Serious How hungover does the mid make you

True and a valid point. What people (myself included when I was on the boards) sought was the AWS schedule 4/10's. Those were absolute king but of course some people bitched about the 10 hour days lol. Moral of the story, as controllers we will complain about anything but the rattler itself is not the answer.
At least they can't hold you over.
 
True and a valid point. What people (myself included when I was on the boards) sought was the AWS schedule 4/10's. Those were absolute king but of course some people bitched about the 10 hour days lol. Moral of the story, as controllers we will complain about anything but the rattler itself is not the answer.
A solution I saw for years was to offer lines with an option of working 5 - 8s or the 10s.
Obviously selecting 8s negates getting a 3rd RDO, but the benefit was an extra body for leave, etc on that 5th day. It became a win-win as a few controllers never wanted 10s, in spite of the overwhelming popularity from most of the BU.
 
OT is one thing but 10 hour days all year would be hardddd. I think I’d take raddler over 4 10s but 4 10s over straight 8s
 
OT is one thing but 10 hour days all year would be hardddd. I think I’d take raddler over 4 10s but 4 10s over straight 8s
Everyone is different, but that 3 day allows you to: 1) Save more annual and sick 2) more time with family 3) God forbid you love OT but gives you 2 chances to earn OT.

I promise you though those 4 10's are a life saver especially since they are straight.
 
I've been on 10s for the last 2 years and have loved it. We split our BWS with both 8s and 10s for those that didn't want the longer days. We even split the shifts between straights, rattler and 2 on 1 off 2 on for those that wanted it. If you can convince management that they'll still get the coverage, you can really get anything.
 
I've been on 4-10s all year. They are long and rough, but the three day and swap capabilities were awesome... I did many weeks with swapped RDOs from back of one pay period and front of next to have 7 days off straight with just one day of annual. Weds Thurs Fri, annual Sat, Sun Mon Tues next week RDOs. I wanted to build a line that had switched days like that so every other weekend was 5 or six days weekends.
 
Maybe stop eating 4 meals then. Not that hard. I'd argue the rats have a habit of eating when they wake up, then lunch, dinner, and a 4th meal because they're up longer and don't change their habits.

Either way, I enjoy mids and I work quick turns plenty and have none of these issues. Most of you are just whiny. If you don't like mids give them away since every facility has people that want them. My last facility nearly no one gave up their mids because it was very nice to have a long weekend despite what all you crybabies say about the rattler.
I couldn’t agree more.

Stay disciplined on your first 2 swing shifts. If you wake up at noon day 1 and 2, it’s gonna be really hard on you doing the quick turn before day 3.

A lot of people don’t want to do that. That being said, I do feel rough after my mid. And with out a doubt has a negative effect on the body.
 
I've always been a night person & hate mornings but I just came back from vacation recently, I woke up early (6/7 am) every day, actually had a normal sleep schedule and felt amazing. Come back to work on the rattler and in less than a week I feel noticably more fatigued than the previous week.

I never eat fast food, have a pretty healthy diet and work out on average 3-4 times a week. I'm in my mid-20's. This schedule is brutal, and add on OT every week the rattler is god awful. Tried working mids this summer and when I realized I would get headaches for 2 straight days after the mids I instantly came off of them and feel better. If I could work straight nights, I would but I would have zero life outside of work because of 6 day work weeks.

The idea of getting off work at 12:30 on Friday and not going back until 2:30 on Monday for the "idea" of 3 days off is great and all if it weren't for me being tired all day on Friday and feeling like the shell of a human being. My ideal schedule would be a week of days followed by a week of swings. I've asked around & sounds like the majority of the people at my facility hate the rattler but no one's tried making up a new schedule & the guy that does the schedule here is dead-set on the rattler for his family life. Got like 2 other people out of 40 who like the rattler.

I've tried making a mock-draft of week of days/week of swings and if anyone else could send me a PM of their schedules if that's what they work it would be appreciated so I could get more ideas.
 
I couldn’t agree more.

Stay disciplined on your first 2 swing shifts. If you wake up at noon day 1 and 2, it’s gonna be really hard on you doing the quick turn before day 3.

A lot of people don’t want to do that. That being said, I do feel rough after my mid. And with out a doubt has a negative effect on the body.
This is the way but it’s hard when 5 of the days you can be a night owl
 
I've been on 4-10s all year. They are long and rough, but the three day and swap capabilities were awesome... I did many weeks with swapped RDOs from back of one pay period and front of next to have 7 days off straight with just one day of annual. Weds Thurs Fri, annual Sat, Sun Mon Tues next week RDOs. I wanted to build a line that had switched days like that so every other weekend was 5 or six days weekends.
Okay so this is somewhat similar to something I was thinking about. My dad’s employees work a rotating 4/10 schedule where they work Mon-Thurs week one then Tues-Fri week two so your weekends looked like 4 days then 2 then 4 and so on. I haven’t tried to write it out but I wonder if something like that would be manageable.
 
Do you really want to give up an extra 3/4 day off on your weekend though by eliminating the rattler?
It’s really a relative matter, do you want the extra 3/4 day off with your RDOs or would you like the extra 1/4 of your lifespan after retirement? I like the extra RDO time as much as the next person but I also don’t want to widow my wife at 60. Not trying to simp with the boomers but I’m just trying to play the game of life long term.
 
While we're on the topic, I thought of a hypothetical schedule the other day. It's illegal with our current rules and is probably a terrible idea for the masses and futile to type out but here it goes.

I enjoy mids and night shifts and absolutely hate morning shifts. I probably end up getting about 5
hours of sleep the night before any morning shift vs 8/9 hrs of sleep between consecutive evening shifts.

The night shift before the quick turn, I often find myself wishing I could just stay at work for the mid instead of going home and forcing myself to wake up at an ungodly hour. Basically my wish would be to have the option to work a longer shift / extend an eve shift into a mid shift to avoid quick turn. We already allow only 8 hrs between morning and mid shifts, when controllers are most in sleep debt, so why not let me choose how I want to be tired?

4 Shift schedule
1. 1 - 11
2. 1 - 10
3. 1 - 10
4. 6 pm - 6 am.

Or 5 shift schedule
1. 4-11
2. 3-10
3. 3-10
4. 3-10
5. 6 pm - 6 am

Ty for coming to my TED talk
 
While we're on the topic, I thought of a hypothetical schedule the other day. It's illegal with our current rules and is probably a terrible idea for the masses and futile to type out but here it goes.

I enjoy mids and night shifts and absolutely hate morning shifts. I probably end up getting about 5
hours of sleep the night before any morning shift vs 8/9 hrs of sleep between consecutive evening shifts.

The night shift before the quick turn, I often find myself wishing I could just stay at work for the mid instead of going home and forcing myself to wake up at an ungodly hour. Basically my wish would be to have the option to work a longer shift / extend an eve shift into a mid shift to avoid quick turn. We already allow only 8 hrs between morning and mid shifts, when controllers are most in sleep debt, so why not let me choose how I want to be tired?

4 Shift schedule
1. 1 - 11
2. 1 - 10
3. 1 - 10
4. 6 pm - 6 am.

Or 5 shift schedule
1. 4-11
2. 3-10
3. 3-10
4. 3-10
5. 6 pm - 6 am

Ty for coming to my TED talk
Terrible. You would be working to 6am on your sixth day. Best bet is to negotiate some straight swing lines and straight day lines. We started that this year and so far so good. Not the easiest to do but if you can fill straight swings with people like yourself then the straight days are a no brainer for people like me.
 
Terrible. You would be working to 6am on your sixth day. Best bet is to negotiate some straight swing lines and straight day lines. We started that this year and so far so good. Not the easiest to do but if you can fill straight swings with people like yourself then the straight days are a no brainer for people like me.
Great points. It makes more "sense" with the 4 shifts. I honestly didn't even think about the 6th day which is a testament to how bad of an idea it is.

We did manage to negotiate some straight eve / straight day lines / 4-10s this year.
 
I feel like all mids 12-8 would be better for me. I’d get more time before the mid to hangout. Leaving home at 8:30 to get to work in time to get 30 minutes of credit (I know not necessary but it’s easy and gets the late guys out sooner) is rough. I usually don’t go to bed until 11:30 or so, that’s three hours I’m down.
 
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