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?
Where I work, they don’t really give a shit if you have to go to an appointment or whatever. You just let people know you’re going to be out at such and such time and that’s it. No micromanaging of time since we’re all adults and know what our deadlines and deliverables are. It’s a salaried position, though.
If I had no flexibility at all that would definitely be pretty miserable.
Yes exactly. And all of those appointments are even considerd work time.
In our company we also get a splndid lunch for €5 every day. I honestly can’t complain about my work life balance with this much planinf freedom.
Same here, middle of the road salary but as long as I can stand on business in meetings people generally dont care. The difference is I’ll finish early to collect the kids and then do an hour or two when they are in bed.
I come from a decade of high flexibility and autonomy. I now have a boss who basically breathes down my neck until the moment i need help, then is a ghost.
The “you have to be sitting at your desk the whole day, every day” thing is fucking insane. I can’t believe how much I dislike this job because of it
Same, brother. After working at a job that really doesn’t want you to randomly be absent by any reason to a job where you can come and leave any time as long as you got 40h a week - that is life changing.
Unfortunately, not all jobs can be like this. My previous job, just because of it’s nature, would never allow this freedom.