A recent change at my household has presented me with a new perspective of shift work. A wonderful friend of my wife’s transferred from out of state and is staying with us for awhile. She is an assistant manager with a national pharmacy chain, and her job requires shift work.
As I stated in my first blog entry, I Do Shift Work Up And Running there are all types of shift work, retail being one of them. Although I have had many opportunities to interact with retail shift workers, I can say with a red face that I did not appreciate the unique difficulties that retail shift workers can encounter. Dealing with the public is a given. There are other difficulties as well.
My first observation was the differences in terminology. For me a three shift rotation is days, swings, and graveyards. For her it is open, close, and overnights. This is puzzling. If there is an overnight shift, why would you open or close? It must be a carryover of terms from the days when stores actually did close at night.
Her schedule is a very odd shift schedule. It appears it is based on .. something or other. I will not attempt to explain it. It would be a useless endeavor for me, and boring for you. The point is, there is very little that I can see that allows for a normal routine. I have worked shift work for thirty years or so. She has done it for just the last few years.
I feel like a scientist observing a human behavioral experiment. No, that is way to self important. This is more like watching how a fish in a bowl reacts when you put the towel on and take the towel off the bowl at all hours of the night and day. They forget when to eat. Often they just swim in random circles, occasionally bumping into the side of the bowel. Sometimes they seem to not have a direction at all. They are fixed in a half sleep state that knows not what to do next, or what they were doing previously for that matter.
The subject of my observation is a very intelligent woman. This was not normal for her pre shift work. This is extremely encouraging for me. I now know for sure I’m not an idiot. I’m a shift worker. Just today she awoke from a day of rest to prepare for yet another overnight (remember, that’s graveyards). She came into the kitchen and started washing a dish or two, then disappeared. My beautiful wife later begin to finish the dishes when her friend reappeared to finish the task. My wife said, "I thought graveyards kicked in and you headed back to bed”. My grandchildren spoke up almost in unison, “That’s what grandpa does”. Encouraging indeed.
So I wonder what other unique difficulties do retail shift workers deal with. In the chemical plant environment, I have thought about terrorist attacks, fires, explosions, releases and the like. Although these things happen, they are very rare. I would guess they are less likely than a convenience store being robbed.
I remember early one morning several years ago on my way to work when I stopped to get gas. There was another car there and when I went to the window at the booth, the lady was terrified and begged me not to leave. She thought the other man there was carrying a gun. I live in Texas, this is not all that unusual. Never the less I hung around until he filled his car and left. The mental stress was obviously very hard on her.
What stories can you share? How have you dealt with retail shift work? As you think about that, I will continue with my observations of my guest subject.
