Shift Work & Meeting Attendance

[Rocco]

Hi there to all fellow brothers and sisters. Any of you out there Working shift work in any capacity appointed or Not? How do you find getting to meetings? A challenge? I have the opportunity to modify the current work situation but it’s still Shift work for a public transport network more money of course and less work place politics. I’m not sure whether to go ahead with the position or stay with what I’m currently doing. This new position ‘could’ effect meeting, attendance, ministry, association. Any suggestions? Thankyou in advance. 

[Tortuga]

I worked shift work for many years, if I could live my life over again I would avoid shift work like a plague. 

 

 

[Rocco]

12 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

I worked shift work for many years, if I could live my life over again I would avoid shift work like a plague. 

 

 

Yeah it’s one of those things in a modern world that demands things 24/7. Which inevitably puts some of us to work during the small hours of the morning or very late into the night. 

[pnutts]

in the late 70s mid 80s when I worked shift work - when it went to 3 shifts from 2 I tried to trade my evening for midnight shift. Worked part of the time.

[Old]

On 8/11/2019 at 8:15 PM, Rocco said:

Hi there to all fellow brothers and sisters. Any of you out there Working shift work in any capacity appointed or Not? How do you find getting to meetings? A challenge? I have the opportunity to modify the current work situation but it’s still Shift work for a public transport network more money of course and less work place politics. I’m not sure whether to go ahead with the position or stay with what I’m currently doing. This new position ‘could’ effect meeting, attendance, ministry, association. Any suggestions? Thankyou in advance. 

I worked a graveyard shift for 5 years, I liked it, meetings were no problem but it was hard on the family. They had to keep pretty quite. I livednear my job and I would go straight to bed when I got home, usually about 7:30. If I was awakened before noon I would try to get back to sleep. If I was awakened after 12 noon I would get up for the day. Back on the job at eleven. My wife didn't like it and agreed to a deal, if I went on day shift she would get up first, make coffee, cool it so I could guzzel it, which I would drink while still in the sack. When the cafine had brought me to I would get upt to a hot breakfast. Bless her, she did this for as long as I worked in the mill.

My favorite shift was swing shift as it kept my morings open, but was terrible for meetings. As soon as possible I went to graveyard.

[Leon J]

I worked 3rds, 10 - 8 4 nights a week for 10 years. Didn't interfere with meetings but it did interfere with my relationship with my family.  Im pretty much a stranger to them at times.

 

Looking back it wasn't worth it to me.

[Tortuga]

25 minutes ago, Leon J said:

I worked 3rds, 10 - 8 4 nights a week for 10 years. Didn't interfere with meetings but it did interfere with my relationship with my family.  Im pretty much a stranger to them at times.

 

Looking back it wasn't worth it to me.

Shift work is hard on family relationships. Several of the men I worked with lost their wives to other men...

[Leon J]

13 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Shift work is hard on family relationships. Several of the men I worked with lost their wives to other men...

well I think there would have been a deeper problem than just shift work if that was the case.

in my case: I made all the meetings I could. participated in the ministry with the kids and my wife as much as they actually desired to at the time, but there were other things beyond spiritual obligations that I missed.

My wife has a rather large family so almost every weekend from the beginning of spring till school started. there was a wedding, baby shower, graduation, home congregation gathering, anniversary party, etc etc etc. And of course funerals as dear ones passed on.  
there was no human way to work and sleep properly and go to all these things with the family so I didn't.

took a lot of heat and my wife took a lot of flak because I wasn't around but...

now that the third shift life is behind me I'm still subject to being the person that's never there when I show up at family or congregation things. It wasn't that I didn't want to be there in most cases. I just couldn't go without ruining my priorities for the day.

 

Edited August 16, 2019 by Leon J
i can't spell

[Witness1970]

What I call swing shift is when you are constantly working different hours. From 1972 until 1987, I worked a swing shift that was 7 days in a row, 2 days off 7 nights in a row, 3 days off and 7 evenings in a row. Your body never gets acclimated to anything before you change. You end up working 21 days out of every 28 days, one week you get paid for 6 days automatically.

 

One Sunday I would get home about 7AM after working all night. If I went to the meeting, my wife would have to punch me occasionally to keep me from nodding off. The next week I would be off on Sunday. The next week I would have to go to work right after the meeting. The next week I was working on Sunday.  I could really be there and alert maybe 2 Sundays every 4 weeks. 

 

For the Thursday night meeting, when I worked days the meeting was easy. The next week on evenings I had to rush to get to work after the meeting. The next week I was working in the evening. The next week, I was off in the evening. Evening meetings were easier than Sunday mornings.

 

I also worked jobs where I had to work straight shifts. We could bid on jobs. The schedule might be nights all the time, evenings all the time or days all the time. The day shift usually included working on weekends. You had to have major seniority to get a day job with weekends off, so the best of these shifts for meeting attendance was straight nights (or evenings if you could get Wednesday /Thursday or Thursday/Friday for off days.

 

When I was working the swing shift, my wife once commented that her schedule had to change every week also. That wasn't completely true since she could always sleep at night when I worked swing shift.

 

In 1988, my wife started working outside the home for the first time. She never had to work a swing shift changing every week like I had to, but she did have to bid on jobs to try to get the best hours and off days she could get. She preferred evenings since she was never one to get up early, but this meant she would probably never get to the evening meetings unless she could get a schedule with Thursdays off. She hated the early shift, but I had one once where I was going in at 4 AM and getting off at 12:30 and I loved it. The reason I got that schedule was because no one else (with more seniority) liked getting to work at 4 AM and having Wednesday and Thursday for off days.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Witness1970
Erased an incomplete sentence at the end

[Old]

7 hours ago, Witness1970 said:

What I call swing shift is when you are constantly working different hours. From 1972 until 1987, I worked a swing shift that was 7 days in a row, 2 days off 7 nights in a row, 3 days off and 7 evenings in a row. Your body never gets acclimated to anything before you change. You end up working 21 days out of every 28 days, one week you get paid for 6 days automatically.

 

 

In my area that is called a rotating shift, very common in the paper industry. I never worked a rotating shift but I knew many brothers that did. Very hard on the body clock. Some appointed brothers made it work. If you lived in area supported by paper mills almost all brothers had little choice but to work rotating shifts. It added to the complexity of scheduling meeting parts.

The swing shift I worked is defined as a work shift starting in mid afternoon and ending around midnight. 

[Ms. Piffle]

I worked swing shift for about 4 years (2pm-11pm), had Tuesdays and Thursdays off. - would often work till midnight. (meetings were Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday morning) Never interfered with the meetings nor ministry.  But I did prefer my hours when I later worked in the school system.  7:30- 3:30 , m-f, with nice little breaks throughout the school year and summer break. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Katty]

I worked shift work for years, and I always put my foot down when it came to meetings and conventions, because I knew it was illegal for them to prevent me from my religious practice or terminating me from doing so. I've had to have talks with my managers about scheduling me during meetings/assemblies several times; they've always fixed it or just let me have the day off, in the end.

I have a friend who lets her employer schedule her on Sundays during the meeting, and I keep telling her she needs to put her foot down. I believe, that if you make that stand for Jehovah, he'll provide for you, but as long as you give in to employers scheduling for meeting times, they'll keep doing it because they know they can.

[Qapla]

It is not the same for all people and all Congregations.

 

I know one brother who worked shift work for many, many years. He worked M-F and his shift changed every 3 months. He served as a MS in the Congregation but, they would not appoint him as an Elder until he no longer worked shift work since, the 3 month that he worked second shift he missed the MWM. After he retired he was appointed an Elder on the very first CO visit.

 

I have known other brothers who were firemen. They worked 24 on and 48 off - so, their schedule changed every week. They missed the meetings when their 24 on was on a meeting day. Some them served as Elders for years while having those jobs.

 

You will have to decide what is best for you ...

[nzbeeker]

I work shift work also. I am 52 years old and live in a small town. Work opportunities here are vert tight. I often go out in the ministry in the mid week and endeavour to prepare for meetings even when I cant go. Its not recommended to work shifts, but doing the best I can to support my family.  Prior to starting this job, I applied for between 2 and 6 jobs every day... for two years. Can’t wait for this system to end!