What option would you chose?

Question

My husband has a really good job with two positions available.
Option one- on the road. He would work from 5am until sometimes 6pm. (Depending on traffic). he would deliver Anderson Windows out of state about 4 hours away. Monday through Friday. He might get off earlier or later than usual really depends on the traffic coming back home.
Option 2- load the Anderson windows on the trucks overnight. Monday through Friday. Go into work around 9pm and be done around 5am. 6am the latest. Depending on how much he needs to load.
When he gets home overnight he would sleep from 6am until noon. 
We have two young kids. A almost two year old son and a newborn. So he’s wondering what best option people recommend.

Answer

I don’t think the sleep is realistic. I used to work nights and could not survive on 6 hours of sleep a day.

Answer

So option one he’s working 13 hours PLUS an 8 hour commute (4 hours each way)? That only gives him 3 hours to do anything other than work. He definitely should not take that position. The second one is also really shitty. Working nights is awful. 
Honestly, if I were him I’d look for another job. Option one is expecting way too much of him, and I’d never take an overnight job.

Answer

I've sporadically worked overnights and there's no way that sleep schedule is realistic.  When you work overnight you generally need to adjust your schedule so that you're up when you'd normally be as when you get home from working a standard day and go to bed around noon or 1 to get enough sleep and wake up to get ready and actually head to work.  It's a really hard adjustment and that was when I was single.  It will be even more so with kids.  
There's no way I'd take a 4 hour commute each way every day either.  If I had to I'd take the overnights and reset my expectations but both options are crap and I'd continue looking for a different job.

Answer

6 hours of sleep on night shift isn't realistic. I work night shift, and on those days he'll be a zombie. I have done it and run on 6 hours or less and I know I'm taking years off my life. I can feel it. I am exhausted every single hour of every single day, and I just know 6 hours of sleep per day isn't feasible especially with waking up at noon.
 Imagine a day shifter sleeping from 6pm to midnight and then staying up all night plus going to work. It's not feasible, or healthy. When it's switched to think about a day shifter doing that it seems crazy. It's crazy for night shift to do that too!

Answer

I'm not sure if your a sah mom but if so I'd think about pay. But I would rather have my husband in town in the event something happened, he'd be much closer than potentially 4 hrs away...

Answer

Both suck tbh. Is the 4-hour drive included in the hours for option 1? It sounds like since delivering is the job that he’s getting paid for driving. If that’s the case I’d choose option 1. Working nights is a f’n beast, and most people I know need some time between getting home and going to sleep, so it’d more likely be closer to 5 hours of sleep per night which isn’t good.

Answer

Does the overnight pay a differential? 
I don’t think the sleep window is realistic. I worked the graveyard shift and could never fall asleep right when I got home. It’s like your whole concept of “daytime” gets shifted.

Answer

Working nights is unfortunately associated with higher rates of cardiovascular diseases and outcomes. 
I know not everyone has the chance to choose to work night vs day, but your husband can. If it was my partner, I would advise him to choose the day shift and then deal with whatever after his routine is stablished.

Answer

Neither one sounds good at all to me. Wait for something better and more convenient and or closer to home. Neither one sounds like it will be good for your lives. Unless you all can move to where he would be working the day job. So he won’t have that insane commute. Both of these jobs sound like the would take such a huge toll on his quality of life. Which could negatively effect you and the kids also. Do both of these positions have enormous raises in pay or something? Like enough to actually make living through either one of these jobs even slightly worthwhile?

Answer

Option 2. Being on the road so long will leave him exhausted, so when he does get home he’s going to need to sleep. 
Night shift can suck, my husband works nights on a rotation but at his previous job he was on straight nights for months. When my husband worked his old job he had an hour commute each way and he was sleeping all the time and he was tired no matter how much sleep he got. His current job is 5 minutes away and even when he switches shifts with people and works multiple weeks of nights in a row, he sleeps significantly less and actually feels refreshed after he wakes up. He gets off work at 6:15am and sleeps until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, unless he works a 12. Then he works until 10:15am and sleeps until 3 or 4.

What option would you chose?

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