Background: Have been on my unit for almost one year, working nights and every other weekend. A few day shift positions have opened up. On nights, I have more seniority than more than half of my coworkers, and many of the ones more senior to me have no desire to work on days, so I have a decent shot.
Pros of stay on night shift:
WAY MORE money (I will be taking almost 9k/yr paycut...OUCH)
WAY better parking (no need to get on a bus...night shift parking is within walking distance)
No management
Fewer disruptions from pt family members
Nice® coworkers
Cons:
Feeling socially isolated outside of work
Tired all the time
Health is going to hell
Pros of going to day shift:
Better sleep schedule
Better work/life balance. I find myself wasting most of my days off because I am too tired to do anything else. Plus my boyfriend and family work more normal hours
More learning experiences. I want to further my education someday
Cons:
Coworkers are...yikes
Management and lots of patient family members
HUGE paycut
Undesirable (but manageable) parking
I am a diligent saver and hope to save enough to shave 10-15 years off my prison sentence (lol), so the biggest issue would be the pay cut. However, I have a PRN job with the state where I can pick up pretty much anytime, and the base is 12 dollars more than my FT base. I KNOW if I worked day shift, I would be more apt to picking up more hours instead of the minimum.
Another issue is that I am not sure if I see myself here long term. I hope to get a state gig in my specialty within the next year or so. Leaving after being put on days wouldn't be great, and I fear that I will get used to the nice schedule that I wouldn't want to leave to go to nights (with mandated overtime, no less) at another facility.
