Going back to 8s, and looking for a new watch

So I talked to my supervisor yesterday.  I told her that I was done with the 12 hour shifts, and that on the next schedule (starting in about 3 weeks) I want to move back to 8 hour shifts.

I honestly went into the 12 hour shifts with open eyes.  I knew that no perceived 'benefit' is free.  For all the good and glory that my 12 hour shift co workers talked about, there would be bad things weighting it down.

Before I get into the nitty gritty, I should pause and say this.  If me working 12 hour shifts benefited me overall, benefited my co-workers, or benefited my employer, then I would have no problem staying on this shift.  It's not exactly what I want, but I can certainly deal with it.

But that's just it... it doesn't benefit anybody.  Let's look at all three of those groups in turn.  First up.. Co-workers.

To move to 12 hour shifts, all the nurses had to take a vote.  If the majority of us wanted 12s, then the supervisors would abide and let us have them.  Those who wanted to stay at 8s could do so... but if it was a minority that wanted 12s, then we would all stay at 8s.  I was on the fence when this vote came up... I wanted to try 12s as that's the standard shift that nurses work, but I also knew that I enjoyed 8s.  So I voted for 12s, as it felt like the right thing to do.

But that benefit to my co-workers is done.  My moving back to 8s won't make all of them do the same.  There really is no other benefit if me being on 12s vs 8s to my co-workers.  Sure, I won't be there for those extra 4 hours a day, but that falls on the people working on the schedule... they just have to put less call outs during those 4 hours.  I'll still get the same amount of work, it will just start at 2pm as opposed to 10am.

So... no benefit to my co workers.

My employer.  Me being on 12s actually HINDERS my employer.  With half of the nurses moving to 12s, there are the same amount of work hours... but there is a serious lack of work DAYS.  Overtime has actually increased as we just don't have the proper staffing levels.  That could be alleviated by hiring the proper number of nurses, but we aren't there now.  And being 'The State' we probably won't be at proper staffing levels for some time.

If I move to 8s, I will be there for three more days per pay period.  That's three overtime shifts that they don't have to offer, or three shifts of actually having more than the minimal amount of staff.  When I first floated the idea to my supervisor's supervisor, she jumped at the chance of me moving back to 8s.  She made it clear that if I wanted to stay at 12s, that I could... but she would love it if I went back to 8s.

So no benefit to my employer... and an actual benefit to my employer by changing.

That leaves me.

The good part of 12s for me is the extra days off.  Every other weekend I get four days off in a row (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday).  The two weekends I've experienced this were fine... I had Friday as a day of resetting, Saturday and Sunday at my friends place, and Monday as a real 'day off' to myself.  But not all weekends will be like that. If I'm left to my own with four days off, I'm going to get bored.  It was one of my biggest complaints of not working... there's nothing to do.

Sure.. I can cap.  I can play games.  I can watch TV and catch a movie. But I can do those same things with two days off just like I've done for the past eight and a half months with every other Saturday and Sunday off.  And honestly, after that much time off, I don't want to go back to work. I get into that low energy 'just getting by' vibe, and going to work the next day takes some effort.

With a 12 hour shift, my entire day is about work.  Remember, I  have to add an hours drive to work and an hours drive from work each shift.  So I get up, read a bit of news, shit/shower/shave, go to work, work, go home, eat, sleep.  I don't have any single days, so I have to repeat that at least once.  More or less, I got to bed on Monday night and then wake up on Thursday morning.  Tuesday and Wednesday just didn't exist outside of work.  And damn it, I really do enjoy my mornings.

Take today for example... I do have to work this afternoon/evening as it's the one 8 hour shift I do in a pay period.  But instead of waking up to my alarm and getting ready for work, I've  had a leisurly three hours of coffee, sports web sites, political web sites, TG blogs, finishing up the previous post here, and starting up this post.  And you know what... I still have two hours before I even have to get ready for work.

So I don't like the extra days off, and I don't like missing out on all those leisurely mornings.  12 hour shifts just don't work for me.  I CAN do it... but I just would rather be on 8s.

Using that reasoning, I can find no reason for me to stay on 12s.

The only reason I'm not changing back to 8s next week is that I traded a shift with a co-worker.  If I change back to 8s I can't do that trade and she's screwed.  So this will hopefully be my final LONG weekend.  Ironically the trade made it a longer than normal long weekend.  I'm picking up her Friday shift next week and she's taking my Tuesday shift.  So after I get out of work tonight (Thursday night) I won't be coming back to work until Wednesday morning.  5 days off.

Oy Vey.

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I've been flirting with the idea of getting a new watch.  I love my current watch.  It's a little flashy, but no in a 'in your face' kind of way.  I've had it for going on 4 years now and have had to change the battery twice.  The last time was just a few months ago.  If I could go three and a half years between battery changes, it would be fine.  But this last battery is already dying.  So that got my eyes looking elsewhere... and I've started looking at the Pebble watch.

If you don't know about the Pebble, you should definitely check it out;  www.getpebble.com

In short, it's a smart  watch that pairs up with your phone (Android or iPhone).   When your phone rings, you can answer it or send it to voice-mail using the watch.  It will tell you who's calling, display your text messages and other notifications.  It can even use apps on your phone to send texts, and get basic internet information (think of things like getting movie times or displaying a map).

If I had a smart watch like this, I might use a few of these features... but probably not all that often.  Above all else, at least to me, at watch just needs to be a good watch.  It needs to look good on my wrist, have a good battery life, and tell me the time in the easiest way possible when I glance at it.

The first pebble that came out was... well it was big, bulky, and very plasticy.  I didn't think it would look good on my wrist and once I got over the 'newness' of the watch I imagine that I would get tired of looking at it and miss my nice stylish metal watch.

The only feature that kept me reading about it was the fact that it could change watch faces.  Here are some various watch faces that caught my eye:

I could see me using a standard watch face with an hour, minutes, and second hand.  I could see me using a digital style face.  I could see me using a 24 hour format style face (very useful at work as I have to document in 24 hour time!), and I could see me using some of the 'fun' designs like the LCARs one.

But even with that fun, I just couldn't make the leap.  At the end of the day I would be wearing a big plasticy watch every day.

Well... Pebble seemed to understand my un-voiced concern and now offers the Pebble Steel:

I think that looks pretty damn stylish!  It's not as flashy as my current time piece, but it still has a similar style.  And it most definitely does NOT look plasticy.  It still has all the benefits of the previous generation as it connects to a phone, displays caller information and notifications, and can change it's faces whenever you want.

So... I could have a standard face when I want, a 24 hour face at work, and various other ones just for fun.  And at $250 it doesn't really matter if I ever use it with my phone or not.  It would be a good solid watch.

I'm still on the fence and haven't made up my mind... but I think I'm going to jump.  Now if only they didn't have a six week waiting list to get a Pebble Steel!