I’ve worked 2nd (afternoon), swing (evening), and 3rd (overnight) shifts for the majority of my life. I recently moved into a training position where I’m Monday through Friday, 8am to ~5:30pm (I get OT while I’m cleaning up and writing reports).
As much as the 2nd/swing/3rd shifts screw with your life in other ways, the difficulty in scheduling any kind of life services outside of working hours is maddening. Doctor’s appointment? Nope. DMV? Maybe Saturday, if you’re lucky. Chaperone your kids field trip? Hahahhah no.
I don’t want to burn sick time for a doctor’s appointment (I need to save those for when my kid is actually sick), and I sure as hell don’t want to use up a “vacation” day for it. How tf are you supposed to get anything done?
We don’t. We come home around 7 and start doing the bare minimum to keep up the household letting daycares and schools raise our kids.
We clean and cook and pay our bills then we go to sleep irritated and tired and sick of the rat race.
We have sex once or twice a month and go to fucking florida once a year. That’s it.
The concept of burning vacation / sick time for a doctor’s appointment is weird to me (canada). I just say “hey boss, doc appointment this day” and he says “okay”.
I feel like it depends on the company here, but I don’t think I’d stay long if they made me use my time off for that.
Same thing here in Europe. You can then get a special permit from the doctor to show your employer that you were actually at a medical appointment and not smoking weed
In United States of Shit, you can get a doctor’s note to show employers. Most times I’ll make an appointment and get the date on a doctors card and show my manager. All unpaid of course
This feels personal… I’ll have you know I can smoke weed AND go to the doctor.
Scrolling down to this actually made me burst out with a laugh. Well done.
DMV (or, our equivalent here) isn’t open on Saturday’s where I live. You have to go during the day 9-5 M-F, which yes, is when most people are working. Same with doctors appointments.
The companies I’ve worked at are generally very understanding, and allow you to make up time later (which is easy to do especially since it’s remote work) if you have to take an afternoon off, that kind of thing.
I work 6 to 2. If I need to take a couple hours for a medical, family issue or car appointment, then I let my boss know and he says it’s okay. I’m usually able to schedule things so that I put appointments and so on when I don’t have big meetings. So long as the work gets done it’s cool.
If I’m feeling rotten, I phone in and say I’m either too sick to work or that I’ll WFH that day.
Of course, if I have a big vacation planned then I will put in for leave. I get 25 days off a year.
It doesn’t work for anyone. People use up their vacation days.
im an actor and comedian outside the corporate world. I just gig in the evening. I go on dates with my wife. I go to friends birthday parties. I work out. I garden. I play with my cat.
The bad news is - if you wanna do stuff, you gotta go do stuff
I have to beg to be allowed to come in late, just to treat serious health issues. I guess the people with an actual life, are the ones that are born wealthy, or studied to do an easy-going job.
I don’t think you are meant to escape with enough hard work, it is punishment for not being a good student in childhood: You get worked like a slave, your entire life, dreams, passions, dignity, all that you are, is pushed aside, as your health is slowly chipped down, until you drop dead in your 40’s-50’s, no retirement for you.
Then you get some bs eulogy about how you were a good, hardworking man. One of the few times ever that people will even pretend to appreciate you.
I guess the people with an actual life, are the ones that are born wealthy, or studied to do an easy-going job […] it is punishment for not being a good student in childhood
Yup, this is me. Both my parents were software engineers, I grew up top 1% wealth in Canada. Went to a decent university (covered by my parents), job hopped a few times, salary kept going up and the work kept going easier.
I still grinded my ass off along the way (first job took me 700 applications, I spent nights and weekends studying for my next interviews instead of going out with friends), but I still wouldn’t be here without nepotism and family wealth that they used to support me.
While there is some guilt that other people who worked harder couldn’t get to where I am, that doesn’t mean I’m going to waste the opportunity.
PTO or asking for hour flexibility. Taking off an hour or two early/coming in late because of a dr appointment for example.
My job is very lax, so I can just bring in a ThinkPad, and do some coding.
Burn PTO. Already get up at 6 to get the kids off to school, straight to work, straight to dinner, pick one chore until i pass out, get up at 6
If you have PTO. Contractors do not. Finding full time employment these days is hard. Finding full-time contracts is a lot easier.
our contractors take UTO :/
Companies love contractors. No benefits to pay and doesn’t count as a full time hire.
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I love reading all the comments from people sharing a similar experience. This is what we deserve
8-5?
You work 9 hrs?
That is the standard workday in the US. 8 AM to 5 PM with a one-hour unpaid lunch at noon because they want to get eight hours of work out of you. It used to be 9-5 with a paid lunch but that got gutted decades ago.
Unpaid 1hr lunchbreak. Pretty common today to work 8-5 in a 4:4
Yea, cool.
Does “in a 4:4” mean 4 days on, 4 days off? That’s only about 16 workdays a month.
4 hours paid work, 1hr unpaid lunch, four hours paid work, home. Paid for 8hr, but on site for 9hr.
Oh yeah, that’s been a common pattern for years and years. I think “9 to 5” refers more to higher-ranking people who get a paid lunch hour out of their 8 as a perk.
You have to physically get to work don’t you?
No
Not everyone gets to only work 8, lol
Should they
I mean it should be their choice to work more or not. So yes and no.
It’s not their choice if they’re then coming here to complain they don’t have time for their own life.
Obviously the fuck not lol. Are you trying to build of a strawman about my views to make yourself feel better?
How so
Bruv you mind stop asking leading questions that you know the answers to?
Lots of people have 8 hrs paid work time + an actual lunch hour. In my experience 8.5 total is more common.
Lol
Chores during work hours
only if you WFH
Eh that makes it a complete solution, but there’s a lot of daily tedium that can be knocked out with a cell phone, and in some cases dipping out to swing by whatever shop/service is viable
Not that I’m suggesting it’s easy or that corpo culture isn’t broken. Just my personal best answer
what about stuff like cooking, cleaning, laundry? Also in-person appointments like doctor, dentist, vets (if you have pets), car maintenance, etc? Banking and scheduling these appts you can do completely remotely but everything else requires being in-person
Cooking, cleaning, etc has always been on people’s own time. For appointments and errands they try to use their lunch hour or request off-time, go in extra early and leave early, whatever - depends on the job. One of the benefits of most WFH jobs is being able to schedule your own time.
I don’t WFH, not anymore, so now I chore remotely
Use up vacation days. Yes, really.
You don’t take vacation days to work without meetings?
