April 2015

Another week over. It’s Saturday, and many people have their deserved weekend. I often wonder if these people think about how many are working shift work and do not have the advantage of a weekend.

If you have to work flexible shifts like my fellow supermarket workers and me, then your shifts are all over the place. Not only the days you are working but also the times you are working. I have always done that. Not only in supermarkets but I used to work in homes for people with special needs and then you cannot go home for the weekend and say: “Take good care of yourselves. I am off!”

Neither do policemen/women, nurses, doctors, firefighters, coastguards, soldiers, anyone who works in businesses providing electricity, water, gas etc, taxi drivers, bus drivers, anyone working in restaurants, pubs etc.

I start to think that those who have a nine to five job Monday to Friday are in the minority and are pretty lucky because they have a lot of securities and can plan their lives very easily.

The older I get, the more I grave for it. Not necessarily for a nine to five job but at least to have the same shifts and the same days off. I’ve agreed to work flexible and am sure I could change it anytime but for now, I can live with it.

But I hope those who have the advantage of a weekend and who take advantage of the others working on those days take a moment now and then to be grateful for what they have.