The Late Shift

With the way things are today one should feel lucky just to have a job. But working can be stressful, especially when you work the late shift.
I work at the Rochester Mills Beer Company. I work as a server and its a good job, I can't really complain. Except when I have to be there late. Sometimes, during the week, I don't get out until almost midnight. It makes it very difficult to get up in the morning when you have class. On the weekends I can be there until 3 a.m. But I have gotten used to the late hours.
Some of my friends also work late shifts. My friend Tom McEllmurry works in a print shop, his shift is from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., the graveyard shift.
"It's crazy man, it messes up your life," McEllmurry said. "It's hard to sleep when the sun's up, it's just not natural."
He said that it's very hard to have any kind of social life because he is asleep when the rest of the world is awake.
"I once heard that only three percent of Americans are awake at three in the morning, I don't know if that's true but it makes sense."
Another friend of mine, Brandon Dorris, has to leave for his job at Metro Airport at 3:30 in the morning.
"I hate when that alarm goes of at such an awful hour of the day," Dorris said. He said that while he's grateful to have a dependable job, he just wishes it could be a normal schedule.
But this late shift trend is growing. In order to find work, more people are stepping out of their normal boundaries and taking whats available and sometimes its the undesirable late shift.
I've always been a night owl so working late never bothered me (other than having class in the morning). But for some people it can take a serious toll on their health and their family life. The article "Working Long or Late Hours Takes Its Toll On Workers and Workplace" by Jeanie Croasmun explains how stressful the night shift can be.