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Shift change

I always thought the phrase, "change of shift," sounded really redundant when taken out of context.

Anyway, for the past year, I've had the early morning shift of the paper. I wake up every day at 6 a.m. to report to the police station and make the morning checks.

The thing is, I'm 26 years old, single and still into the nightlife. I've honestly always been a nightcrawler. When I went to college, I took one class that started at 8 a.m., and I ended up failing it and having to retake it. Afterward, I never took classes before 11 a.m.

When I was on Guam, my shift was from 2 to 11 p.m. My happy hour was midnight. That was my shift for two years.

So after six years of waking up after the morning rush hour, I've had to adjust to waking up well before the traffic begins to bottleneck; before the morning dew has dried up; before anyone else starts work. Granted, I do know there are a lot of broadcast folks (and some 24/7 newsroom operations) that wake up at odder hours. I was just hoping that I'd get used to my schedule after a year. But this morning was as groggy and lazy as the first morning.

So what kind of schedules do you folks have? Is it a 9 to 5er? Is it a late shift?
Published Wednesday, January 30, 2008 3:39 PM by GenePark
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Comments

# re: Shift change

Friday, February 01, 2008 11:22 AM by SonyaSmith
Actually - my shift has changed recently. When I covered Irvine my hours were all over the place - but I usually worked 10-7 because of traffic and covering late meetings. But now with covering technology my hours are more 9-5, but I'm even changing that now - trying to work instead say 8-4 so that I can get news up on my blog first thing in the morning. I'd really like to make the jump to working 7-3, but like you, Gene, it's pretty difficult if not used to those hours.
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