Posted on 07/05/2013 7:08:46 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
John Schoch has no regrets about dumping the five-day workweek in exchange for three 12-hour shifts, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and getting the equivalent of 40 hours of pay.
Schoch, an employee of Milwaukee-based Oldenburg Group, spent 40 years on rotating shifts — days, afternoons, nights — at a paper mill before he found his sweet spot of working 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.
That gives him four days off a week to go fishing, ride his motorcycle or tinker in the 20-by-58-foot garage he made from an old church building.
"I can't find any downside to it, for my part," said Schoch, an assembly worker at Oldenburg's mining equipment factory in Iron River, Mich.
As manufacturers boost production, more of them are turning to 12-hour work shifts and nontraditional scheduling to keep assembly lines running at the most efficient levels.
"There are a lot of strategic reasons to do it," said Douglas Fisher, assistant professor and director of the Center for Supply Chain Management at Marquette University.
"Having two 12-hour shifts a day is better than having three eight-hour shifts. There are fewer complications with things like shift changes. And if you can run a plant 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you might not have to build another facility," Fisher said.
It's also helpful in recruiting employees, said Wayne Oldenburg, founder and CEO of Oldenburg Group, which recently won a $40 million order from the U.S. Navy to build equipment including elevators and ramps used on combat ships.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
Where I work, we run with a minimum crew in some areas doing a 12 hour shift, days and graveyard. Problem is, if someone calls in, you end up doing 18 hours and sometimes coming back 6 hours later to do 12 again.
That guy is not wearing proper protective eyewear... :-)
Shift work....no thanks.But if that's your only option (can you say Obamanomics?) then what can you do?
I just got a new job (same company) after 17 years of 12 hour night shifts. The schedule is hell on family life and health.
First thing I noticed also.
The plant I worked for went from three eights to 12-hour shifts to cut costs. Did it help? No.
***The night shift is a killer.***
This is true! I have worked mostly various shifts. I can handle 10 hours straight days or evenings.
First worst shift was military. 12 midnight to 12 noon.
Then 31 years if 8 hour rotating shift, often working double shift 16 hrs. Backward rotation. Midnights, evenings, days.
Then 8 hours of forward rotating shifts. Midnights, days, evenings.
Then we went to a 12 hour rotating shift. This shift was a real killer! 4 midnights. 6PM to 6AM. 1 1/2 days off, then three day shifts 6 to 6. Then 2 1/2 days off, then three midnights 6 to 6, then 4 days,6 to 6, then two weeks off.
You were constantly tired. Only in the last week of your days off you began to feel rested, then it was time for more midnights. When at work, I was requited to stay awake at all time. No cat napping, but you just could not help it. You would often be awake doing something, then wake up and find you had been asleep for a few minutes. Very dangerous!
Why did I stay? The money was great! Especially the overtime. Often I would get called in on my days off to work two to five days, all overtime.
I retired five years ago. It took me over SIX MONTHS to get caught up on 31 years of lost sleep. I still go to sleep very late in the night.
It's better than straight shifts. I work 15 days a month. The problem as another poster mentioned is filling in for vacationers, sick time, or such means doing splits. That means 16 hours.
Well, I’ll run right across the street and tell them! ;^) I’m sure that he took off the eyewear for the photographer. Otherwise you could’t see his face.
(Exacto is across the street from my company and I’m glad the newspaper didn’t come in here with a camera!)
Sorry I work for a manufacturing company and although I am just a finance guy I’ve been on enough plant tours and enough EHS briefings to know about protective eyewear. :-)
I own a manufacturing company, but I used to be a newspaepr reporter; and I know about posed pictures. LOL If the machine isn’t on, protective eyewear is unnecessary. And the man’s family wants to see his pretty face in the newspaper.
Exacto is a neighbor of ours and a first class company. I’m sure they are very careful when they are actually machining something.
My first systems job - mainframe operator - when I was 20 was three 12s nights then four days off. Switching between diurnal/nocturnal every week is hell, but I would cover other people’s days off, who then owed me shifts, so that I got an 11-day weekend every 2-3 months.
On Sunday mornings when everything was ‘done’, I’d kill time re-uniting people with their lost pets. The lost and found section would have 2-3 pets with both a lost and found notices, and I’d call the owners at 6am to tell ‘em.
Fair enough. Thanks. :-)
Second thing I noticed, after noticing that his earplugs were not seated properly (at least the one shown in the picture).
I worked as management working halves, mostly “second half”. Including turnover, it was 13 hour days, and we were “supposed to” be working 4 on, 3 off... but because the job was such a meatgrinder and Management staffing was so riciculously short, the attrition rate was quite high.
I found that day shift coasted... spent their time instant messaging other Technical Directors at other shops... writing “look at me” emails... and then when I came in at 16:30 for turnover, none of the production goals for first half were met... leaving me to try to “Save the Railroad”, every. f***ing. night.
I made a decent salary... but the hours sucked, the shift sucked, I had no life... and the 4 on, 3 off was only the “ideal”... it was more like 5 on, 2 off... or 6 on, 1 off.
I’ve had the 12 shift from 4am to 4pm. That’s a hard shift. 5 on, one off.
Yeah. Looks like the guy is doing a set-up. Requires good prescription glasses in many cases. And,,, once the machine is turned on, he may not even be anywhere near it.
I absolutely LOVE my shift schedule. 0700 to 1900 4 days, 3 off, 3 on, then 4 or 5 off. 4 nights, 3 off, then 3 nights, and 5 or 6 off.
2 weeks of days to catch up on all the updates and other changes, then 2 weeks with no cretins underfoot so I can get some work done. It works great for me.
I declined a promotion because I would have had to work Monday to Friday 9 to 5.
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