Saturday, December 20, 2008

Keeping My Hopes Up

My old job on evening shift has come back up for bid. Still in the Adseg unit, just on a different shift and doing different things. Taking the knuckleheads outside for recreation. It was what I did for four years before coming to day shift. It's not a bad job, in retrospect. I was getting pretty tired of doing rec all the time. But after the craziness of day shift it will probably seem like a vacation.

It's funny. I think in the long run I worked harder and more constantly on evenings. And I had alot more "hands on" contact with the offenders (and thus more uses of force) than I have right now on day shift. On an average day we took out four rounds of eight offenders out to the rec yard. That's thirty two times putting the cuffs on and taking them off. Add a medication pass or sometimes two and you might double that. One real busy day I counted that I applied and removed seventy sets of handcuffs.

But I'm alot more stressed on day shift. Too many eyes watching to see if all the i's are crossed and the t's are dotted, I guess. On evenings if we didn't screw up, we never saw anybody else all shift some nights. A lieutenant might wander down every now and then if the weather's nice to see how things are going. But for the most part, they left us to do our job because they knew we knew how to do it. There's only a couple people left out of my old crew down there now. If I get the job, I'll have to see how they work and how I can work myself back in with them. And I'd have to change my sleeping habits all over again. Gonna be a cranky Rev.

I hope I get the job. It will probably be at least a week before I know if I got it or not and another two weeks after that before I start.

It's going to be a long week. Or possibly three.

4 comments:

  1. I'm not sure if it sounds like you really want the shift. I have always done well on night shifts, but i know some people just don't do well, with it. How does spouse feel about it? I mean it's not just you that has to deal with the change....
    loopy just thinnin
    (sumsomi) a tsumani full of sums

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  2. Loopy, I for one can tell you that when your partner is on a different shift - it's tough. Especially if one is days and one is swing. Graves can be bad too, though oddly you spend more time together and if it's done right on working days, one sleeps while the other is at work. Now on the days off, things get way messed up with that shift.

    (stsabled)<--Patron Saint of those yahoos that are always breaking in to those fur farms and letting the animals free.

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  3. I do want on that shift. Or back on that shift, I should say. That same spot was mine for four years before i went to day shift and lost my sanity. The wife is all for it. She knew I wasn't happy on days and now that we are down to one kid in the house, she's willing to let me go back to being a creature of the night again. And I figure the less I'm underfoot the better, ya know? I'm hard to get along with, some days.

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  4. Well there ya go Rev....my hubby works 4 different shifts, rotated. And has done so since the twins were born, took me years to get it straight, then every once in a while the power company will tweak the shifts and throw me off again. long hours but every couple of weeks he gets 4 days to spend bonding with the boys.
    loopy

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