A lot of people don’t like night shifts or have never experienced it. Mostly because the regular hours of work are the standard nine to five and the latest people finish their shifts are maybe ten to eleven in the evening. There is a great difference between day shift and night shift. At least from where I work. Let me tell you why.
I work as a forecourt cashier at a gasoline station that is open for 24 hours. There are three shifts: the morning, the afternoon and the night shift. Currently, I’m on night shift and my work hours start from ten at night to six in the morning.
Let’s start with “there is barely anything to do.” Sure, there are the occasional customers who are awake at those ungodly hours for whatever reasons they have, but all in all, it can get boring when one has nothing to do. And most of us stay at the store instead of awkwardly walking around an empty forecourt waiting for vehicles. So after my first night, I thought of the things I could do to ease my boredom and maybe help ease the boredom of my coworkers.
First, I brought a USB to connect to the sound system in the convenience store at the station so we can listen to good music instead of sticking to old songs we don’t even know from the radio. Of course, I put more lively music so we won’t fall asleep on the job. Who the hell sleeps when someone is blasting My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Panic! at the Disco from the speakers, anyway?
Second, we started our coffee routine. Like clockwork, around one in the morning, everyone buys their own coffee to keep ourselves awake and warm. Sometimes, we even bring food to share with the others. But yeah, no one is really that hungry on such time of the day so we mostly stick with our coffees.
Third, I brought a book. We can’t really use our mobile phones while working but there is no rule about not being able to bring books. And with so many unread novels I have, I finally found time to read them after a year of gathering dust on the shelves. It is a great time killer, let me tell you that. I’ve already finished a book and is currently midway the second one.
The three ways to kill boredom stated above are already part of the reasons why I love night shift.
The last thing I love about night shift is the night differential. I don’t know about the others but in my case, doing night shifts gives you a little bit more earnings than the regular ones. After all, you stay awake at unreasonable hours. So basically, our pay is a little higher than the other regular workers.
In summary, night shift is this scenario: imagine this, you get to blast your favorite music from the speakers and share it with everyone while you sit in a corner of the store sipping warm coffee while reading a book. That’s aesthetic right there! And you do all that while also earning money!
Sign me up on that!
