Giant Dwarf vs. Mornings

About 10 years ago, my brother came to visit me but I had signed up for a weekend-long continuing education class before I knew he was coming.  We were making plans for the weekend and my brother asked what time the class started.

"8:00 am," I replied.

"8:00 am?!?  Do you even know what that looks like?" he exclaimed.

I sort of did, but not really.  High school did start at 7:30 am.  I would wake up at 5:00 am every morning to shower and do my hair, which didn't work anyway.  My French class in college was at 8:00 am (even though I registered for the 9:30 am class...they bumped me!) and that was the demise of any possibility that I would master the language.

I had some dance classes in college at 8:00 am (that was really the only time they were offered), and I dislocated my knee in one of those classes.  Mornings were not kind to me.

In my professional career, I was able to avoid an early start time for many years.  First, I worked in theatre, and no respectable mid-size theatre in the 1990s opened their administrative offices before 10:00 in the morning.  When I changed my career to social work at the end of the millennium, I realized that I may have to start waking up earlier.  My internships and first jobs started at 8, or 8:30 or 9.  I dealt.  I worked 8 hour days back then, would come home, nap, and then have a regular evening like the evenings I had when I started work at 10.  I adopted a kind of mini-Spanish-siesta lifestyle.

And then I took a job in the Emergency Department.  As the only social worker there at the time, they required two unusual work changes:  work one weekend day a week, and don't start before 11:00 am.
Wait.  What?!?

Sign me up.  For 10 years, I worked this schedule, and for the last 6 years, my bosses have been chipping away at my lovely late morning lifestyle.

When we changed to 10-hour shifts, we initially had to work both day and night shifts.  Days started at 8:00 am and I was formally re-introduced to that early start time.  Then they moved me to 7:30 am.  I couldn't even figure out what a good time to leave my home was for that start time.  I hadn't started anything at the half-past since high school, and that didn't go well.

And then we changed to 12-hour shifts.  Twelve hours for a social worker in an emergency room is brutal....yes, most of the other disciplines do 12s as well, but they aren't listening/seeing/absorbing human misery for those 12 hours straight.  We are.  It's fucking exhausting.

To add insult to injury?  We start at 7:00 am now.  Remember the opening joke where my brother teased me for not knowing what 8:00 am looked like?  Yeah, not funny anymore.  Waking up when it's dark outside for a long work day is inhumane.  Leaving for work while it's still dark out (hello winter) is completely insane.  It's making me miss my theatre days.

We've now been doing this schedule for nine months and I have not gotten used to it.  One shitty day in the ED leaves me completely depleted the next day (if I'm off, it's a wasted day; if I'm working, watch out, people!).  7:00 am is officially the earliest start time I have ever had for work (excluding some production assistant days but that was super-temporary) and it's making me miserable.

The only saving grace?

At least I don't have to work the night shift.

(And big hugs and kisses to my colleagues who do work overnight.)