I’ve worked 2nd (afternoon), swing (evening), and 3rd (overnight) shifts for the majority of my life. I recently moved into a training position where I’m Monday through Friday, 8am to ~5:30pm (I get OT while I’m cleaning up and writing reports).
As much as the 2nd/swing/3rd shifts screw with your life in other ways, the difficulty in scheduling any kind of life services outside of working hours is maddening. Doctor’s appointment? Nope. DMV? Maybe Saturday, if you’re lucky. Chaperone your kids field trip? Hahahhah no.
I don’t want to burn sick time for a doctor’s appointment (I need to save those for when my kid is actually sick), and I sure as hell don’t want to use up a “vacation” day for it. How tf are you supposed to get anything done?
I communicated with my manager and came in late or left early. I’d usually do dental and medical appointments in the morning, and governmental stuff in the afternoon, but whatever I could schedule.
It helped that I was salaried, so the missing hours didn’t affect my take-home pay. But also, I could make up the hours by staying late, if needed.
I know this won’t work for everyone, and it would be good to change the system to work for more people.