12 hour shifts...Ugggg....

[MrJim911]

I have a uneasy feeling that someone at my agency is about to bring this up at our next staff meeting I need to be prepared. I need opinions, thoughts, ideas, gripes, complaints, etc...on the pros and cons of working 12 hour shifts. I personally don't like them because I don't feel like working 18 hours if someone calls in sick. Daycare will be next to impossible. Rotating days off is a negative thing in my mind. (I like my Friday/Saturdays off.) Seniority should count for something, and if my days off rotate and there are only 2 schedules to choose from instead of 3 what's the point? Currently I have enough seniority to get whatever shift I want. If we go to 12 hour shifts don't I lose that perk? And I don't want to hear that you get an extra 50 days off a year because that's not true...It's negated by the fact you are working longer days therefore making up that extra time you allegedly have off. Can you tell I'm against this idea? :mad: But since I'm open minded go ahead and give me the benefits to working a 12 hour shift over an 8 hour shift. Or if you think 10 hour shifts are better then let's here those ideas...I'm more open minded to 10 hour shifts. If it helps we have shift minimums of 3 people on days and eves and 2 on mids and we have 15 full time people. That's including 3 supervisors. I'm not looking to work out the schedule, but that may bring up some problems that will be encountered by going to a new shift. I really need some help here, thanks in advance!

[ladymoonlite]

I don't like the idea of twelves if you can be forced to work OT beyond that. It's my belief as a supervisor that I'm not getting any useful work out of you after 12 hours of duty - you're just "meat in the seat" at that point. I won't allow my employees to work 16 hours, even voluntarily. I feel an overtired TC is a danger to everyone.

I understand your point about people raving you get so many more days off - it sounds good, but if you're exhausted on your days off, are they doing you any good?

I'd consider tens - I'm usually at work 9 hrs a day anyway, and I'd get an extra day off that I could really use, but as a midnight shifter that has to stay quite frequently for meetings (no one EVER schedules a meeting to suit us, do they?) I find that my mind is fried at 12 hours!

[KYEMT325]

Well, Jim, I toyed with the idea of 12 hour shifts last May with our people, and there are a lot of benefits and a lot of drawbacks. NO, you don't necessarily lose your good days off, it depends how they want to work the schedule. The way I had done it, I would've had Fri Sat Sun off one week and Thu Fri Sat Sun off the next. It's a 4/3, 3/4 schedule for 12 hour shifts, making your total 42 hours a week.

Our people, however, did not like the idea (just because we all agreed that 12 hour shifts were too long to be in the com center by oneself on a regular basis), so we went from the 8 hour/5 day shifts to the 10 hour/4 day shifts with overlaps at peak times throughout the week. Everyone loves it. They like the extra day off, and it's not too bothersome to spend 2 more hours in our com center when someone else is in there with you to make it more bearable.

Now if we can just keep employees....then we wouldn't have to work all this overtime (I'm in here from 2300 tonight till 1500 tomorrow)...yuck!!!

So there are benefits to the 12 hour shifts Jim. I worked EMS before I came here where we worked the 24/48 shifts and I loved it. But the people here have never worked extended schedules like that so they can't just grin and bear it to find out if they'd like it or not. Change is something people like to resist, but will happen anyways. Because I was hellbound that we were getting rid of 8 hour days, and in the end we did. But as a good supervisor, I went with compromise instead of forcing something I knew they wouldn't like. Maybe your supervisors should think about that.

[stein810]

just wanted to comment..... in detroit pd we are so short of help <as usual> we are working 8's but i know a lot of the dispatchers downtown at HQ are pulling doubles and then some. its nuts. it is kinda funny you hear the same voice everyday... and when i have worked doubles thinking the voice would go away and it didnt.... i dont know how you guys do it. 8 is just enough for me.







Originally posted by MrJim911
I have a uneasy feeling that someone at my agency is about to bring this up at our next staff meeting I need to be prepared. I need opinions, thoughts, ideas, gripes, complaints, etc...on the pros and cons of working 12 hour shifts. I personally don't like them because I don't feel like working 18 hours if someone calls in sick. Daycare will be next to impossible. Rotating days off is a negative thing in my mind. (I like my Friday/Saturdays off.) Seniority should count for something, and if my days off rotate and there are only 2 schedules to choose from instead of 3 what's the point? Currently I have enough seniority to get whatever shift I want. If we go to 12 hour shifts don't I lose that perk? And I don't want to hear that you get an extra 50 days off a year because that's not true...It's negated by the fact you are working longer days therefore making up that extra time you allegedly have off. Can you tell I'm against this idea? :mad: But since I'm open minded go ahead and give me the benefits to working a 12 hour shift over an 8 hour shift. Or if you think 10 hour shifts are better then let's here those ideas...I'm more open minded to 10 hour shifts. If it helps we have shift minimums of 3 people on days and eves and 2 on mids and we have 15 full time people. That's including 3 supervisors. I'm not looking to work out the schedule, but that may bring up some problems that will be encountered by going to a new shift. I really need some help here, thanks in advance!

[Noodle]

I think that 12hrs is way to long for a dispatcher to work continuously. I would understand if it was occasionally, but working longer hours will speed up burn out. If your day were to start out bad, then that dispatcher would have a rough 12hrs and that could lead to a lot of bad things happening that could have been delt with better by a fresh dispatcher. 10hrs are long but not too bad if you have a partner and you can work with good days off for everyone. Also you can split overtime periodically and not overwork anyone. My center has 6 dispatchers or 8hr shifts and 2 on 10hr shifts. It works out great we almost always have 2 dispatchers on. The only time it is down to one is between 3am and 7 am fri-mon nights. It was a lot better than everyone on eights and gives more of a variety for days off.

[Basilbob]

I currently work in a communications center where we work a combonation of 8 and 10 hour shifts. However in the past I worked in a center that worked 8 and 12 hours shifts. If I had a chance I would go back to 12 hour shifts in a heart beat. Looking at them from a distance, they do look long. However once you work them it is not bad at all. The advantage of having the extra days off, out way the few cons by far.

We worked a schedule of 2 on / 2 off / 3 on / 2 off / 2 on / 3 off.
Everyother weekend you had 3 days off, and you still had 4 days off the other week in 2 day increments.

As far as stress levels, I worked in a private ambulance center. We averaged 200-300 transports a day. Our phone calls averaged around 500 calls a day, both emergency and non-emergency transports and calls. Stress was minimal knowing the most you had to work was 3 days in a row, with at least two days off. I would much rather look at that instead of, today is monday and I got 4 more days...