Longest shift, mood on shift and stress

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spimx

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What's the longest shift you guys have done. I'm trying to buy a house soon and I'm on day 3of 10. I haven't seen home much and I'm having trouble with my mood.

How do you guys deal with your mood on shift and high stress?
 
22 days straight. It's gonna suck, just do it is how I manage.
 
Don’t sign up for 10 day shifts.
 
spimx said:
What's the longest shift you guys have done. I'm trying to buy a house soon and I'm on day 3of 10. I haven't seen home much and I'm having trouble with my mood.

How do you guys deal with your mood on shift and high stress?
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why? 10 days straight? 240 consecutive hours at work? I think I know how you can fix your mood...
CALEMT said:
22 days straight.
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Again, why?

I know OT is appealing, but why sign up for so many back to back to back days? Money is good, but 1) taxes will eat up a lot of that OT and 2) it wears on your mental health and 3) that's one clear way to experience burnout.

The longest stretch I've gone without a day off is around 80 days, but that was between my full time job, my part time job, and going to school full time. I still got to go home, sleep in my own bed, and get away from work, and i won't do that again.

The longest time at work I've done is 36 hrs, going from FT job to part time job and back to full time job; did that twice, never again, the money wasn't worth it. With all the studies on sleep deprivation in EMS, continuing to do these dangerous actions are a surefire way to have a new government regulation named after you.
 
by 10 days strait I mean 24+2 12 hrs shifts, I will go home 2x during 10 days. I'm trying to buy a house soon because the neighborhood I live in is getting bad.
 
DrParasite said:
why? 10 days straight? 240 consecutive hours at work? I think I know how you can fix your mood...

Again, why?

I know OT is appealing, but why sign up for so many back to back to back days? Money is good, but 1) taxes will eat up a lot of that OT and 2) it wears on your mental health and 3) that's one clear way to experience burnout.

The longest stretch I've gone without a day off is around 80 days, but that was between my full time job, my part time job, and going to school full time. I still got to go home, sleep in my own bed, and get away from work, and i won't do that again.

The longest time at work I've done is 36 hrs, going from FT job to part time job and back to full time job; did that twice, never again, the money wasn't worth it. With all the studies on sleep deprivation in EMS, continuing to do these dangerous actions are a surefire way to have a new government regulation named after you.
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I cant speak for the OP but i'm gonna make an educated guess that @CALEMT signed up for exactly zero days for that. If you are not familiar with Cal Fire aka Forcey the Bear, those kinds of forces are the norm, not the exception. So the legislation can be named for them, not the guys being repeatedly screwed.
 
jgmedic said:
I cant speak for the OP but i'm gonna make an educated guess that @CALEMT signed up for exactly zero days for that. If you are not familiar with Cal Fire aka Forcey the Bear, those kinds of forces are the norm, not the exception. So the legislation can be named for them, not the guys being repeatedly screwed.
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Forces and a staffing pattern. I have some voluntary benders coming up, 8 day stretches.
 
I'm trying to buy a house, it seems like the only way to get ahead is to live at work
 
jgmedic said:
If you are not familiar with Cal Fire aka Forcey the Bear, those kinds of forces are the norm, not the exception.
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Fair enough, forced OT is a different story. still an issue, but different than voluntarily signing up for 22 days straight. That just sounds horrible. How can you even have a social life? a family? a dog? a goldfish?

spimx said:
by 10 days strait I mean 24+2 12 hrs shifts, I will go home 2x during 10 days. I'm trying to buy a house soon because the neighborhood I live in is getting bad.
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ok, that's not too bad. back to back 24s can be rough, if you are a busy unit, but if it's slow it's not too bad.

Nothing wrong with working OT to buy a house but there is a downside, and extra stress and a bad mood are common. The easiest thing (when you aren't forced) is to not pick up 10 straight days in a row.
 
I've done 48s before, trying to remember if I ever did a 60 or 72hr, if so I've only ever done once or twice.
My current Dept caps you at 36hrs straight, cannot work longer. (If you catch a late call that's tolerated but that's about it). Supposed to have min 8 hours before working again after a 36 here
 
96s over holidays were the norm here for guys and girls with no kids here until safety overruled 96s. Those were not fun but I just try to make a routine. Eat right, workout, try to train for a little bit and the days go buy.
 
Grind it out man, you really want that house, you want out of that neighborhood, suck it up! Were pretty privileged over here complaining of moods, whats for lunch, mental health, etc. Meanwhile, there's people that would die for our wages and hours. Just ranting, our family used to pick fruits and vegetables 16hrsx5days in Indio,CA until they died from lung CA from pesticides.
This world is pretty sh**y right now. Alot of George Carlin right now.

I was in the same boat, trying put a down payment on a house during the height of COVID 19. I put in 6x12s for 3 months. We were able to buy a house no problem but it sucked, my family almost kicked me out of the house! lol
 
Comfort Care said:
Grind it out man, you really want that house, you want out of that neighborhood, suck it up! Were pretty privileged over here complaining of moods, whats for lunch, mental health, etc. Meanwhile, there's people that would die for our wages and hours. Just ranting, our family used to pick fruits and vegetables 16hrsx5days in Indio,CA until they died from lung CA from pesticides.
This world is pretty sh**y right now. Alot of George Carlin right now.

I was in the same boat, trying put a down payment on a house during the height of COVID 19. I put in 6x12s for 3 months. We were able to buy a house no problem but it sucked, my family almost kicked me out of the house! lol
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Ahh, ye olde suck it up because other people have it worse. My grandpa picked fruit in Central Cali too, so we wouldnt have to. None of that means we should accept **** mental health and subpar working conditions.
 
spimx said:
What's the longest shift you guys have done. I'm trying to buy a house soon and I'm on day 3of 10. I haven't seen home much and I'm having trouble with my mood.

How do you guys deal with your mood on shift and high stress?
Click to expand...
Eat Healthy, stay away from alcohol and get at least a 30 min cardio workout in, (Walking suffices) everyday.

How about a 70+Day assignment working 12 Hour Days/On/6-Days a Week/Days to Nights (depending on Emergency Workload), while deployed to Katrina Ops...

Day 7 was ON-CALL-DUTY while scavenging/restocking Food/Supplies/Fuel/Tires and try doing laundry or just realocating new clothes.

You can do it.........
 
102 hours... got wrekt.... multiple bad calls and no sleep... no sleep... long recovery. After that I wouldn't work anything longer than 48...

Days in a row of non-24s? 20something... just recently did 11 straight. I avoid night at all cost, which makes this possible.
 
I've done 80 hrs over 4 days before (56, off 16 hours, then back for 24) and that sucked.. Right now I'm working M-F with a sat-sun RN clinical which is kicking my butt, only 1 day off in the last 5 weeks.. I can't imagine doing 22 days without a single hour off.

Hopefully a low volume truck/station (not that it matters)..
 
FiremanMike said:
Hopefully a low volume truck/station (not that it matters)..
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I used to think this, but redarless of call volume days at work is still days at work vs being home. Sucks regardless of call volume. These are just my thoughts of course.
 
CALEMT said:
I used to think this, but redarless of call volume days at work is still days at work vs being home. Sucks regardless of call volume. These are just my thoughts of course.
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Yeah I can believe it, anticipatory stress is real, and it can be even worse in a slower station..
 
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