Looking for some input on a job... (12 hours a day, usually 6 days a week)

**Alucinor XIII** · 03-10-2013 03:52 AM

I'm currently working at Advance Auto Parts, and I enjoy it. But I'm only making 8 dollars an hour, at 20-25 hours a week tops. I spend nearly a 1/3 of the money I make driving back and forth to the place because they schedule me 4 5 hour shifts instead of consolidating it...

Anyway, my cousins work at a Peanut Processing Plant (Roasting Peanuts, making peanut butter, etc), and they said there's an opening for a job there. But they work 6 days a week, at 12 hours a day. Its not unheard of to work a full 7days a week either. I think once a month they get a full weekend off.

I averaged it out and, considering the consistent overtime, I'd be making 9-10$ an hour, bringing in about 2000-2400 a month.

I also did the math and realized I would only have 3 hours a day to myself, including work, the drive there and back, and 8 hours of sleep a night. Thats not even counting food, shower, or shaving, etc.

I was also told that even though I'll be there 12 hours, were only really working about 8 of them. We get several breaks, just because there's a lot of waiting for things to cook/arrive/fill, etc.

Anyway, I just wanted some input from you guys. The money is great, but the spare time is a sin. Anyone else worked hours like this for a long period of time? Was it worth it? And what (if anything) did you do to cope with it, or manage your time better?

**Darkmatters** · 03-10-2013 04:04 AM

I couldn't deal with it personally - sounds like hell. Probably great money, but is it worth it? The only it way would be is if it's a really cool place to work and you get to talk to a lot of cool people while you're there.

I've never worked hours like that, but I did work a lot of overtime for a few weeks once and at first I dug it, but after a while it was driving me nuts. Really started to depress me.

Why on earth do they work people like that? I wonder if it's to save money on healthcare by only having half as many employees?

**sefalik** · 03-10-2013 04:28 AM

I wouldn't for $9-10/hour. Twelve-hour shifts suck, especially every day. I get drained just working two or three 12-hour shifts in a row, let alone an entire week.

Are there no other factories around you? That seems like a low hourly rate too. Production workers at my plant make around $16-17/hr just for the base rate, then they get production bonuses on top of that. Granted, we work in a "hazardous environment" and get paid a bit more because of it, but I still see other local-ish plants advertising at least $11/hour (and those are usually the non-production warehouse jobs). Hell, a local brewing company's plant pays $13/hour + a free case every other week!

**Alucinor XIII** · 03-10-2013 04:33 AM

I live out in a very rural area. My county, and most of the surrounding ones, are the poorest in the state. Its almost all farmland, and there isn't a whole lot to choose from. Theres only two or three towns within roughly 15 miles from me, and they're all pretty small.

The nearest walmart is a little over 30 minutes away. That aught to tell you something, those things are everywhere.

**sefalik** · 03-10-2013 04:43 AM

Well, the factory I work at is in the middle of amish country; there's farmland basically surrounding the place.

It's a 40 mile drive from my apartment.

If there's really nothing else out there for you, is moving an option? If you come to eastern PA, the company I work for is almost always hiring... granted, there's basically a "waiting list" of people who have applied.

**Alucinor XIII** · 03-10-2013 06:22 AM

Well, I think I'm gonna suffer through it for at least a year. Even in a years time, I'd have my loans paid off, and probabyl have a new(er) car, with 8-10k to spare sitting in the bank.

Might push it for 1.5-2 years and then move back to Raleigh. I think I can endure that long. Besides, I got family working in there that I'm pretty close with, so it wont be all bad.

**Carrot** · 03-10-2013 11:12 AM

I'm not sure how much discipline you'll need to give yourself 8 hours of sleep a day. 3 hours of free time seems really too little. If it was me, I would start using up my sleep time just so I could do some personal things.

I used to have a 5 days work week job at 8 hours per day. We have 3 OTs per week and my work place was really far from my home. Travelling time to and fro consumes about 3 - 4 hours so I think it was on par with working 12 hours a day, not forgetting the OTs I had. Although the job wasn't tedious, it was life sucking for me because I spent too much time on travelling. To add on I needed to do a lot of waiting in my job. They had poor management so we usually spent the whole morning waiting for the tasks to be prepared.

If you enjoy the current job you have, why not just stick with it? It's not easy to find a job you'll like.

**Rozollo** · 03-10-2013 06:50 PM

That sounds horrendous. I worked one job where we had 4 10-hour days, and they really dragged on. I couldn't imagine adding both to days and hours.

**Original Poster** · 03-10-2013 07:04 PM

Yeah when I worked 12 hour shifts I spent my first day off catching up on sleep, so if you only have one day off you can kiss your social life good bye.

On the plus side, you won't have time to spend any of the money you make so you could give it like 3-6 months, get rich as shit and go traveling.

**tropicalbreeze** · 03-10-2013 10:22 PM

I got hired to work part time at a Macy's. On the second day they asked me to work 12hrs 6 days a week, i refused. Then they threaten to let me go if i didn't comply, so i left. I never worked a full time job yet. I just don't think i'll be able to do it unless i have a wife and kid to support.

**TwoCrystalCups** · 03-10-2013 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by tropicalbreeze

I got hired to work part time at a Macy's. On the second day they asked me to work 12hrs 6 days a week, i refused. Then they threaten to let me go if i didn't comply, so i left. I never worked a full time job yet. I just don't think i'll be able to do it unless i have a wife and kid to support.

LOL that is not part time, omg it's like whenever we get a job it's a dishonest one from the job ad, or a scam. Getting tired of it.

**Man of Steel** · 03-11-2013 02:07 AM

I worked in the food service industry for a few months, working 6 days a week, 8-12 hours a day depending on how busy the restaurant was. It was decent money ($8/hr), but it sucks the life right out of you. One day off a week just isn't enough to maintain your sanity, and when I came home from work, all I wanted to do is sleep.

Where I work now, I'm, well, really lucky. I work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, and I make several times what I made there. But I wouldn't go back to those hours and that line of work for $100/hr.

**~~DeletePlease~~** · 03-13-2013 09:46 PM

Personally, I'd go for it. I used to work at this warehouse where we'd occasionally work from 9 AM to 4 AM and I didn't really mind it at all. Then again, our supervisor let us smoke on the job as long as we didn't get too high so idk, it might not have been as bearable without the bud. Depends on how hard up for cash you are; if I was struggling to make ends meet, I'd probably give it some serious consideration.