Dwayne’s attraction to Power Engineering Technology of today:

• The money is great!
• The days off to enjoy the fruits of his labour is tremendous!
• The job is easy on a guy in his 50’s like Dwayne as of 2005.
• The industry is much safer than it was 15 years ago.

• (Negative) Difficult getting to church every weekend as your work 2 weekends out of every 4.
• (Positive) You can do things through the week with the church that most other folks don’t have the opportunity to do as they have to work and can’t get the time off.
• (Positive) You can do your shopping, movie going, volunteer work, special events, concerts and stuff through the week and beat the crowds. No standing in line-ups for us.
• (Positive) He has lots of time off to do major projects around the house or with friends from work.
• (Positive) Vacation time fits well for longer periods of time off to go places. Dwayne is a world traveler.
• (Negative) Working nights requires a day of recovery after you get off shift and it effects sleep patterns that not every one can deal with.
• (Negative) The shift work can create irregularity with your eating habits. During your shift unexpected events do interrupt meal time.
• (Negative) Shift work effects your social life. Most folks don’t know when you are sleeping for night shifts and so won’t call you through the day and weekends and so you will have to make the extra effort to call them. Not a big deal for most people. If you spouse is not understanding of the shift worker’s lifestyle, that can make it difficult also. Like anything else that is different from what others expect, there s an adjustment required either on your part or the other person’s part.
• (Positive) There are lots of extracurricular activities you can do with your shift worker buddies that few people have the opportunity to do on a regular basis like take 3, 4 and 5 days at a time to go fishing, hunting, snow mobiling, quadding or dirt biking, boating or camping, as much as 4 times a month if you want. Or help a friend do home renovations or build a garage or a fence or what ever you want to do.

If you have a significant other or have a family of your own the family’s lifestyle should be centered around you and your sleep requirements. It needs to understood that events have to be scheduled around your shift schedule as much as any one’s 9 to 5 schedule.

Your shift work schedule can be a challenge to a marriage and friendships. You usually have to make an extra effort as well as those around you. Typically it is a small effort the biggest requirement is flexibility of mind.

While at work one should be open to change as technology changes.

You need to be very adaptable as the work as while at work can change from a snail’s pace to one where you feel as though you are up to your armpits in alligators.