YOUR DAY-MID-NIGHT SHIFT AND THE FRIED RICE

Haha, midshift folks like me can definitely relate to this meme! Not to mention that you eat dinner really late too, LOL.

Thinking of going back to morning shift soon though. Kinda miss the smell of garlic fried rice in the cold morning! But I still love fried rice in the afternoon, or even midnight. I love fried rice. I drool over the smell of chinese fried rice, super!

MIDSHIFT

This is what annoys me with midshift schedule, it makes me fat! Like when you finish work really really tired and you end up eating a lot before going home or at home. Then you sleep.

The wrong thing there is being so tired that you just want to take a rest or lie down after a meal instead of going for a walk. Sometimes I would decide to skip dinner but that happens rarely. Dinner dates are hard to resist, but my mom’s cooking is way harder to say no to. She cooks gourmet meals on any random day!

When I was in Eastwood, I remembered not eating lunch before going to work at 1pm. I would eat a not so heavy snack in the afternoon and my first meal would be by 6pm. I can’t remember if I would eat dinner when I get home. But I remember drinking after shifts at past 10pm when my last meal was that of 6pm dinner. Not good, eat before you drink kids.

Then comes the best part with the midshift schedule, you are the king of the road! Hell yeah, you go to work while almost everyone’s having their lunch and you go home while they’re preparing to sleep already. Exceptions are students though coz they go home by the time you go to work, but they don’t usually bring their own vehicles so it won’t affect us too much.

There was this sudden heavy traffic (due to heavy rains) last month where everyone’s FB status and tweets are all about how they got stuck for 2 or 3 hours on the road. I shared my own status on how I got home less than an hour without even the hassle of the heavy rain. I even passed by EDSA that time. Lucky me!

Most people are on morning shifts so I don’t really get to join early dinner invites. Midshifters would arrive at certain occasions when everyone’s drunk already, then you laugh and take photos of them which is more fun! Also expect to go home early if you’re planning to have a night out with morning shift friends on weekdays. Midshift is best for party goers though, or if you’re friends with people who can keep up until the wee hours of the morning. DJ’s would usually blow up the dance floor shortly before midnight!

MORNING SHIFT

I remembered working in Makati on morning shifts, I would panic if I’m still out by 12 midnight because it would be past my bed time by the moment I get home. I would wake up before anyone else, aside for our helper, and I would take a cold shower which doesn’t really bother me. I’d prefer that than warm water, it just doesn’t feel refreshing for me.

Going back to garlic fried rice, see my mom and our helper would make sure everything’s prepared already when my brother wakes up in the morning, and I would just have to heat it (if I want to) by the time I wake up before lunch for my midshift. Fried rice is best served while it’s hot and I can still savor the aroma coming from the pan! Frustrating how fried rice is served cold, I would end up eating the plain rice instead. There’s something about the smell of breakfast meal isn’t it? Is it the hotdog, eggs, tocino or bacon? Nah. Is it the fried rice? YES!!

How about the coffee? Double yes! I don’t drink coffee, I can but I don’t, but I’m sure mornings for many would not be complete without the smell of coffee beans. I recalled one very cold morning in Baguio, I took a sip of my friend’s coffee and surprisingly enjoyed it! I made my own and it was sooo good! Hot coffee or even hot chocolate is definitely best during cold mornings!

Unfortunately I would choose to skip breakfast sometimes because lunch break on morning shifts is just quite early for me. Like you start work at 9am then you have to eat at 11:30 or 12pm? When I just had my heavy breakfast and all I did was sit down at work after that? So instead of looking anti social not being able to join my friends for lunch, I would skip breakfast and be totally hungry and excited for lunch break!

I also find my days pass by quickly when I was in morning shift. I go to work, 3 hours after I eat lunch, 3 hours after I eat snack (sometimes I don’t), then 3 hours after it’s the end of your shift! I know the same case goes to other schedules, but maybe because morning people tend to be more hyper or active so you don’t really notice how time flies?

Probably the main disadvantage of morning shifters is the dreaded rush hour! I swear I would always almost curse Osmena, Mayapis, Valero, down to Ayala whenever I am struggling to get to work on time! South traffic’s just unforgivable! But admittedly, I miss working there, maybe because I had a grand time with the company that adjusting with the work place became less of an issue.

Many of you can relate rush hour to MRT. Among the 3 railways (LRT1 and 2), MRT is very much affected with the passenger crowd of employees because it passes by the metro’s main business areas. Morning rush hour usually starts at 6am until almost 9am, just perfect for my travelling time, ugh! Then going home, 5pm to almost 8pm is the rush hour madness! Expect, or prepare yourselves, because MRT would totally be a struggle during the mentioned hours. I don’t ride the MRT so my usual travelling time going home is 1-2 hours, considering I don’t pass by EDSA anymore, instead I take the Nagtahan route to manila. Experienced a 5 hour journey to hell, I mean to home, last year during sudden heavy rain!

Morning shift would also teach you discipline and prioritization. Quite proud of myself waking up very early in the morning all by myself. Morning shift proved to me that when you sleep early, you get up early - minus the headache. I would also skip some after work plans or would go home earlier than the rest because I have a bed time to keep. Cinderella must have been so proud of me. My workmates in Makati’s just the same in Eastwood, they love to drink after work. What amuses me is it usually ends around 9pm (some have to catch the MRT) - that early and yet we all had a good time!

NIGHT SHIFT

Then comes the darkest hour of your life, the night shift. They would also call this as the graveyard shift maybe because like zombies, dead people or occupants of graveyards would get up during midnight mornings.

The only time I experienced night shift was when I worked for an advertising agency for the second time. The first time was sort of an events place than an ad agency. I handled different events, yes I had no sleep sometimes, but normally my schedule would be during day time. For the second time though, I was hired as a team lead for events. It was a Nestle Wellness / Fitness project that would start at around 5am so it would require us to meet at as early as 12am for the ingress, travel and set-up. Among all locations, I was assigned in Muntinlupa. My office is in Kamuning and our warehouse is in Banawe, so we have no choice but to meet early.

Off days are my glory days because I get to go out at night. Losing your social life would be one of the things you have to prepare for when going on night shift. Pray that you will have awesome workmates because they’re the only people you could invite for a drink on early mornings. Call center agents are the most familiar with the 3rd shift. It’s like when you decide to be a customer service representative, you also decide to be in the graveyard shift.

I had a hard time waking up on my first day of event. I have to ask someone to call my cellphone just to wake me up at 11pm, because I only slept at 10pm, haha! The hard part is that I have to go to the office, manage the budget, and buy materials for event on day time and would have to help myself to sleep for my night shift. We would usually finish the event proper and egress in Banawe after lunch, and that is when I would feel the difference on schedule. I would go home together with the scorching heat, good thing I didn't had a hard time sleeping because each event was so exhausting!

Going to work at night is good - traffic wise, but not so good in terms of safety. I know some whose shifts would start at 2 or 3am. I mean how can they possibly go to work without a car? Your eating habit is twisted, you start having your first meal while the rest are day dreaming. Studies show that night shifts can make you fat because it slows your metabolism due to circadian misalignment. Circadian Rhythm is “the daily cycle of activity observed in many living organisms". To change its pattern would also cause obesity, diabetes or heart attacks. Insomnia also triggers heart attacks.

You don’t get to eat normally, and you don’t get to eat the normal meals too. Good to know you can still enjoy a good plate of fried rice when you reach home! Life is definitely turned upside down when you’re on graveyard shift. My friends would recount how they would go home early in the morning and join passengers going to work with their hair still wet, their clothes still presentable and their smell, all fresh. Then there you are, ending your day literally during day time.

Nightshifters are used to getting drunk in the afternoon after starting their session early in the morning. They would sleep with the heat of the day and wake up on cold nights. Some say night shift is fun though, like they have their own lifestyle. Some say it can be liberating which I would somehow agree because I think commuting to work at night requires a lot of guts.

One of the advantages of being in the night shift is its pay. They have what they call the night differential where you have added pay aside from your basic. Living up to its name, it's added compensation to actually compensate for your unusual working hours.

As much as I love advertising and events, I secretly looked for a new job while still doing my team lead duties. I just felt that I couldn’t handle the schedule. The change on hormone patterns also contribute to our level of stress. True enough, I was usually stressed during my stint there. It’s funny coz when I got hired in Makati, they first offered me the graveyard schedule because there’s no opening for the morning. They gave me 3 days to decide plus a good compensation rate, and I still said no. I think being in Makati alone is enough adjustment for me already. Surprisingly, they called me up again and told me that they would push a slot for me in the morning shift just so I could finally sign the offer. They retained the night shift compensation rate too. Yahoo!



I want all of you to finish this post until your shift ends, hence the long entry haha! Anyway, among the 3 shifts, I think the best one for your health is the morning shift. The best one for travel and traffic is the midshift. While the best one in terms of compensation is the night shift. It all depends now on your priority. Quite lucky for me to have a flexible schedule. I just moved to midshift coz of work duties and some other factors too.

Whatever your shift is, always remember the four words according to Neyo, Akon and Guetta: WORK HARD PLAY HARD! Thanks by the way to RX 93.1's Morning Rush (6-10am) and Magic 89.9's Boys Night Out (6-10pm) for keeping us company on or from our work. Graveyard folks should have a cool radio show like those too!

It’s almost the end of my shift, my usual dinner date is miles miles away from me already so I would probably just have dinner near the office. What do I want to eat anyway? Hmm… fried rice!