Wanting to transfer from the night shift, but... (employee, applying, job)

[terryaki]

Ok here's the situation:

I'm 22 and just graduated from college this may and have been working in a hospital laboratory since june. I just got off a 3-month training routine at the very beginning of october and have been working the night shift since. I guess you could say that I grossly underestimated how much of a pain in the butt it has been on my life. My social life is honestly slowly deteriorating as I am unable to be with friends who like to go out, and I am noticing a deterioration of my health as well with abnormal sleep patterns and a seemingly always present low-grade illness. Not to mention how incredibly stressful it can be to work the overnight shift in a lab for a nearly 1000-bed hospital campus, where nearly every patient gets a complete blood count every morning at around the same time for medical rounds. So it was a big mistake on my part for accepting the job in the first place. (I've learned my lesson now).

Anyway, my intention is to begin applying for a transfer to a daytime position in a different department of the hospital after the end of my 6-month performance review (which i desperately hope to god is positive), and if a position isnt available, to begin searching at other area hospitals or health lab testing centers. The problem is that when I finished training and started on nights, a fellow night coworker basically bolted and transferred out herself. (She did not enjoy nights as well). Because my position was considered an overhire, they will not be recruiting for another person. Now because of this, the altruistic part of me says that if I leave without them having a new hired employee, then it would be absolute hell to the rest of the overnighters to work a person short-staffed. I would rather not have to subject my overnight coworkers to that...

So basically the main question is this: Do I tell the manager outright that I plan on finding a day position and if it's not in the same department or company then so be it, so that she can start recruiting? Or do I simply do my new job search and once I find it, I give my 2 weeks notice and say "see ya" and let the management worry about the short-staffing issues?

[sean98125]

Let your manager know that working nights is affecting your personal life and your health and that you are looking for a day shift position. Give him or her the first chance to find something for you.

Meanwhile, start looking for a day shift position in another lab.

Have you thought about evening shift? You'd still be available during the evenings to have a social life on your days off, and your sleep schedule would only be a couple of hours different than a typical day shift worker. I loved working evenings - my bed time was the same no matter whether or not I was working the next day, and I never had traffic problems on either end of my commute. I could also wake up every day without an alarm clock, unless I needed to do laundry or chores or shopping or something.

[GCSTroop]

I too work night shift. Where I work, we work days or nights based on our seniority. At the rate I'm going, it'll be a good 5 or 6 years before I can think about day shift.

I can't really give you advice on the matter in regards to what you should do in terms of staying or quitting the company, however, I can tell you what I do to keep myself in some semblance of normality.

First, my work schedule consists of 4, 10 hour days a week. I work Monday, Tuesday (2100-0730), off Wed. and then I work Thur. and Friday (again same times), and then I'm off Sat and Sun.

Typically on my Wednesday day off I try to stay up through the night as if I am on a normal working shift. There's no point in altering my schedule for one day to hop back for the next night. It throws your entire equilibrium out of whack. I suggest that if you do have a random day off in the middle of the week that you keep to that schedule.

When I finish work Sat. morning, I come home, shower, and go right to bed. I'm usually in bed by 0800. I try to wake up around 1 or 2 in the afternoon (this is my one day of the week where I get the least amount of sleep.) I wake up, spend the rest of the day with my wife, and I do all the things normal people do. By 10 or 11 I am beat and we go to bed. I wake up Sunday morning by 0800, and spend all day doing normal things at normal hours. At around 6 P.M. I take a two or three hour nap (ok, sometimes four), wake up and spend the rest of the night doing my hobbies. Usually by 0700 Mon. morning I am spent. I pop two Tylenol PM's and sleep all day. When I wake up around 5 in the afternoon I am refreshed and ready to go for the night.

Tuesday morning when I come home from work I run errands and take care of personal issues. I go to bed around 1000 or 1100 in the morning and wake up around 7 PM. I go to work and come home on Wednesday morning to my day off.

Something very important when working night shift is to get a good days sleep. I can usually punch through a day of work if I have a couple hours of sleep, but put me on nights with 4-5 hours and I feel sick. I have thick curtains in my bedroom and I wear earplugs when I sleep. They take a little getting used to, but I promise you they make a big difference in the quality of your sleep. You may want to try and get a prescription for Ambien or something and see if that helps you.

I hope this helps, I would try it before I bailed out on a new job. People are a dime a dozen in this day and age, I would stick with it, or at least try, before I quit my job.

[GreenMachine]

Originally Posted by terryaki

Ok here's the situation:

I'm 22 and just graduated from college this may and have been working in a hospital laboratory since june. I just got off a 3-month training routine at the very beginning of october and have been working the night shift since. I guess you could say that I grossly underestimated how much of a pain in the butt it has been on my life. My social life is honestly slowly deteriorating as I am unable to be with friends who like to go out, and I am noticing a deterioration of my health as well with abnormal sleep patterns and a seemingly always present low-grade illness. Not to mention how incredibly stressful it can be to work the overnight shift in a lab for a nearly 1000-bed hospital campus, where nearly every patient gets a complete blood count every morning at around the same time for medical rounds. So it was a big mistake on my part for accepting the job in the first place. (I've learned my lesson now).

Anyway, my intention is to begin applying for a transfer to a daytime position in a different department of the hospital after the end of my 6-month performance review (which i desperately hope to god is positive), and if a position isnt available, to begin searching at other area hospitals or health lab testing centers. The problem is that when I finished training and started on nights, a fellow night coworker basically bolted and transferred out herself. (She did not enjoy nights as well). Because my position was considered an overhire, they will not be recruiting for another person. Now because of this, the altruistic part of me says that if I leave without them having a new hired employee, then it would be absolute hell to the rest of the overnighters to work a person short-staffed. I would rather not have to subject my overnight coworkers to that...

So basically the main question is this: Do I tell the manager outright that I plan on finding a day position and if it's not in the same department or company then so be it, so that she can start recruiting? Or do I simply do my new job search and once I find it, I give my 2 weeks notice and say "see ya" and let the management worry about the short-staffing issues?

Let them worry about it. It's not your problem. I'm sure they'll find a way to cover for you. Once you tell people your leaving, they start to treat you differently.

[bande1102]

Is the person that you're planning to tell in a position to change your schedule? Would they want to? Are day shifts highly coveted and are you expected to pay your dues on night shift?

I worked as a police dispatcher years ago and had shift work. I rotated between days, evenings, and midnights. In order to get a permanent shift (even midnights) you had to work there for a few years. And in order to get a permanent dayshift? Forget it. I was looking at years of waiting in line. In my case, I was expected to pay my dues and sweat it out. Asking wouldn't have worked. Everybody hated the schedule and I know they would've told me too bad, so sad. I ended up finding another job b/c I knew it wouldn't do any good to complain.

The only reason to tell a supervisor/manager about your issues is if 1) they have the authority to change your position and 2) they'll want to--cause you're a brilliant employee and they don't want to risk losing you. My guess is that if you say anything they'll give you a noncommittal answer ("we're working on it") and then start looking for your replacement. I wouldn't risk it.

I just re-read and noticed you're planning to transfer out. In that case, you might want to check the HR department. At several companies I've worked for, I've had to give my immediate supervisor a notice as soon as I applied for a transfer.

[infoperson]

i work for the department of corrections and have been doing so for five years in my state. i transfered to a different prison and was placed on night shift after two weeks of orientation. i do not like working night shift at all. what is the best reason to give to transfer from night shift to day shift if you have just transfered to a different facility.