Advice about 9-5 jobs please

Soldato
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22 Oct 2004
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Basically I'm applying for office jobs, which is completely different to my background. And with these jobs comes the 9-5 Monday to Friday which I've never done before. I have always worked 3 to 4 day weeks 12 hour shifts.
Has anyone gone from similar hours to me and then to a office hours, what do you think?
For me I like the idea of having every weekend off and finishing at 5 every shift. The only negative is I'll be in work 5 days a week, but to be honest I want to get back to working in a job that I can be excited about and not feel a part timer and achieve something.
 
Make sure you enjoy the job. It's a long time to be spent in work.

And make sure the commute is decent too, I'm doing 1hour30mins (+upto 30mins somedays) there (bus+train), and the same back, and its pretty soul destroying having no free time.


Got an interview for another 9-5, hour drive each way but the job is in an industry I love and really want to be in. So give and take, I'd happily put in the time and sacrifice my own for a job i truly love, as it doesn't feel like a job then.
 
Yeah I used to do long hours and shift work, now doing a 9-5.

Although I'm on flexi time so start at 0730 and work until 16-1630, means I can go home at lunchtime on a Friday, I miss the days off during the week with shift work but having evenings and weekends at home with my children is something I wouldn't like to loose.
 
Be careful what you wish for I quite enjoy my job as a whole but if I could do 3 12 hour days instead of being sat in an office 5 days a week I would.

I used to work long shifts up to and above 50 hours over a Fri/Sat/Sun in my old job and it was much nicer than working all week.
 
done that a few times
went from day/night shift patterns in 21 days work 10 shifts
to 8:00 4:30 mon thru then 8:00 to 2:30 fri

It takes a bit of getting used to be worth it in the long run
 
I spent 10 years doing various shifts in warehouse/logistics including nights/continental shifts.

I then spent 7 years working in an office doing shifts as we had 24/7 coverage.

I then moved to a 9-5 week.

Honestly, I hate it really but only because when I was working office shifts I had a young child and it gave me time off with just her. She's now at school and shifts would mean I wouldn't see her, but I don't get time off during the week now with my son who is 2 in March. i'd rather work 8pm - 8am every day if I had to as it'd give me more time with them both. But, when he starts school in 3 years it'll be different again.

My wife loves me working these hours, as to her, it's a normal family routine.

I guess it depends what you do with your free time as to whether it works for you but I'll always miss those 4 days off :D
 
I did 15 years of 12 hour shifts. 4 on 4 off. 2 days, followed by 2 nights. I now work 0800-1630, 5 days a week. (There is the odd Saturday, or week of 0930-1800, but it's infrequent.)

As I got older I found it harder and I started to hate doing my 12 hour night shifts and looked forward to the new job and getting home earlier and not working weekends (the rolling 8-day week meant you did). However...

After 18 months of '9-5' I'm starting to wonder if working longer, and fewer, days is better.

Although I'm getting up later - 0655 vs 0555 - doing it 5 days a week instead of 2 out of 8 takes it out of you. And although I disliked the nights, I could get home and sleep until I wasn't tired. In some ways, I feel more tired now!

Only having 2 days off (a weekend) is also a killer, as I was used to getting 4. 2 just isn't enough to get things done and passes far too quickly. :(

I'm lucky in that I don't actually have a commute. I'm a mobile worker, so get my jobs sent to a tablet and just jump in my van and get to my first job for 0800. Working 9-5 and having to commute would be a nightmare.

Bottom line, there are pros and cons. How they effect you will vary to how they effect everyone else.
 
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Thanks for the quick replies everyone. Basically fed up of the role I'm in, there's not much advancement and the money doesn't get much better over minimum wage.
So here in 2017 and want to better myself and to try a new career that has potential for advancements.
Anyway the jobs that I'm applying for is only about 30 mins away which is absolutely fine for me.
As for personal life, 3 days of the week I would go gym before work so I would get up about 630 like I do now. And if I finish work at 5 I'll be home about 530 easily.
 
I did it.

You adapt very quickly, but the thing I missed was having your days off in the week where everywhere was completely quiet such as the gym or shopping.

Advantages though are quite big in terms of when the lads want to go on a weekend away I could do that on a 9-5 without having to book time off. Now I'm back to shift work I have to rely on work letting me. The weekends are the biggest advantage/disadvantage of the whole normal working week I suppose.
 
What your friends/family are doing should be a big factor. As has been said, if all your mates work different shift patterns to you then there's a chance that you won't have many opportunities to do stuff with them.
 
Did shifts thought it was crap... Moved to 9-5... Realised it wasn't so crap. Two days really isn't enough time to actually relax and get things done, working 3 on 3 off was very good! 24 hours shifts on the days on. But on call for 12 of them.

Will be going back to shift work soon hopefully.
 
Be careful what you wish for I quite enjoy my job as a whole but if I could do 3 12 hour days instead of being sat in an office 5 days a week I would.

I used to work long shifts up to and above 50 hours over a Fri/Sat/Sun in my old job and it was much nicer than working all week.

If all things were equal in terms of pay/benefits etc... then I think I could cope with that. But a 12hr stint and remaining effective on those 12hrs is quite tough for a lot of people.

I can function and perform well for short stints and give myself breaks (such as now replying to this thread!) but when I'm "on it" I'm on it and nothing can distract me. I get a LOT done. I think I'd find 12hrs (I've done ridiculous hours in the past) would be hard to remain focussed... that said, for 3 days I could grit my teeth and deal with it.
 
I suppose it comes down to the sort of work you're doing as well to be honest, I've got rare days in the office where I'm basically a glorified data entry clerk and there's no way I could manage that for a full 12 hours and not want to ride into the nearest tree as soon as I finished but my usual dev workload that has me flipping between various things and running down rabbit holes makes my days fly by.

Basically I think my point is there's no one size fits all and 9-5 Mon to Fri isn't the holy grail it may appear to be.
 
MY wife made this change and it has worked out fine, makes it much easier for childcare, also free every weekend and makes it easier to plan social events in advance as she knows what days she'll be working or not.
 
As mentioned above I suppose it depends on the job, but I worked 9-5 for about 10 years before changing to shift work which I do now.

I didn't realise just how unhappy a 9-5 job made me, I almost felt trapped in that pattern of work, stretching out 45+ years ahead of me. The commute in the morning, the queues during lunch for your supermarket sandwiches etc etc. It was quite stifling.

I suppose it depends on what sort of person you are too, I like being awake when everyone else is asleep, I like the silence of the world in the wee hours of the morning. I also like having days off during the week and having more than two days off in a row.

But mostly I suspect, it depends on you and how much you will like your new job.
 
Thanks for all the replies, quite interesting to hear everyone's views on the subject.
Anyway I've had some very good news and I've got myself a job working 9-5 and it's flexitime so that makes it even better.
 
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