h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not that my being an instructional assistant was ever going to lead to a career path, 'cause I didn't want to teach, anyway!

So, y'all've known me for a couple minutes now (sorry, just had to--all of you have known me for a good while now), so this may be a bit of a surprise (or maybe not). I started as a corrections officer at the county jail on March 7. In fact, that was the job that the interview that I had to reschedule was for. So far, it's a lot like being an instructional assistant, just with taller charges I am taking care, though, since the only things I'm allowed to have on my duty belt so far are handcuffs and keys (and a flashlight, but I don't have one), since I've not had a chance to get certified in anything. The hardest part has been adjusting to 12 hour shifts, especially since my last job was very part time. Heck, in 3 days at *this* job, I work an hour longer than in 2 weeks at the last one! I've not been assigned a shift yet, since I'm still training. I'm hoping it'll be one of the day shifts, or maybe one of the overlapping (I think D's usual hours of 11am to 11pm would be great, but he already has that, so...) Shifts are normally 6am-6pm and 6pm-6am, rotating. Shifts A & C are the day shifts, and B & D are the night shifts. They rotate, so everyone has every other weekend off.

Do the rotating shifts have your head spinning?

Good for you Amy you will do well you are just the right attitude.
Good at rehabilitation of the guests.

How long is each shift rotation, ie: how many days, then how many nights?

I had the hardest time with simple 8 hour shifts that changed every 2 or 3 days. Say midnight to 8:00 for 2 days, then 24 hours later it was 8:00 to 16:00 for a pair of shifts. Another 24 hours off, and then the 16:00 to midnight for the final pair of shifts. If we were lucky, the days off were 4 days ( actually 96 consecutive hours, beginning with SLEEP ! ) And then do it all over again, for years.

The sleep and digestive system was always somewhat off balance.

I haven't caught the pattern for certain yet, since I'm not yet officially on a shift (though I've been with C most often). I know that people were reassigned shifts on March 10, and will be juggled around again at some point. I also know that A is always days, B is always those nights, C is always days, and D is always those nights. Kitchen is different. There appears to be a pattern of 3 days on, 3 days off, 2 days on, 2 days off, 2 days on, 2 days off, then repeat, resulting in A/B and C/D alternating weekends. You don't switch between days and nights unless/until you're assigned to a different shift.

I can now say that I was a little off on how the rotations go... I'll just list the on-days, for the 7 working days each fortnight: Sodit, Wimpy, Poets, Doobry, Dontbry, Wibble, Thing, (Or Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday.)