Episode [422] – The People Who Made Shift Work Worth It, You Know Who They Are

Now, let's be brutally honest here.

If you've worked in policing, nursing, ambulance, fire services, manufacturing, corrections, hospitality, private industry, doesn't matter where, or any other workplace that operates around the clock, I reckon you're going to know exactly what I'm talking about here, and that's important to me.

There is something quite unique about the relationship you develop with the people when you are working shifts together.

You're spending time with them when most of the world is asleep.

You're sharing meals at strange hours.

You're dealing with situations that don't always go to plan and sometimes spending more waking hours with your colleagues than you actually do with your own family.

And think about that.

We do.

We're either communicating with them via WhatsApp or we're actually at work with them.

at times when, you know, the other times is we'd be home and we'd be asleep while the family's around.

We're not spending time with them then, are we? But then our waking hours, we're at work.

And I know from my own experience of working at a new station or transferring into a new station, you hang out for that night shift because you had that crew on nights, you get consistency, you're working with the same people, and it started to form bonds and relationships during that night shift.

And over time, those people that you did this with became a fairly significant part of your life.

And it was always important because when you did that night shift, you'd be hoping that you would be selected to go into the crew with the next lot again because then you were in.

And I know you know what I'm actually talking about.

I don't think we always appreciate that while we're actually doing it.

And it isn't until you're like me now, you've stepped away from it, you're looking back in and you can actually see this.

And it's often when you leave a workplace or you change teams, heaven forbid, or retire that you begin to realize just how much those actual relationships meant.

It wasn't always about the work.

One of the things I remember about policing was that some of the most enjoyable moments had absolutely nothing to do with police work in itself.

There were conversations in the car.

the nonsense that went on around the station, the discussions over a meal break, or the absolute rubbish.

Now, I want you to think and be honest.

How many times would you be sitting there having a meal or having something to eat or three or a cup of tea or something at four o'clock in the morning, and someone would say something, you'd look at them and think, what? Where did that come from? And that's our brain at four o'clock in the morning.

Everyone's exhausted.