We are currently working a 24 day in a row shift and it is very different psychologically. Part of the reason is because apart from the first day and perhaps the last day all days seem the same. Weekends mean nothing because we work them. Fridays mean nothing because we work the weekends. So in reality every day feels like a Wednesday.
The fact is that our life is broken down into 2 to 2 1/2 hour sound bites. We start at 7am with 'toolbox talk' where we discuss safety issues and the workplan for the day. For our crew that lasts about 1/2 an hour. Then we are out to the site until 2 hours later when we have first coffee. Then we are back out for 2 hours and 15 minutes until lunch. After lunch we work 2 1/2 more hours till second coffee. After that it is 2 hours and we are done. So like the days of the week the hours of the day sort of mush into each other. Everything is just one super-long day!
While I am on the subject I just want to address this habit of calling our breaks 'coffee'. There are no coffee shops around in the woods here. There is no coffee pot in our trailer. And I think I am the only one who actually drinks coffee during the breaks. I guess old habits die hard in the construction world.
Another example of old habits might be when concrete work comes up. Rather than say 'get the concrete crew' they simply say 'call the Portugese'. Oddly enough there aren't many Potugese who still do concrete work. But they used to. In fact they used to do all of the concrete work so that is where the term comes from. I heard a joke one time that goes: "how do you break up a Portugese wedding?" The answer is:"Tell them there is a Readymix truck at the gate!" the only Portugese guy I know in construction is a welder but as I said before old habits die hard.
Getting back to my Wednesday analogy our working every day causes the odd problem with friends back home. I can't count the times I have texted someone at 6am thinking they would be getting ready for work and the. Realized it is a Saturday! Not a good way to keep one's friends!
I have to admit that some of my friends here in camp disagree with my 'Everyday is Wednesday' idea. My buddy Matt for instance disagreed with me. His reason had to do with the menu back at camp. You see Wednesday is either steak or Prime Rib day which from a purely gastronomic standpoint is the best day of the week. He suggested everyday is Thursday. But I disagree with that one as Thursday is payday. Even if we can't do anything with the money due to isolation at least we know it's there. And besides, Thursday is the day before Friday which is traditionally last day of the work-week. So that won't do either!
Maybe the best way to share the experience of work life here is to not compare it to a day but rather to a flavour. How about every day is vanilla day? Or maybe that isn't bland enough. Maybe it would be best to say every day is Melbatoast day. That gives the impression
Of each being the same as the last. It also gives the sense of the blandness of each when considered on its own.
Either way I suspect you can see the regimented way our life works. It isn't boring. It in a lot of ways it is the same. But different.
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