OT: piratecats income generator

[alsih2o]

not to be too nosy if you don't wanna go there, but what exactly is a "shiftwork consultant"?


als "i ain't got no knowledge of no business doin's" ih2o




(with apologies to hong for that last part)

 

[Dagger75]

Gets paid a lot for a fancy title.

Company: Do you think we should have somebody work at 9am?

Shiftwork Consultant: Yup.

Company: Wow!!! What would we do with out you? Here take this bag of money.

I really have no idea what that job is.

 

[Mistwell]

According to the websites I read:

A shiftwork consultant tailors shiftwork solutions (who works, when, for how long, and on what) for an organization as a neutral party. Generally they do most of the following: perform a detailed business analysis to help identify and evaluate various shift opportunities; determine the optimal staffing levels; calculate the cost of straight time and overtime; evaluate the impact that a shift change in one area may have on other areas; identify ways to maximize the utilization of the best equipment; find the best ways to schedule maintenance opportunities; identify the time needed for training and build that into a schedule; evaluate the variability in workload and make recommendations to facilitate it; make written recommendations on all of the pay and work policies required to support the new schedule; spend time on the floor listening to individual shiftworkers to get a sense of how the workforce is responding to the project; make midcourse adjustments to the methodology as required.

 

[Piratecat]

Yep!

In English, that means if your company runs 24 hours a day, a lot of folks are going to end up working the night shift. There's a good chance that their schedule (how many days they work nights, how long their shift is, etc.) is a lot harder on them than it needs to be. At its most basic, I train people how to deal better with night shift work, and I design shift schedules that help them instead of hurt them. If your workers are falling asleep at 3 am while doing things like running trains or working in a nuclear plant, you might call me in.

My friends tend to say I sell sleep.

There's a lot of hanging out in factories at 2 am. But that's part of the fun.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Where were you when I lived in San Francisco?

Tell me this isn't the worst shift you've ever heard of:

Sun/Mon/Tues/Weds 11pm-7am next morning;

THEN

Saturday 10am-6pm

Every week. 180 degree time shift, twice a week. God, I hated that job.

 

[alsih2o]

thanks loads for the explanation...it played out much defferently in my feeble mind-

person "i had to be at work last week at 8 am, then this week they changed it, and i am showing up at 5, which means i don't get off till after midnight"

worn feline voice " arrrr, matey, that be shiftwork"

 

[kibbitz]

Yep!

In English, that means if your company runs 24 hours a day, a lot of folks are going to end up working the night shift. There's a good chance that their schedule (how many days they work nights, how long their shift is, etc.) is a lot harder on them than it needs to be. At its most basic, I train people how to deal better with night shift work, and I design shift schedules that help them instead of hurt them. If your workers are falling asleep at 3 am while doing things like running trains or working in a nuclear plant, you might call me in.

My friends tend to say I sell sleep.

There's a lot of hanging out in factories at 2 am. But that's part of the fun.

With regards to your work, does scheduling software feature much? Or do you do your scheduling the old-fashioned way [pen(cil) and paper]?

 

[Piratecat]

With regards to your work, does scheduling software feature much? Or do you do your scheduling the old-fashioned way [pen(cil) and paper]?

I usually use Excel. Scheduling software can be useful when printing out master schedules, but it is usually not the easiest to use while designing.

A lot of what I do when designing shift schedules is like solving a puzzle, if each puzzle piece had certain variable criteria about where they fit in to the picture. Some interesting math, too.

Which remind me - Painfully! I owe you information! I'll track that down for you ASAP. Kid Charlemagne, if Painfully doesn't see this, will you please mention it to him?

Incidentally, Kid Charlemagne, I've seen much worse schedules. The 8 hour one you listed (N = night shift, E = evening shift) -

M T W T F S S
-----------------
N N N - - E N

Is really odd from a production standpoint. Looks like a semi-fixed schedule, and not a great one. I'd be curious to see the schedule of the people who covered the nights you had off.

The trick to surviving this shift pattern would be to stay up late Friday night and sleep as late as possible Saturday morning. Same thing with Saturday night and Sunday morning, before you go into work on Sunday night. The real bear is adjusting back to regular night time sleep on Thursday night. I'd probably recommend that folks stay partially adapted to staying up late and sleeping late, even on their days off.

This is a good example of a schedule which is moderate in terms of health, but which suh-hucks in terms of social life. Working the weekend, every weekend, isn't great for family and social responsibilities. I know that there are schedules I'd rather work.

 

[kibbitz]

I usually use Excel. Scheduling software can be useful when printing out master schedules, but it is usually not the easiest to use while designing.

A lot of what I do when designing shift schedules is like solving a puzzle, if each puzzle piece had certain variable criteria about where they fit in to the picture. Some interesting math, too.

Which remind me - Painfully! I owe you information! I'll track that down for you ASAP. Kid Charlemagne, if Painfully doesn't see this, will you please mention it to him?

Incidentally, Kid Charlemagne, I've seen much worse schedules. The 8 hour one you listed (N = night shift, E = evening shift) -

M T W T F S S
-----------------
N N N - - E N

Is really odd from a production standpoint. Looks like a semi-fixed schedule, and not a great one. I'd be curious to see the schedule of the people who covered the nights you had off.

The trick to surviving this shift pattern would be to stay up late Friday night and sleep as late as possible Saturday morning. Same thing with Saturday night and Sunday morning, before you go into work on Sunday night. The real bear is adjusting back to regular night time sleep on Thursday night. I'd probably recommend that folks stay partially adapted to staying up late and sleeping late, even on their days off.

This is a good example of a schedule which is moderate in terms of health, but which suh-hucks in terms of social life. Working the weekend, every weekend, isn't great for family and social responsibilities. I know that there are schedules I'd rather work.

Well, you see, I'm actually doing an Honours Year Project regarding scheduling and I'm supposed to come up with a better algorithm for at least one form of scheduling, and implement it. So I'm somewhat curious as to whether you make use of such software

 

[Piratecat]

Email me, please!