this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2025
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Eh. This depends on the job being done. In my field of work the only thing that matters is that you get the job done. What office hours you keep are not very important. On the other hand, my friend works shift work where he has to replace someone directing a process (think air traffic control). Being 10 minutes late is a dick move because you are forcing the person you are replacing to stay longer at the end of a shift.
Then shifts should have an overlap.
I know they don't and won't, but there's no good reason not to do it, except that the company would make a bit less money.
Depends on how things are run. My wife works at the hospital and works 12 hour shifts, rotating days and nights. You’re expected to show up 15 mins early so the previous shift can hand off their patients to you.
I’m not sure how you’d do 12 hour shifts with overlap unless the overlap was considerable or shift times were all over the place. The hospital here gets a certain budget and it makes sense to have it running as optimal and efficient as possible. You also get paid from punch in to punch out so coming in early gets you paid more. Realistically her shifts are 12 hours 15 mins.
But then your wife should be scheduled and paid for 12.25 hour shifts.
She gets paid for it, it’s just not on the schedule. There’s no unpaid labour at her work.
By listing a schedule starting at one time, but expecting the actual start to be earlier they're communicating an inaccurate schedule.
Could you imagine prescribing one dose but expecting another? Billing one amount but expecting a premium on top of that?
15 mins early is standard here. Basically everyone expects 15 mins early to everything (work, appointments, etc). Her work is more direct about it since it’s a core part of their work, but it’s nothing unusual where we live.
Yeah I dont think 12 hours is feasible, anyway.
By hour 10, are people really working with the same level of care as when they started?
In healthcare that's a much bigger concern than some middle-manager in a corporate office.
Three 8:15 hour shifts, instead of two 12:15 hour shifts. Seems much more reasonable, adds 15 minutes total to work time.
In theory, more medical errors happen from bad transfer of care than from fatigued caregivers, so that's why they go for longer, fewer shifts.
Or so they say. I'm not sure I believe it.
I asked my wife about this, she said in her experience that’s true. I actually just asked her why they work 12 instead of 8 and that’s the answer she gave too.
I also mentioned it in another comment but most of her coworkers prefer the 12 hour shifts as they get a lot more days off. She said it’s busy enough that 12 in the hospital feels like 8 elsewhere so it doesn’t feel like she’s working super long shifts.
Doctors often have longer shifts too. My cousin is an anesthesiologist and works 24 hour shifts. He likes it for all the same reasons.
Well I have no reason to doubt her. Plenty of reason to doubt employers, but not the people working the shifts, so OK. Good to know.
Sounds like they should work towards 3 shorter shifts and offer enough time for a proper patient handover rather than abusing staff for over half a day.
There are 8 hour lines too but no one wants them. 12 hour days means more days off. Most people either work 2 days, 2 nights, 5 days off, or 5 weeks of lots of shifts days and nights and then one full week off.
So they should offer 8 hours and comparable days off (or even better)
None of this 12 hour bullishit should be justifiable.
Then they’d need to raise her wage too which they won’t do. She’s already well paid for her position. The more she works, the more she makes. If they raised her pay and lowered her hours so she’d get the same paycheques that would be great, but definitely wouldn’t happen. She also enjoys working. Saving people’s lives is a very fulfilling job.
12 hours aren’t bad. If I could choose 12 hours 3 days per week plus a 4 hour day instead of five 8 hour shifts I’d take that easily. Or four 10 hour days. When you’re already working 8 hours, an extra 2-4 hours isn’t bad. I used to work 12-15 hour days when they’d let me, but then they started refusing overtime so I can’t do that anymore.
Yeah, they always sell the 12 hour shifts with the tag line, "You'll only be working 14/15 days a month!" It's true, and I love my 5 days off in a row, but there is a huuuuge difference in an 8 hour day and a 12 hour day when you're juggling the other necessities in your life, like kids, appointments, and emergencies.
I believe there's studies showing that fewer handoffs lead to better patient outcomes.
I know people who prefer 12 hours shifts. My partner is scheduled for 7-7:30 shifts. Including a half hour lunch break, that means there's a 30 minute handover window while still working 12 hours... in the end they get paid for when they are clocked in/out and not when they are scheduled.
There are some studies that show that having shifts shorter than 12h actually do more harm to patients than benefit since that means more turnover in each case and more disconnect between patient and medical professionals.
I've heard way crazier shifts, things like 36h shifts where I live years ago.
How much of a difference could there possibly be, regarding alleged patient harm, between 12hr and 10hr shifts?
You wouldn't do 10h shifts, you would do 8h shifts or you would have daily drift in shifts and that's horrible for workers.
As other people have written in this post, workers prefer 12 to 8 since there are less error and they get more vacation days.
Why? I'm literally asking why 10hr isn't even a possibility, it's all just 8 or 12 in here. Why wouldn't I do 10hr shifts?
because it doesn't add up to 24h. You propose two 10h shifts and one 4h shift? That sounds chaotic.
Overlap...?
double the nurses and doctors for 1h? Sounds like chaos idk.
Yeah you're right, just make everyone work 12 hr and then have to stick around longer (possibly without being paid for it) if anyone is ever even just a couple of minutes late. Makes so much more sense.
Or, I don't know, overlap them by 15 min? Who said it had to be an hour?
quoting the orignal msg:
Did you selectively ignore the part where they said that they punch in and punch out and are paid those 15 mins????
10h paid shifts. to overlap them consistently you do 8h turns with 1h overlap on each. it's the most logical way to overlap 10h shifts in my eyes idk...
In any case, if they are paid those 15 mins and workers aren't pissed with the 12h15m shifts, why do you care so much?
Are shifts typically 12 hours due to a staffing shortages or is it for better patient care? I’m all in favor of hospitals being efficient and optimal, but if more funding is required so that the hospitals are staffed properly then I don’t see why that’s not something being funded by the government.
It's both that 12h shifts are better for care and that people are understaffed. They need more nurses in those 12h shifts.
It's generally perceived to be better for patient care.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/indhealth/48/3/48_3_357/_article/-char/ja/
There are a lot of studies looking into it, though, and it seems like it's pretty context dependent.
That makes sense, if you’re working 12 hour shifts then at least your weeks are more predictable and you can have more baked in recovery days between shifts.
Contrasted with rotating 8 hour shifts where some of your days can be during the daylight and other shifts throughout the night, with less recovery time in between to prepare for the sweeping changes.
I just want to say, fuck rotating shifts. Those are worse than working straight nights or 3rd shifts.
Rotating shifts just sounds nuts. At that point it sounds like there was a clear hiring problem if they needed people to rotate their shifts.
I’d be all for more funding to the hospitals too. Unfortunately I don’t make those decisions. Our hospitals are already funded by the government but it would be nice if they’d give them more money for staff and equipment etc. A lot of floors are chronically low on supplies. At least the staff gets paid really well, which is a bonus. My wife makes about 2.5x what she’d make in a retirement home or similar.
"Expectation" means it's not showing up 15 minutes early for a 12 hour shift, it's 12 hour and 15 minutes shift.
She gets paid punch in to punch out. If she goes in extra early she gets paid more. If she doesn’t bother going in early to relieve the previous shift she doesn’t get the extra pay.
To overlap the next shift would have to come in early or the first would stay late.
So either you make it even harder to come in on time or you permanently institute the issue of running late.
Not to mention that would absolutely just become another dumbass all Hands-On meeting to waste everyone's time with.
Nah people should just be there when they agreed to, being flaky is not and should not be everyone else's problem.
That doesn't make any sense. If you're supposed to be there at 5:00, the shift should change so you're supposed be there at 4:50, so that you'll be there at 5:00 when you're ten minutes late?
And what am I supposed to do if you do get there at 4:50? Clock out early? Feel you awkwardly hovering behind me?
I already pay for commute.
If the company isn't paying me for extra 10 minutes, they're not getting free 10 minutes.
It shouldn't be your problem if the next shift doesn't show up on time.
When I used to work shifts you bet the employer paid for every extra minute I had to wait for the next guy - it's the law.
It's interesting to bring up air traffic controllers because they (in most countries) have strictly regulated work hours. The research into fatigue and safety problems is pretty extensive, and the last person you want working overtime because someone got sick is the controller telling a dozen or more planes where to fly at once.
While not all jobs have the same stakes, that goes to show how it's an employer's responsibility to account for reality.
Literally me today. My relief showed up 15 mins late. I'm now leaving like 30+ mins late because now I'm stuck in the middle of things that they should be doing.