Now that I've been on afternoon shift at work for two weeks, people have asked me how well it's going. You may remember that I wasn't really crazy about going to this shift, and even implied it was forced on me. However, some benefits do show up with the later start time.
I'll never like the fact that once I'm at work on a given day, the rest of the day is "shot". But I've been able to say good-bye to those early mornings; as a result, I'm less groggy. More than physical, though, has to do with the environment on that shift.
On day shift, we would all make jokes about how incompetent the afternoon shift was. We'd try to sneak out the door before we were forced to do overtime & work with that crew; claiming they don't know the right way to do the job. My initial response to this move was just that. Now the tide has seemed to turn, and the day shift seems to be the lazier one.
Work productivity is not my concern, though -- the fact that the rules seem totally different for both shifts is the issue.
Observe both shifts in action throughout the day, and you'd swear that two different companies man the facilities during the day. Unwritten, yet spoken, rules classify the afternoon shift, which is more into paperwork, proper communication, and specific separation of luggage. Day shift, meanwhile, puts everything into a hodge-podge in the spur of the moment, invents rules, disdains the ones told to them, and are set in their ways otherwise.
This is not to bad-mouth those I once worked with. I still think the people on day shift are easier to get along with, especially with some hyper sorts manning important posts on the afternoons. But it took my moving to the afternoons to find out that at one time, I was freely subscribing to the "easy way out", without even knowing it. And it always takes a move like the one I made in order to see that clearly.
But what can be done to unify the shifts under one set of work procedures? The job itself is the same on both shifts; the routine is the same, the flow is the same. Truth is, people are nervous to speak out about it for fear of their jobs. If nothing is told, management will think everything is fine the way it is. With some of the differences being appallingly obvious, things could definitely run a lot smoother.
So where does that put me on shift preference? Unsure right now, but it definitely won't be the easiest choice to make, regardless.
