Everything just stops at 5 pm on Friday...

...doesn't it?

Even though I haven't been part of the American workforce for a couple of years now, I still find that attitude amongst those who work "normal" jobs, ie: Monday through Friday, 9 to 5.

See, in most medical professions, things just don't stop at 5 pm on Friday. When I worked as a nurse, I rarely worked normal hours. I worked either second shift (3 pm to 11 pm) or third (11pm to 7 am). Shifts could also come in any combination of both...sometimes I worked from 1 pm to 1 am or 7 pm to 7 am...yea, 12 hours...but I only had to work three days a week, not five. And those days always included at least a couple weekends a month. Full weekends. Saturday AND Sunday. And usually every other major holiday, though that was always a gamble, too. Sometimes I wound up working EVERY major holiday.

Hospital patients DO get around the clock, 24/7 care. What an amazing concept!

When I worked any of the various combinatons of third shift, days were my nights. I shut the phone off, closed the bedroom door and went to bed. Family members and friends knew NOT to call or drop by during those hours. I figured if it was some kind of major emergency, someone would come to my house and wake me up. Simple.

I was always amazed when my other fellow "vampires" would drag their asses into work and complain how the phone woke them 15 times or that their kids woke them up repeatedly to ask where their clean underwear was.

Uh....hello? Try calling someone who works a 'normal' job at 3 in the morning just to "chat". See what happens.

And that attitude doesn't just happen with family and friends. Management was every bit as guilty of it...usually moreso.

Meetings were regularly scheduled during their 9-5 workday. Needless to say, I rarely attended those important meetings. If they couldn't drag their asses back to the hospital to schedule a meeting on MY time, I sure wasn't draggin MY ass up in the middle of the day to do it. As the years progressed, it got a bit better...but not much.

I always felt (and still do) that every single member of 'management' should be forced into working at least a month's worth of second or third shifts at the very beginning of their employment...just so they'd KNOW what it was like. Still haven't seen that happen...and probably won't. Ever.

And the medical profession isn't the only one that doesn't work "normal" hours.

Ziggy works in a steel mill. His second shift is from 2 pm to 10 pm., Monday through Friday. And, yea....sometimes he's forced into a Saturday, though working major holidays is rare.

He runs into the same attitude, even though he's management. Everything just stops when the rest of management (the office drones) go home at 5 pm.

I know it's kinda hard to understand for people who've never worked anything but "normal" hours. But I can guarantee ya... there are a lotta things that just don't stop at 5 pm on Friday evenings.

Vampires need a little consideration, too.