God, I hate talking about overnight shifts

[conuly]

Don't get me wrong, I love doing them - five hours of reading, three hours of work, what's not to love? - but talking about them? Don't get me started. Every single time it's a back and forth to confirm the actual day the shift starts.

I got a shift through the staffing agency, and I say "So, to confirm, I go to work at midnight Monday?" and he goes "No, Sunday". "So, I leave my house at 11:30 today...?"

No, he meant midnight Monday to 8am Monday.

Every time I look at the schedule at the usual place I find myself momentarily baffled by the fact that the overnight shift is at the top, as the first shift of the day.

Also, literally as I typed that last sentence a spam text came in with the word "lpuuuu", which seems low effort even for a spam text. I get that their business model depends on weeding out everybody smart enough to say "Seems fake!", but seriously?

Comments

[ioplokon]

Would it be possible to start your shift at 11:59 or 12:01?

[conuly]

I mean, yeah. I clock in as soon as I show up, otherwise I forget.

But I can't make them change how they schedule it!

[greenwoodside]

That sounds incredibly annoying! And I bet it's not just you that it confuses and causes problems for. There will be a history of employees misunderstanding and turning up on the wrong day.

Do they seem like the kind of people who'd be open to redesigning things, if they realise that their current system is really stupid creating extra work?

[ethelmay]

Maybe ask about the end time, which isn't subject to the same day-of-the-week confusion. "So, to confirm, this is the shift that begins at midnight and ends at 8 am Tuesday morning?"

[calimac]

"Midnight Monday" is ambiguous. It needs to be clarified.

[movingfinger]

Midnight is 24:00 on the clock I use, because it follows 23:59; is there a way you can use military time for this? And because it is 24:00, it is on the same calendar day as 23:59. Once that minute has ended, it is now the following day---00:01 on Tuesday, no longer Monday.

[ioplokon]

Yeah, I meant in the schedule, they could change it to be 12:01 or whatever, which would remove any ambiguity.

[zavodilaterrarium]

Night-related time confusion SUCKS so bad omg, but it's so easy to specify end times or "in xx hours from now" if the start times are unclear... My uni has assignments due at 11:55pm specifically so that there is no question about when it's due lmao

[james]

My partner and I have learned to say things like "Monday night into Tuesday morning" because she works overnights/early morning and gets up at 10:30pm and starts work around 2:30am. But for her the day starts when she gets up so she calls it "Tuesday morning" but I haven't gone to bed yet, because I work closing shifts.

I feel your pain!

[kengr]

This is why there is (supposed to be) a distinction between 00:00 and 24:00.

00:00 Monday is 24:00 Sunday.

is 00 is at the *start* of the day, 24:00 is at the *end* of the day.

[conuly]

Mmm... that'd require all the places to change, which might cause some confusion.

[conuly]

There will be a history of employees misunderstanding and turning up on the wrong day.

The very first overnight shift I worked I confirmed with the manager three times as to the correct day, saying that I'd rather be a little annoying and extra-careful than fail to show up.

And then one of my coworkers calls me the day before to ask if I'm showing up that night, she's sure I'm on the schedule for that night. She's sure. She's sure! She's looking right at it!

Yeah, well, that night a different coworker had to educate her on how the schedule works. Oh well. It was a nice night, not like heading out in the rain.

[conuly]

Oh, yeah, I definitely did that in my follow-up! I always triple check for new overnight shifts.

[conuly]

Smart of them.