Firstly, I like to clarify that everything that’s written here is based on my own personal experience. It doesn’t guarantee that whatever that’s in here applies to everyone else. Just a little disclaimer before I begin. Tee-hee! I just thought of sharing you this list as I know, not every one of us gets the chance to work on graveyard shift. I’ve been on a shifting working schedule for more than a year now since I started working as an IT specialist who handles a 24/7 operation. I think, half of it (or less), I worked on night shift. That being said, I believe, my experience is legit enough to share you the pros and cons of it. Let’s start!
Cons:
- It’s harder to join your friends on night parties.
- No chance to watch your favorite telenovela unless you have a subscription and such.
- You have to deal with a messed up body clock.
- You need extra push to stay awake during days off, or else, you’ll be awake the entire night while everyone else at home are sleeping, safe and sound.
- You have a weird eating schedule. Example, your usual dinner is your breakfast.
- It’s uncomfortably hot when sleeping in the day unless you have air-conditioner inside your room. Hello Philippines!
- You are at high risk of health issues. (I just observed that I acquire headache, cough and colds when I’m working on night shift more often than during day shift)
Pros:
- You get to do important errands in the morning especially if it has something to do with business appointments, consultation to your doctor, bank appointments, etc. All these have their allotted business hours which are usually set in the morning until early afternoon.
- Traffic is not as heavy as when you’re working on regular shift.
- You get to enjoy your night shift premium and all other perks that come along it. $_$
- You can go shopping before heading to work.
- You can participate on a lot of activities during the day. Most of the parties and events at work (or off-work) are set in the morning.
- You don’t bother setting the alarm clock for the next day. (But I still do, just in case.)
Overall, I still prefer morning shift (not regular, morning shift is earlier than the regular one) over night shift. But I don’t hate it either. It has a lot of good things to offer and I intentionally didn’t include the rest of it in this list for confidentiality and because they don’t apply to most people/profession/company. It was a real struggle for me at first but I got used to it eventually.
