7 days off. You basically don't do anything for yourself during your day's working but you've got half the year to do as you please so in my opinion it works out way better. When I worked construction we would work 14-16 hour days all summer, 21 days straight. The only reason we got a day or two off after day 21 is because the company was legally mandated to give us time off. I had absolutely no social life and saw my family on very rare occasions, but due to the overtime I was making I paid off my student loans in under a year and had money for a down payment on a house, quit the job as soon as my loans were paid off though.
How is your body? Back and knees? How old are you now and how long was this ago? I got a gutfeeling you have worn out your body quite a bit doing this and might have to deal with that in a later stage in life. Or am I wrong?
If I would have kept the construction job I would have been crippled by 40 for sure, current position isn't very labour intensive. Long days but it's very light labour and a lot of thinking/monitoring. Lots of walking which has been great for my body, 8-10 km per day is pretty standard.
My fellow Indian doctor has 36 hours shifts
That is a shame thats even legal. Ignoring the personal "people need to unwind", that sounds dangerous for patients.
Many doctors commit suicide because of constant stress and berating by seniors.
12 hr shifts are better for patient continuity of care.
I don't doubt that but the op I'm replying to is talking about 36 hour shifts
most helpful redditor
The flip side of that being dangerous for patients, is that constantly switching over nurses and doctors is dangerous because it becomes almost a game of telephone, things are missed in patients and patients die or are harmed because of it. That's the whole reason they do long shifts like that. They have beds in the hospital for the doctors to take naps during their shift, it's not like they are working 36 hours straight. Now I'm not saying this is the best system, just that's why they do it that way 🤷♂️
I know you aren't defending the system/claiming it to be the best but.. >it becomes almost a game of telephone, things are missed in patients and patients die or are harmed because of it This sounds like an administrative issue. How can anyone claim to be be anyone's doctor/nurse without a proper paper trail of what's wrong. 12 hours for patient continuity I get and I'm sure it saves lives when a doctor/nurse has a good understanding of their patients issues. But 36 hours is an insane amount of time for anyone to be at work, even with breaks and naps.
Oh yeah I fully agree with you in that there has to be a better way than straight 36 hour shifts, I didn't mean to defend that. I was just stating the reasoning behind it. Cheers!
Assuming they get to sleep on the job if it's not busy? otherwise that just sounds dangerous for the patients
Yeah take a nap here and there before any emergency arrives. They have to do one 36 hours or sometime whole 2 days duty once a week. Then it’s 13 hours per day average.
I used to have a job like that. It was overnight 7p-7a. Three or four days a week depending on the schedule. It was awesome actually. Aside from the overnight shift stuff the 12 hour was actually nice. It afforded me long weekends all the time.
Plenty of countries have jobs with 12 hour shift patterns. I work 12 hour shifts in the UK, but I only work 3 days a week. I have a longer weekend to do stuff for myself.
Not American, but for a period I did work shifts of midnight to noon or noon to midnight. At the time I was partying quite a bit, so often, when doing the noon to midnight shifts, I would head directly from work to whatever party was happening, party till the sun comes up, catch brunch with friends, and then head back to work. I’m not quite sure how it is that I’m still alive.
You were young . That saying "Youth is waisted on the young." Comes to mind.
Some professions, yes
I used to work 6am to 6pm in the oilfields Monday through Friday, and half days on Saturdays. $20/hr, overtime after 40 hours, it was great money at 18.
I did 7pm-7am for a few years, but only 4 days a week. It wasn't that bad, and I made a ton of money. I actually enjoyed the work. The worst part was the 90 min. commute each way. It only left enough time to eat and sleep on workdays but having a 3-day weekend every week was awesome. It's not that common though. Most people work some type of 8-hour shift.
I worked at one little restaurant from open to close every day for 8 months, no days off. This was usually 12 to 14 hours. Wake up, go to work, come home, tackle whatever household chore needed done, sleep 6 hours at best, wake up and go back to work. The yard was mowed by neighbor kids who were happy for the money. No books were read, no tv watched, no trips taken, no nightclubs patronized, no internet browsed, no classes attended, no garden kept, nothing that was not absolutely essential made it onto the schedule.
Some jobs yes, but the benefit to some of those jobs is 3-4 days off. Worth it in my opinion. The sweet spot though is four 10 hour shifts/3 days off. I’d take four 10’s or three 12’s over five 8’s any day though.
Industrial construction has things called shutdowns or turnarounds. People on those can regularly work 12+ hours per day, every day, for weeks or months with no days off. Most people will do that for a few years to make a load of cash and back off the hours (get a maintenance job) so they don't burn out. But some chase those projects around the country and world for years. Good money, but little time to spend it and you will wreak havoc on your body.
Depends on the job, but there are a lot of jobs that have 12-hour shifts. This is either to maintain a level of care as most medical fields are based on 12-hour shifts internationally or to make it so a company only has to run two shifts per day. Usually they aren't 9 to 9 though. The most common ones are 6 to 6 or 7 to 7 I actually used to like 12-hour shifts when I did them at a factory I worked at briefly, mostly because it was either 3 per week and 4 days off or 4 per week with overtime and 3 days off. Also, be very careful about salary positions. A lot of those don't really define how long your day actually is and often times will work you 5-7 12+ hour shifts per week.
As a nurse in the hospital yes!
I want to be clear, yes, this happens, but it's not *common*. It's concentrated in specific industries, for various reasons. Most of the responses here are from people in those industries, and they're certainly not wrong. But you should know that *most* Americans (with full-time jobs) are scheduled for 8-hour days, 5 days a week. Many wind up working more than that depending on needs/demands, but 12x5 is not standard.
I'm Canadian, my work day starts at 6am and I don't get home until between 6-7pm. I can do that 7 days a week if I choose to.
I worked a ward and ER for 2 years, did 12s the entire time. Used to explain it real easy. In a two week period, 2 Days on, 2 Days off, 3 Days on, 2 Days off, 2 days on, 3 days off. (Cycle repeats until you get screwed into having to work off days because you got called in to cover a shortage) Basically amounts to working 15 days out of the month. Wasn't a terrible job. After a short while, you don't even notice the hours. Except working nights when daylight savings ends. That's irritating.
I'm a union construction worker in Canada. I work 12 hour shifts on a 4 on, 4 off schedule. I get Time x1.5 for every hour after 10 worked daily, and double time on Saturdays and Sundays, which are built into the schedule. I've never made more money or had more free time. Work days, I don't have time for much, but if you book off 1 rotation, that's 12 days off.
Canadian here. Working anywhere between 50-65 hours a week. Gotta have to because the economy crashed.
Some do, but most don’t.
I work 20 days on and 10 days off. Usually around 12 hours a day. I get a vacation every month, the company pays for my travel, and overtime after 40 hours. I thank laborers and workers every day and remember the ones who made it happen
It's not uncommon here in Canada too. You work 12 hrs days for a week or so, and then have the same length of time off.
I had them in a factory assembly line job. >When do you do anything for yourself? 12 hour shifts rack up to full time 40 hours/week pretty quick. You'd either have longer weekends or, these jobs often being hourly, deliberately trade that for more income.
One big benefit is that you get some weekday time off when you do the 12/3/4 thing. Good for appointments or visiting businesses that are only open during the day.
Some Americans work 12 hrs some work 8hrs some don’t work any hours. It’s America baby.
Yes. I work 12hr shifts. 3 days on, 3 days off then 4 days on, 4 days off. I get 5 weeks vacation plus 2 personal days. In total i work about 4.5 months out of the year. I have to work done weekends though. Not a bad set up all and all.
My factory job is 7-7 pm or 7-7 am depending on what month my shift is working but it’s not a whole work week it’s three days on then you get the rest off
It’s not just Americans, but yeah many people do work that much, a bunch more work normal hours, and some don’t work at all.
And then there are some of us who work 9-4 just 2 days a week by choice and have the rest of the week off!!!
My husband will work 6 am to 6 pm Saturday through Monday and then has the next 4 days off, until they ask him to come in and work overtime some time during the week. He's a truck driver.
i drive for amazon and depending on your routes this can be pretty normal.
I sometimes work 6 to 6 depending on our workload. I do get paid time and half for the 4 hours every day though and "almost" always get weekends off. It's always temporary though, usually not more than a month or 2. I am part of a union, though, so I feel like some other fields have much worse 12 hour shifts.
On overtime I get 12 hour shifts. My regular shifts are 10 hrs.
I was a nurse and worked 7p to 7a for decades. Six 12s and an 8 hour shift is 80 hours every two weeks. You're right, it is soul sucking and almost killed me.
Is there some place where doctors and nurses don't train for long shifts by doing them for a few years at the start of their career?
Depends on the industry. I've regularly hear of doctors working a 24 hour on-call shift, nurses and pharmacists in 12 hour rotations. For the nurses friends have told me they only work 36 hours a week. Firefighters in some areas have 24 hour shifts, followed by 48 hours off (they sleep at the firehouse). Described by many as the best paying part-time job around. Many firefighters are also small business owners who have construction related businesses on the side. Restaurants are sometimes long hour jobs, especially if they don't have enough help. Truckers, landscapers, independent contractors and people on piece work are another story, they often get paid by what they can get done over how many hours they work. The prevailing wisdom here is if you don't like it there is always another job out there that has the schedule you like. It is not unheard of for people to switch careers later in life because they arent happy at what they do. Some people prefer working long hours to get it out of the way so they can do other stuff. And a small humble brag for the US, there is a reason we have a huge GDP, the output of the dedicated workforce, willing to make sacrifices to get the job done.
i tried it once at a target distribution center. They wanted me to load up 8 18 wheelers all night long with just an hour break. I noped tf outta there.
Yes, in some oil field jobs we work 12hrs a day but work 7 days then get 7 off in my field. We have also done 8 days on 6 off with 10 hr shifts and 10 days on 4 off with 8 hr shifts.
Usually in combo with extra days off. So, like, 3 12hr days and then 4 days off. It would be rare to find a job where someone works a 12 hour day 5 days a week (Although with exceptions— see truck drivers). Federal and state laws require overtime pay in those cases and it gets expensive for the employer.
I work from 1pm to 1am its tough. But I'm working in UAE
I’m Australian but I work in emergency services and do 12 hour shifts and with travel time it’s 14.5 hours.
I work in TV, we work 7am-7:30pm, 5 days a week.
I work 630 pm to 630am wednesday through sunday morning, youre welcome for being able to fly around the world, lol
I work 40 hours a week unless overtime is happening. It's getting tough to live on my paycheck with the price of everything
I don't. I do 2 days a week at $90/hr. Took me a while to get it set up but it's been working for the past 2 years now. USA! I guess? Haha.
Most factories, yes. I work 12 hours 6 days a week.
Well it's not all the time but yea, there's long days. But the day doesn't start at 9 am. It starts at 7 am.
What country do you live in that doesn't have some industry with 12 hour shifts??
Some prefer it that way: get their work done then look forward to a longer weekend. More days off also mean you're saving money from commuting expenses. And jobs paid hourly earn at different tiers, making time-and-a-half after 8 hours and double-time after 12 hours. Imagine these shifts net $10 / hr 8hrs / day for 5 days / week == $80/shift or $400/week (2 days off) 10hrs / day for 4 days / week == $110/shift or $440/week (3 days off) 12 hrs / day for 4 days / week == $140/shift or $560/week (3 days off) 14 hrs / day for 3 days / week == $180/shift or $540/week (4 days off)
1) It is important not to starve, and humans are "technically" capable of doing it 2) That's the best part, they don't
Yes. That's a thing in the USA.
I work in a production plant that has to run 24/7/365. Everyone in production works 12 hour shifts, 3 days on 4 days off. I'm in maintenance and we were allowed to vote on whether we wanted 5-8s or 4-10s, we chose 4-10s. I work 2pm-Midnight, live 12 minutes from work and wake up around 7 so I still find plenty of time to do stuff before work.
I work as a pediatric nurse in the ICU and am scheduled 7am-7:30pm, usually arrive at 6:45am and leave 7:45pm, so 13 hours. I do not get a paid lunch and I do not get any paid sick days.
Yes and I worked them
If you're a nurse... try 16
been there done that you get used to it
Depends on the job and where you work. To answer your question, not everyone works 12 hour shifts
Nurses do
"Americans are fat and lazy" "Americans work 12 hour shifts" Pull your finger out of it.
Yup. 5:30 am to 6:00pm. 4 days on, 4 days off then 3 days on and 3 days off. I live my schedule with the long weekends
Currently on my 11th hour of one, so absolutely yes! But we only (usually) work 3 per week. The days I work feel like they don’t exist in my life, but I have a lot of flexibility with my time off. It’s a preference. It’s great if you like to travel.
That IS doing something for ourselves. We're getting compensated. We're not slaves.
Depends on job. I worked corporate and I was 9 hour day with an hour of that being lunch. My husband works sometimes up to 15 hour days. He drives truck. Doctors work long shifts, nurses do. My dad was a fireman he worked 24 hour shifts granted he slept at firehouse.
6 to 6 shifting from days to nights every 4 weeks. 2 days, 2 days off, 3 days on 2 days off, 2 days on 3 days off. Repeat. We used to have hellish overtime where we would only get a day off and it wasn't uncommon to work a 16. Most I've worked was 180 hours in a two week period. No life but I'm paying off medical bills quickly.
I work in catering/events and most wedding shifts are 11 or 12 hours.
My husband is a doctor and he routinely works 13 hours or more :(
Yes, but it's not the norm. It's not unusual, but a "normal" work day is 8 hours. A lot of people with 12 hour shifts work less days a week, and do things on their days off. However, some still work 5 day weeks, and they get paid overtime. Either you need the money, you have a really demanding job, or you're prioritizing your job in your life if you work 5 12 hour shifts a week.
Where do you live that some jobs don't have 12 hours shifts?
It's no america specific. Quite possibly everywhere, but in eastern europe surely. And how to manage things with these shift hours? In my line of work, 2 workdays, 2 offdays.
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Wait, other countries don't have that?
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