Work Days

Shift Works

A Paris based journal, “Occupational & Environmental Medicine”, has classified Shift Work as: Night Shift or Shift that alternate between morning, afternoon and night.

For the next several Blog Postings, it is merely, an account of my real incidences and situation that I have been subjected to. It is never my intention and certainly not meant to ill-will, bad mouth, or criticizes or says anything that been disrespectful to my esteemed employer. It is the process of bus operation that, I have to undergo daily and sharing it with you. 

Every other week, the standard operational procedure, SOP, is that BC will be on rotating shift. A week on Morning, AM Shift and followed by a week in Afternoon, PM Shift.

When I am been scheduled to work in the AM shift; I have to clock-in by the stipulated time from the roster for “Start Duty”. The Start-Duty time, can start as early as 0505hr for the bus to leave the depot and heading to the specified bus interchange or bus stop pickup location for revenue-able service.

When I am scheduled to work on PM shift; I have to clock-out by the stipulated time from the time card for “End Duty”. The End-Duty time, can end as late as 0230hr for the bus to return back to the depot for overnight parking, so to speak.

As a rule, an interval of 12hours break is needed. So my official “Rest Day or Off Day” is usually precedes the changing over of shift.

For example, on May 29th, I am on PM Shift duty that starts work at 1500hr; and, I end my duty at 0200hr (i.e. early morning of May 30^th); it is not proper to change or rotate me to do AM shift duty on May 30^th, with a short break of just 3hours. So the Rostering Supervior will plan a Rest Day for me on May 30th.

So when I have to rotate from PM to AM; I actually, have a very short rest period. This is because on May 30^th, from 0300hr to 1100hr, I will most probably be sleeping. From the moment I am awake, i.e. in the late morning till to the time I get to bed again at around 9pm on the same day; my waking hour is less than 10hours.  

On the other hand, for AM rotates to PM shift, I do have a little more time to rest and hang loose!!  To illustrate, if on May29th, I am in the AM shift and my duty ends at 1400hr; and followed by a Rest Day on May 30^th; I will only restart my work on May 31^st at 1400hr. That’s easily more than 24hours of rest, right?

            However, all the above, so called “hours on rest day”, is still pale in comparison from my previous office desk work. Whereby, I could have a full 48hours of rest hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

 But now, sadly, I have to kiss-it-and say, goodbye.

Morning, AM Shift,

Family acceptance and tolerance of my beyond normal working hours is very crucial for my success as a Public Transport BC.

The first two month into my active duty, this subject matter almost breaks down me from continuing as a BC. When scheduled to work in the AM shift, and start duty at 0504hr. I mentally need to prepare myself for bed no later than 9.30pm. The aim is have sufficient rest and if possible, a proper sleep. I will need to wake up no later than 0400hr to get ready and leave the house for work.

The official working hour is 7.22hour/day. I am not allowed to stop the bus then and then when I hit my official working hours while half-way into the journey; usually there will be an automatic overtime authorization for me to complete my onward journey until I reached my final destination.

My work week is a 44hours, 6 days with a non-fixed rest day.

When, I am on AM shift and early to bed, my Family support to keep the noise level in the house to the minimum is very important.  My Wife while still watching the Channel 8 drama and daily news till around 11pm will mindfully keep the TV volume to just audible to herself.

However, my wife will be greatly disturbed when the alarm clock rang at 0345hr. Moreover, the noise from the bathroom of using the toilet, brush my teeth and shower will interrupt her sleep greatly. To ensure that her sleep is not so disruptive; I will use the common washroom instead of the master-room attached toilet.

For my well-being, I must be able to secure a “power sleep” of 5 hours every night. This is very important for the maintenance of my health and safe driving attention for the day.

When I am on AM shift, I can wish the Starter, Good Morning when I collected the logbook and key from him. Following that, I then can wish the Time-Keeper, Good Afternoon when I sign-off end of duty and handover the logbook and key to my PM shift partner. However, this scenario changes totally when I am on Afternoon, PM shift duty.

Afternoon, PM Shift

Till to date, I have to be frank with you that, I have limited success to secure a power-sleep of 5hours whenever I am on PM Shift.

For PM shift, work duty start around 3pm; and ends around 2am. The moment, I reach home it is already close to 3am. Tough I did not use the master bed-room for my brushing and shower; my wife will be awake by the sound coming from the opening and closing of the bedroom door, and the running water from the bathroom.

After getting my hair dry up, if I am lucky, I can be in bed by around 3.30am. The challenges did not end here. My Wife will wake up by around 0630hr, to get ready for her school duty. Then and then, my sleep is been interrupted and I will be awake too.

The sun will rise and daybreak will come soon. The chance of getting back to sleep is almost diminished. By 0930hr, I will be mentally awake, but psychically still too tired to do anything. Around, noon to 1pm, I must just take an hour of rest or nap before I leave for work.

When my PM shift duty start at the interchange, I can wish my interchange Time-Keeper, Good Afternoon; and when we meet up again for dinner, Good Evening; and when I drop off the commuting pax in the bus stop, I can wish them, Good Night; And finally when my PM shift duty ended, I can wish my depot Starter, Good Morning. Such is the unique nature of my duty working hours for PM Shift, and I do not recalled which other type of Job that is, whereby you literally can greet someone in this manner been described as above, Cool, right ?

This kind of shift daily working hours bears the hallmark on why the working hours of BC is “beyond normal”.

However, to me, the most critical Q is how to harmonize my sleeping time with my family members. Unfortunately, till to date, I still do not have a clear answer to this Q. Staying in the same household is indeed a big challenge, and My Family and I are now patiently and mindfully enduring the circumstances and shortcomings.