Only four nights of graves left and I'll be DONE!
When I first started working for IHC in 2009 it was a 7on/7off graveyard shift up at IMC. My schedule often confused people, so here's what it was:
- Starting Wednesday night I worked 7 nights in a row, 10 hour shifts (7on)
- The following Wednesday I had 7 nights in a row off (7off)
- Because it was nights, my 7on started on a Wednesday night, and ended on a Wednesday morning
- During my 7on I slept during the days, my 7off I slept at night
So every Wednesday I was adjusting my schedule - either trying to take a nap during the afternoon before going into work that night, or else trying to stay up for as long as I could after working all night to get back on a regular sleep schedule. For someone who typically can't stand taking naps (there's so much other stuff I could be getting done), sleeping during the days took a little getting used to. But eventually I got used to sleeping in the daytime, I enjoyed the people I worked with, I still had some time in the evenings to do things, and working nights was going well...until we had a baby!
After my maternity leave I did work afternoons 7on/7off (3pm-1am) for a while, but when I switched down to UVRMC in February I was back to graves. Even though Gavin was 8 months old by this time, trying to sleep during the day was a bit of a challenge. Before I would come home from work in the morning and go straight to sleep. Now I come home from work, stay up an additional four hours before putting Gavin down for a nap at 11am, and then head off to bed. Jared then comes home around 12:30 or 1:00 and we hope Gavin sleeps until he gets home. When Gavin started taking his naps later in the day (around 1pm or 2pm) this whole graves thing became alot more difficult!
Sorry...reading over that really makes me sound like a big complainer...but it just makes my new schedule sound that much more amazing!!
This Wednesday to Saturday night I will work my last four graveyard shifts (finishing up training my replacement), then starting Sunday, February 5th!, I will have the next three days off before I start training on my new afternoon shift. It'll be a great Birthday present!!!
So if you thought my old schedule was difficult to keep track of, good luck with this:
- I will still sort of be 7on/7off
- Wednesday & Thursday during my 7on I work 10 hour shifts (starting at 2pm)
- Friday, Saturday, & Sunday during my 7on I only work 4 hours (2pm-6pm)
- Monday & Tuesday during my 7on I work 10 hour shifts (starting at 2pm)
- The next Wednesday I start my 7 days off
Because I'm now considered part time I technically only need to work 48 hours every two weeks, although I am scheduled to work 53. This means if I want the extra hours they're mine, but if I want to give them away I can have someone else work the 5 extra hours for me. And there are always interns or PRN employees wanting to pick up extra shifts. Plus, I will now start getting PTO, on top of my 7 days in a row off! And if I need any more hours I can pick up available shifts during my 7 days off. It's the perfect schedule, and I can't wait to start it February 8th!!!
1 comment:
If anybody thinks your schedule is hard for them to keep track of, try complicating it with a 10 hour time difference (9 hours when you go to daylight saving time) and our weekends are Thursday & Friday. But don't worry...I've got it written on our calendar and we connect as often as possible.
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