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After 26 years, I have been told that I am going to days, that my night shift post is being moved to another department. Hey, can't complain because I still do have a job.
I have taken some time off to start the transition and in a way, it is sort of like taking a vacation before a new job.....at least in my point of view. I am still on nights, however, until they tell me that I am not. That is always a complexity though maybe, might, if these days of taking things slow and restful, when I am told, I might be able to approach and do what day people told me for so many years......"Well, you can always take a nap.".
Some things are easy such as thinking to be awake during the day. Some things are a bit more complex such as reorganizing thought patterns, from how I saw things one way and now need to see them another, to realizing that there may be a certain activity input shock as I am cut off from 40 hours/week of the Internet. Then there are other things such as my heat tolerance is not up to par since I have spent so long being active in the cooler night.
Still, there are points here and there, such as feeling "lost" right now. Not sure where I am, not sure where I am going, certain aspects not necessarily bringing me the joy that they have.
Has anyone else experienced such a shift from a long standing way of life. Does anyone have any suggestions that I might try?
No suggestions, but an offer of sympathy. My son recently took a night shift position that he will be at for three years before he can be promoted to the position he wants with his company. They gave him a few months to transition, working whenever he wanted during that period. He said the adjustment has been rough. He's about four months in and still trying to deal with the adjustment. I think a part of that is thinking about how much things will change for him when he will be on a completely different schedule outside of work too. It's hard when everything you are used to goes topsy turvy on you. Does your company have a work/life resource to help you adjust to the life changes that will happen?
I don't think so. As things have gone for the past fortnight, I have gone from maybe having a choice about it to being snatched by another section (and no choice) as an able body (same salary). More so, I am now under the impression that this move is going to take a heck of a lot faster than most people thought.
This weekend, I have gone from periods of feeling in control to feeling out of control and having to let the auto pilot take over. Sometimes, things feel okay; other times, I feel lost. Been taking it easy this weekend, about the best I can do. Took in a play, been putting up some of my art work. Doing laundry, the dishes, made a salad.
Hopefully I will be able to grab another extended weekend but you know what they say. Grab time when you can because you never know when you cannot.
One thing I am feeling today is like a physical panic attack, like I had jumped into cold water without the proper wet suit, like I am shivering without the cold, without a mental association. Way back in my undergrad days, this was a free floating anxiety attack only that was mental without an identifiable cause. This is physical without an associated mental feeling to it.
I don't know, maybe its those feelings of being lost that are all teaming up against me. I did have to work the mid shift as I await for the final move. Shrug. I have been using a new mental process to get to sleep and it works pretty darn well, where I start it it is not a few seconds before I have to start it again because I lose my place....and eventually, I throw myself so far into it I am asleep.
Or maybe it is because of the unknown and maybe the Monday morning meeting with the immediate boss can answer some things.
But now that we are back in the work week, I am hoping others of the work world may have some input about how they handled this.
Otherwise, I am finding out things, things that I took for granted as a night worker, that I will now have to recognize as maybe being different. Such as working without supervision to perhaps the opposite. That I have often called the night shift the Nostromo shift because I talk to people at the start and at the end (like the crew of the Nostromo in Alien where it is departure and arrival when they are awake) but inbetween, it can be very quiet. That, too, is about to change.
So anything from other redeemed people of the night?
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