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?
At my place the hours are quite flexible. If I have a doctor’s appointment, I just go and make up for those hours somewhere in the week. Or if it’s longer I can also just take a few hours off instead of a whole day. And I have the luxury of a 36 hours contract now, so I have a weekday off every 2 weeks. I value free time more than money that I can’t enjoy because I’m working. But I’m aware that that’s definitely a luxury many people cannot afford across the pond (or even here). Many people in my bubble of higher educated people who started working in the past 5 years are not working full-time. Can’t easily run a 1 person household when you’re working 40 hours