Career chats: When you work makes a big difference
About this video
Workers explain how the timing of their work shapes their lives. One answers overnight messages from colleagues in China and Singapore, another works 12-hour A or B watch shifts, one follows a schedule set by nature, a night owl found a night shift job life-changing, and another loves having flexible hours instead of a traditional 9 to 5.
You'll be able to
- describe different work schedules, like shifts, night work and flexible hours.
- explain how time zones and nature can affect when people work.
- think about which schedule would suit me.
Key words
- Time zone
- A region of the world that uses the same clock time; times differ between zones.
- Shift
- A set block of hours that a worker is scheduled to work.
- Night shift
- Work hours that happen during the night.
- Flexibility
- Freedom to choose or change when you work.
Transcript
(upbeat music) - I work with China and Singapore a lot. We have big offices in both of those places, and with this time zone difference, they're usually awake when I'm asleep and vice versa. So I'll wake up and have hundreds of messages from my colleagues over there to answer.
So I usually spend about an hour every morning doing that.
- Our schedule works is you either, everyone works 12-hour shifts, so you either work A watch or B watch. A watch is 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM, and then of course, B watch is 6:30 PM to 6:30 AM.
- You know, the schedule is based on mother nature, so it's long days, early mornings, late nights.
- Somebody who's chronically been a night shift person, and I know I'm not the only one out there, finding a night shift job was actually very life-changing for me because I thought I was gonna lose my mind waking up at seven in the morning, 6:30 in the morning every day, but I would go to sleep at like four in the mornings.
- I think the thing that I love most about my job is truly the flexibility and freedom I have with my time, because I've worked jobs where I didn't have that, where I was kind of either locked in on a traditional 8 to 5, 9 to 6 type of schedule and expectation, having people assign hours to me, I really struggled.
I really struggled with that. (upbeat music)
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