Graveyard shifts

For the past two nights, I've been doing graveyard shifts....from 11pm til 7am. Yeah yeah I know what you're thinking...poor Veron...must've been tiring...blah blah blah. But guess what?? I loved it. It's only my second time doing graveyard shifts and it totally rocks. WHY???? Because I'm all alone in the kitchen and I can do whatever I want.

Just lemme run thru with you a typical graveyard shift. First you sign in at 11pm and just sit in the office and wait for guests to call. And if you don't know already, not many ppl would order room service in the middle of the night. Most of the time, they'll probably order alcohol...and even that comes pretty rare. So basically, the graveyard shift is just a bonus shift man. It's easy peasy...and it's a job for slackers. And that is why I LOVE IT!!!

So, the chef will normally close the kitchen at around 12.30am, and from then on, it's all microwaved food. At around 12.30am when there's not many ppl who would ring up anymore, I would start doing floor check. Floor check is just going up to all the floors and pick up dirty trays that guests leave outside their door after they've finished their meal. At the same time, I gotta collect the breakfast cards for which they hang on their door knob. Most ppl would think that it's a no-brainer job, but just try doing it themselves for once and they'd be surprised that it's actually pretty tiring.

So the whole floor check process will normally take about an hour, depending on how many trays are left outside. After that, I'll start prepping the breakfast orders that I've collected during floor check. Now...this is another time consuming task. This whole process will take about an hour and a half, so by around 3am, everything should be set and done. And meanwhile I'm prepping for the breakfast orders, I listen to my music on my laptop. And YES...I bring my laptop to work! Only on graveyard shifts though! Hehe. Ssshhhh....don't tell anyone!

So...from 3am onwards....I basically just scratch myself to entertain myself. Coz there is absolutely nothing else that I can do. Most ppl would sleep....but I, on the other hand, would watch movies on my laptop!!! So yeah...I have like 2 hours of free time to do whatever I want. And 2 hours is just right for a movie!! How convenient, right??? Damn....I love my job!!

It's funny how I get paid $18 bucks an hour to do absolutely the least....and sometimes even nothing. Very efficient there on handling manpower....thumbs up to my managers! But then again...it is a graveyard shift after all....a shift that nobody would wanna do. So, I'm not gonna feel all guilty about doing nothing and get paid. Coz hey...I'm make a sacrifice here. Look...I wake up on Monday to Wednesday at 6am in the morning and go to college....and on Thursday and Friday, I gotta stay up the entire night for work. It's a huge difference that my body clock has to handle. I mean gosh....I even gotta plan when to sleep so that the timing thing works out right. So once again, I emphasize....I DO NOT FEEL GUILTY RIPPING MY EMPLOYERS OFF BY SLACKING AWAY DURING MY GRAVEYARD SHIFTS!! So bite me!

Well, sometimes it can get pretty lonely during graveyard shifts. Coz there's no one around, except for the janitor, who by the way can speak pretty good malay despite his pure Bangladesh heritage who has never lived in Malaysia for more than a month. But I was impressed when he could say "Apa khabar?" "Sudah makan kah?" "Kau tidak lapar kah?" All that, he could speak very naturally...just as if he's a malaysian. Very impressive I gotta say! That was actually the very first time that I've ever spoken to him....well, I guess it's becoz he does graveyard shifts, so I rarely see him. From the way he talked, he sounded like a pretty smart and educated guy. But I don't know why he's just a janitor. He could do so much better, really. Or perhaps...he's just a simple guy who wants a simple life with a simple job....which btw pays pretty decently. Only in Australia!

Okay...by the time it's 5am...trust me...your eyes will start to feel heavy. But ironically, it's the busiest time of the entire shift, coz that's when breakfast starts. Quite a few guests would want their breakfast delivered to their rooms between 5am and 7am. So...that's when the action really begins....at the end of the shift. It's quite shitty...really. Coz by that time, I'm so dead tired that I just wanna crash on the floor. But I guess adrenaline will always keep pumping and make me stay awake, especially when it's busy.

Another shitty part of my job is....there's lots of orders requested to be sent up at 7am. And guess what? That's the end of my shift. And most ppl would just leave at 7am sharp...I mean...you're allowed to do that from a legal view point. But guess what again? In room service, you can't just leave without having the next person arrive. If the next person is early, then great! But if she's just on time or even a teensy weensy bit late, I gotta deliver all of the 7am orders and by the time I finish those, it's already 7.15am. And guess what again? You don't get paid for the extra 15 minutes. Bugger!

So by the time I reach home, I'll be so tired and go straight to bed. And you know what?? Because I'm overworked...my body is physically tired, but I can't get my eyes to shut. This is what happens to me when I overwork my body. So, I would go online and surf a bit...or even watch an episode of Scrubs until my eyes feel heavy.

Bottom line is...graveyard shift is a great way to earn money for doing nothing...but it just eats up your energy so quickly (despite doing nothing) that it's really bad for your health....which is why I'm not doing it anymore next week!! Next week I'm back to night shifts! Typical 3-11 or 6-11 shifts. Though it can get busy during night shifts, but it's less tiring. It's funny how things can get so paradoxical. Doing nothing can actually make you feel so much more tiring than doing something!

That's all I gotta say in this post. I know it's probably not interesting to listen to me whine about my job...or just merely talking about it for that matter, but I guess I've been so overwhelmed with work lately that I feel the need to talk about it. So...thanks for reading this. I'll be back soon with more whining and complaints! Lolz....later!