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In the US nuclear navy, the power plants have to be manned 24 hours a day both operating and shutdown. Ships in maintenance periods also generally go through a
by kryogen1c 4y ago
In the US nuclear navy, the power plants have to be manned 24 hours a day both operating and shutdown. Ships in maintenance periods also generally go through a phase where ship personnel have to support maintenance work around the clock. Additionally, some parts of the training pipeline are run 24 hours a day.
I say all that to say that while I am not a subject matter expert, I have a significantly above average amount of experience working various types of rotating shift work as well as duty rotations (a duty rotation is working 24 hours every 2, 3, 4, or 5 days depending on available manpower. Yes, you read that right - for a month, I was at work 28 to 32 out of every 48 hours).
Forget 4 8 hour days, I would work 4 10 hour days right now in a heartbeat with no discussion or regrets.
1) it is invaluable to have a normal working day where you can do tasks - change your oil, get your haircut, go grocery shopping without a crowd, see a matinee, the list is endless.
2) the scope of weekend trip you can plan across 3 days instead of two is exponentially higher. So much room for activities.
3) time after the working day just isn't that useful. Drive home, eat dinner, now it's 630/7pm. Waste a couple hours, go to sleep. After a 10hour day, the time after work is precious and useful to relax, but then you get a whole other day off.
It surely isn't for everyone, but it surely is for a lot of people. The thing that blows my mind is no one is even willing to try.
- mtreis86 4y agoI had one job, night shift snowmaking at a ski resort, that was on a 12hr 3-day/4-day schedule. So 36 hours one week, 48 the next. It was wonderful because the 4-day weekend felt like a vacation every other week. Plus, at that amount of time on shift, you get paid to eat two meals.
- jokethrowaway 4y agoThere are different type of works. I can push boxes or clean a ship as long as I have strength, which is likely to be 10 hours. I can't make productive decisions for 10 hours in a row. If you increase the amount of hours, you don't get more knowledge work done. You just get more meetings and useless fillers or procrastination. All in all, I think dictating when employees work is stupid, exactly how it's stupid to pay a contractor per hour. You should always pay based on output, no matter when that output was achieved. On the contrary, you might even want to pay more if the desired output was achieved earlier than expected (and not pay less because he must have worked less hours). Be ruthless on the output, don't bother about the hours.
- badcppdev 4y ago"The thing that blows my mind is no one is even willing to try." Your sleep deprivation is getting to you. Lots of people work 4x10.
- ethanbond 4y agoI didn’t interpret that as “there is not a person who has discovered 4x10” but rather that there aren’t notable companies making it their official schedule.
- hansvm 4y agoLast time Lockheed Martin reached out that was one of their selling points.
- williamscs 4y agoWhen I worked for Northrop, they offered a "9/80” schedule. Every pay period, you would work 80 hours in 9 days. Monday thru Thursday, you would work an additional hour (so 9 total), then have every other Friday off.
- kryogen1c 4y agoI never did this personally, but I worked with civilians that did 9 80s. If management isn't willing to consider "exotic" schedules, 9 80s seem like a really good starting point and a pretty sweet deal
- vantablacksheep 4y agoUnless you have children...
- VWWHFSfQ 4y agoI used to be a paramedic in a large USA city and worked either 4 10-hour shifts, or 3 14-hour shifts per week every other month. For instance: January (10 hr): * Mon: 8AM - 6PM * Tue: 8AM - 6PM * Wed: 8AM - 6PM * Thu: 8AM - 6PM * Fri: off * Sat: off * Sun: off February (14 hr): * Mon: 8AM - 10PM * Tue: off * Wed: 8AM - 10PM * Thu: off * Fri: 8AM - 10PM * Sat: off * Sun: off I loved that schedule since I never had fewer than 3 days off, and every other month I had 4 days off. But I still had at least 2 consecutive days off every week no matter which month rotation I was on. It was great.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dbetteridge 4y agoI'm working for the Israel office (gmt+2) of my company now but from Australia (gmt+8),its a great option for me as I work 2pm-10.30pm Mon-Thur and then flexible hours on Friday. This leaves 700-1400 for doing all the stuff I need to do, food, shopping, exercise and then an hour or so after I finish work to wind down and head to bed. And Friday I can work normal Australian hours 8-4.30 and have the evening and weekend for going out with friends/family etc. Wouldn't say no to the Friday off completely though.
- thedrbrian 4y agoI've done 4 on 4 off for the last 8 years and I can't go back. Great for holidays as you get 6 full weeks off(24 12 hour days) , take 4 off and you get 12 days in a row away from work. technically 3.5 days worked per calendar week saves on petrol too.