Forty Years Of Shift Memories

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When I look back over more than 40 years of working shifts, there are plenty of things I remember. The early starts, the night shifts, the jobs that seemed to go on forever. And then there was the nights when absolutely nothing happened. And those other nights when just everything seemed to happen at once. And it was usually after someone mentioned that stupid Q word. But anyway, I digress. You know what stands out more than almost anything else for me? And that was the people. Now we're in the positive vibe of the podcast at the moment. The last two episodes, episode 420 and 421, were all about positivity. So let's talk about not necessarily the jobs we attended, the arrests we made, all the things that we achieved. It's the people who were standing beside us while all of this was happening. The ones who could make you laugh when you were absolutely exhausted. The ones who knew when something was wrong without having to say a word. And the ones who turned an otherwise ordinary night shift into something that even when you think about it today, it'll make you laugh 20 years later. And sometimes, the ones who made you actually look forward to going to work. Now we've spent plenty of time talking about the challenges of shift work. And look, rightly so. But I think someone sometimes, and we just forget that there are some wonderful things about working alongside the same people at ridiculous hours through experiences that, let's be honest, very few people outside that workpace place will ever fully understand. So today I want to talk about the people who made shift work worth it. Because for me, some of the best memories of my working life have had very little to do with the work itself. And it doesn't have to be this way.

Why The People Stand Out

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Whether you're a shift worker, trying to feel better, or a leader responsible for the people who keep your organisation running around the clock, you're in the right place. Welcome to a healthy shift. I'm Roger Sutherland, and after more than four decades of working 24-7 shifts with Victoria Police, followed by years of studying nutrition, circadian biology, human performance, and working with literally thousands of shift workers, I've made it my mission to change the conversation around shift work. Because healthier people create stronger teams, and stronger teams build better organizations. And it all starts by understanding how to work with your biology and not against it. Let's get into today's episode. And you are so welcome back to a healthy shift, the shift workers podcast. My name Roger Sutherland, veteran shift worker of more than 40 years, and you, I love this podcast. I love that you're actually listening to it. I get a lot of pleasure out of producing it. I get a lot of I do it all myself. Everything has been done myself putting this podcast together. And look, for 4, I don't know, 20 odd episodes or eight, 19 episodes, we've talked about the impacts of shift work and ways to combat that. What about some positivity, Rog? And the last two episodes have been quite positive. Let's do this for another couple and let's just make these something to make us smile and just to get that memory of yours working about some of the weird people that you've worked with that have just you can sit back, smile, and they can make you laugh today. So there we go. We continue on a little run of positive episodes about shift work. I'm really enjoying putting these ones together because as much as, you know, I spend time educating people, and I don't think people comprehend or realize how much time it takes reading and learning and getting into different areas to understand, speaking to experts in the area and trying to understand and learn more about the biological challenges of working shifts. I want to be an expert in relation to this area. I want to be a specialist. I want you to think when you think shift work and you got a question about it, I want you to think Roger Sutherland. That's important to me. I don't want anyone thinking that I hated shift work. I didn't. It was quite the opposite, in all honesty. Now, I worked shifts for more than 40 years, and there were plenty of things that I genuinely loved about it. One of them, I actually love night shift. I loved the consistency of it. I loved the routine. It was just so much easier. It was quiet and there was a lot about it. I love the night shift. Now, in episode 420, I spoke about the benefits of shift work that we don't hear enough about. And in episode 421, we had a bit of fun looking at those ridiculous situations that only another shift worker could really possibly understand.

Loving Night Shift And Routine

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But today I want to talk about something, well, someone a little different, and perhaps something a little bit more personal, and that was the people that we work with. Now, let's be brutally honest here. If you've worked in policing, nursing, ambulance, fire services, manufacturing corrections, hospitality, private industry, it doesn't matter where, or any other workplace that operates around the clock, I reckon you're gonna know exactly what I'm talking about here. And that's important to me. There is something quite unique about the relationship you develop with the people when you are working shifts together. You're spending time with them when most of the world is asleep. You're sharing meals at strange hours, you're dealing with situations that don't always go to plan. And sometimes spending more waking hours with your colleagues than you actually do with your own family. And think about that. We do. We're either communicating with them via WhatsApp or we're actually at work with them at times when you know the other times is we'd be home and we'd be asleep while the family's around. We're not spending time with them then, are we? But then our waking hours were at work. And I know from my own experience of working um at a new station or transferring into a new station, you hang out for that night shift because you had that crew on nights, you get consistency, you're working with the same people, and it started to form bonds and relationships during that night shift. And over time, those people that you did this with became a fairly significant part of your life. And it was always important because when you did that night shift, you'd be hoping that you would be selected to go in the crew with the next lot again. Um, because then you were in. And I know you know what I'm actually talking about. I don't think we always appreciate that while we're actually doing it. And it isn't until you're like me now, you've stepped away from it, you're looking back in, and you can actually see this. And it's often when you leave a workplace or you change teams, heaven forbid, or retire that you begin to realize just how much those actual relationships meant. It wasn't always about the work. One of the things I remember about policing was that some of the most enjoyable moments had absolutely nothing to do with police work in itself. There were conversations in the car, the nonsense that went on around the station, the discussions over a meal break, or the absolute rubbish, or the now I want you to think and be honest, how many times would you be sitting there having a meal or having something to eat or three or you know, a cup of tea or something at four o'clock in the morning? And someone would say something, you'd look at them and think, what? Like, where did that come from? And that's our brain at four o'clock in the morning. Everyone's exhausted. Sometimes it was simply being rostered on with someone that you genuinely enjoyed spending time with. You'd see them on the roster, you'd see them round the place, and you thought, I wonder what they're like. And when you saw that you were paired up with them, you'd think, awesome, my turn. I love this. You'd look at the roster, you'd see their name beside yours, and you'd think, beauty, now this is going to be a good shift. Or you'd be home and you'd be thinking, I'm going in today because I just know that I'm working with Bill or Charlie or whatever the person's name was. Now that didn't mean that the work was going to be easy. And let's just draw a line through that. You had no idea what was coming through the door, or you might be dealing with over the next eight, 10, or even 12 hours, depending on what roster you do. But one thing you did know was you knew who you were going to be dealing with it alongside. And that makes a big difference. There are people who just make our workplace better just by being there. They don't necessarily have to be the loudest person in the room or the funniest person on the team. Sometimes the person that's the village idiot's actually really annoying. But sometimes they're simply just good company. They're just easy to work with, they're reliable, and they have that ability to make even a difficult day feel so much easier. And you walk away and think, God, that was a shit of a shift, but it was awesome because of the person that I was with. Now I reckon most shift workers can think of somebody like that. In fact, I'm pretty sure you'd be able to picture them right now. I remember so many people that I've worked with, and I can go right back to 1984, 1985, to where I was and what I was doing and how I was going about it. And I can think of particular characters that worked that I worked with around those times. And it was just the expressions, it was the phrases, it was the passing comments in the corridor, it was the stupid anecdotes that you would have. It was just really weird. But you could talk about a particular colleague or a partner, and you know who they are. You just know who those people are. And I'm not going to go into great long stories about it because it means absolutely nothing to you. But I, you know, I can think of things. I I remember one bloke in particular going back to my days back in '85. Big man Moose was his nickname. And and I remember that, you know, um, he would, he was just a giant, and you'd wear a necklace, and he would grab the necklace and go, what is this? This is not sexy, this is animal. And it was just a term, and it just stuck with us. And whenever we saw each other, we'd say, What is this? This is not sexy, this is animal. Stupid, but I remember it today, and that was what, 43 years ago, something like that. I think it's something that we can all relate to. In fact, you can probably picture that person right now.

Shared Incidents Build Fast Bonds

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Now, the strangest things that people uh that bring people together. Something else that I've always found interesting about shift work, and I can obviously only speak about policing, but you'll be able to apply it into your nursing, you'll be able to apply it into your own organizations, whether it's um uh paramedic or whatever, is how quickly people can form connections through a shared experience in particular, whether it's a critical incident you've gone to, a major incident, something stupid that actually occurred, but you can actually bond over incidents. And that's something that we all got to hang on to as well. In most workplaces, we get to know people through conversations, through meetings, having a lunch, and the usual social interactions. But when you work shifts in a uh in a unique environment, particularly in emergency services, you can actually find yourself getting to know somebody very quickly because of what you have actually experienced together. Now, you might spend hours sitting behind someone, beside someone, with just like very little happening at all, and then suddenly find yourself dealing with a situation that requires complete trust in one another, that you're backing each other, you're you're working in tandem with each other, in sync with each other. And then when it's all over, you go back to the station, you have a coffee, you chat about what happened or how, you have a few laughs about the silliness of things, and somehow you end up discussing what you're having for dinner. Bang. It's a strange existence when you really think about it. But those shared experiences create a history between people. And I can talk about and recall and think about particular incidents that I was involved with certain people with, that I associate them with that incident and the bond that we formed over that particular incident because we both went through it together. And this is not just in emergency services. You can think about the two nurses working together through a particularly demanding night. Especially, what about you nurses that work in emergency departments? My God, some of the things that happened that uh during a shift, you will bond over particular things that happen to certain patients that are, you know, they're in crisis, but you're bonding with your colleagues over that crisis. And you can think about those ones as well, right? Um, what about a manufacturing crew trying to get a production running again after something's gone wrong? Like the machine faults and product goes everywhere, and then you've got to clean it up, get it running again. That's something that you'll always remember. You'll remember who you were working with, what you were doing, who did what. You'll remember the whole lot. It's unique, isn't it? And it's something that we always hang off. Think about the hospitality workers cleaning up after a huge event, or the overnight transport team dealing with something that just occurred that was completely unexpected. It's not just unique to frontline health and emergency services. There is always something. Now, different workplaces, different challenges, but there's something familiar about the relationships that develop when people are in a situation where they have to actually rely on each other. You begin to understand how the other person works, how they think. You recognize when they're under pressure, you know when to step in and actually support. And sometimes you know when it's the best to simply just leave them alone for five minutes and they come back to you. It's kind of like your relationship, isn't it? Anyway, the little jokes, the nicknames, the stories that only make sense to the people who are actually there. Have you ever tried explaining a hilarious workplace story to your partner when you get home or someone who doesn't work in the same industry? You can be halfway through the story laughing so hard and you can barely get the words out while the person listening is looking at the you like you've completely lost your mind. They just don't get it. And eventually you just give up and say, Oh, well, you probably had to be there. And you know what? That's true. They did because they absolutely did have to be there to actually understand it. We lose sight of that. And I think those shared experiences are part of what makes workplace friendships just so memorable.

Dark Humour And Coping

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I don't know how many times laughter got me through a d a difficult shift over the years, but sometimes it was something genuinely funny. Sometimes it was something that was just someone threw a line in that was just completely ridiculous at the time. And sometimes it was the sort of humor that probably wouldn't make a great deal of sense to anybody who hadn't experienced a situation, particularly in policing. Humor and that dark humor is often part of the way we deal with the unusual things that we've encountered. And I know that that will resonate with people in nursing, ambulance, fire services, and plenty of other occupations. You all have that humor that if anybody from outside was listening to it, they'd go, oh my God, you can't say that. But that is our coping mechanism. And I say to everybody outside of that, mind your own business, because this is us coping with the situation. Now, there's an important distinction between laughing with people and laughing at somebody else's misfortune. I'm certainly not, and I mean not, suggesting that everything that we do should be treated as a joke. Although I will say it does help, right? And it does. In the background, you're doing your job, you're getting paid, you're getting paid well to go and do your job, you do your job, and you can still treat it as a joke behind the scenes to help you to cope with it. We're under pressure and we're dealing with that. We're getting scrutinized and we're dealing with that. It's natural for us to create a joke out of something to lighten the environment. But being able to find some humor in the working day, particularly when things are demanding, can make an enormous difference to how that shift feels and how you feel about the person that you're actually working with, too. There were colleagues who could literally flip the switch and change the mood of an entire room with one comment. And you know that person. You could be sitting there absolutely exhausted. Everyone's looking fairly miserable, and somebody would say something completely unexpected that would have the whole room rolling around laughing. And for a few minutes, everything felt a little lighter. It diffused the whole mood. And I think we underestimate how valuable that that person actually is, and not because they're responsible for entering the entertaining everyone, but because a workplace where people can laugh together is generally a much nicer place to spend your working life, isn't it? Like it really is. I can recall a story. I can recall a story that honestly I work with a guy at the at the dog squad, Harry, and I I I never as long as I live, I will never forget him coming to us absolutely soaked, and telling us that he was trekking along with his dog and got to this position where he was saying to the drop dog, jump, jump, telling the dog, using the command for the dog to jump, and the dog looked and it would not jump. No way would this dog jump, not a chance. And he's telling the dog, in the end, he jumped straight into the creek over his head, trying to claw his way to get out of the creek. See the dog standing there, and you can imagine Muttley laughing here. That's exactly what happened. But he didn't hide it, he told the story. Hilarious, just openly honest as to what actually happened that night over his head. Imagine the shock of jumping thinking you're gonna land on a road, but it was actually a creek. I can't begin to imagine. But anyway, of course, not every memorable colleague was memorable because they were funny, and I can certainly speak from experience through that. I

Trust, Reliability And Betrayal

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have someone who I worked with as a colleague that befriended me, that patted me on the back to look for a soft spot to drive the knife in. No doubt about it. No doubt about it. And I'm very bitter towards that person, and I'll never ever, for as long as I live, forgive them. Some were memorable because I knew that I could rely on them. And I've got my best mate, is that person who I could rely on at a phone call, at a text, whatever. And when you work in an environment where things can change very quickly, that reliability means such a great deal. I've worked with people over the years who I trust implicitly. I knew that they would do their job. I knew that they would support the team, and I knew that if something went wrong, they weren't going to disappear or capitulate when things became difficult. They'd step up to the plate and get the job done. That sort of trust doesn't develop because somebody puts a motivational poster on the wall about teamwork. It actually develops through working together, seeing how people respond under pressure and knowing that they will do what they say they're going to do. And it's not always about the big moments. Sometimes having somebody's back means noticing that they're having a difficult day and offering to take something off their plate. It might mean making a coffee or grabbing a coffee for them, just checking in with how they're going, helping them finish something before knockoff, or simply listening to what they need to talk about. Now, I've always thought those smaller gestures can tell you an enormous amount about a person. We tend to remember the dramatic moments in our working life, but I suspect a lot of the relationships we value most were built through hundreds of fairly ordinary interactions. People showing up, doing their job, helping one another, and treating their colleagues well. And when you find yourself working with a team like that, you will know and you will really appreciate

The Characters You Never Forget

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it. The characters that you never forget. Every workplace has them, the characters. And I reckon shift working workplaces have far more than their fair share. And that's the person who knows absolutely everybody. The one who has a story for every possible situation that occurs, they've got a story. The one who's always looking for something to eat, and the one who somehow manages to remain cheerful, no matter how gone to shit the shift has become. And then there's the colleague who's been doing the job forever and just and and seems to have just seen absolutely everything and knows how to do with it. You know the type. Whatever happens, they've got a story about something similar that happened in 1997. And they can tell you the month, the year, and where they were and what happens, and they turn it into something that's ten times worse than whatever the situation is that's in front of you. And of course, there are the people who become known for the one particular incident that just seems to follow them for the rest of their working lives. Do you want to hear one? I will never ever forget this one for as long as I live. Wrestling with an offender at the back of a divisional van. Wrestling, and I mean myself and this trainee. Wrestling with this offender at the back of the Divi van. And I yelled, Just get in the back of the effing van while I'm wrestling. And next minute I hear this voice, what do you want me to do now? And I look at the back of the van, and there is the trainee in the back of the van looking out. I kid you not. True story. Alright. So that's one of those stories that will stay with you forever. It doesn't matter how many years pass or how many times that story's been told, somebody only has to remember a particular word, the whole room starts laughing. I think those characters are part of the personality of a workplace. They give it life. And often when you look back, they're the people you remember most clearly. What you miss when you leave. Now, this is something I've thought about quite a bit since retiring from VicPole in 2024. When you spent more than 40 years

What You Miss After Leaving

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in one organization, particularly working shift work, your working life becomes a familiar part of who you are. There are routines, places, people, conversations that have been part of your life for decades. And then one day they're no longer part of your everyday routine. Don't get me wrong, there are certainly things about the job that I do not miss one bit, particularly towards the end. After four decades, I think that's probably understandable. But some of the people are a different story. And it's funny how you can spend years looking forward to a day off, a holiday, or eventual retirement, and then you find yourself remembering the most ordinary moments with the people that you worked alongside, the conversations, the laughter, the shared experience, the familiar faces. And sometimes people who you haven't seen for years will pop into your mind because something reminds you of them: a place, a song, a particular expression, or a story that somebody tells. And suddenly you're right back there in that moment. And I think that's really impressive. And it's a really wonderful thing and a great memory. And it's also a reminder that we probably shouldn't wait until somebody retires or leaves the workplace before telling them just how much we enjoyed working with them. Because we don't always realize the difference that we make to another person's life. You might have been the colleague who made somebody look forward to coming to work. You really might have been the person who helped them through a particularly difficult period, or you might simply have been the person who just made them laugh without knowing, but they really, really needed it. And you may have absolutely no idea that it was you. So don't forget, let that person know. Because good people make a difference. I talk an awful lot about sleep, circadian biology, nutrition, movement, all the practical things that we can do

Social Connection Matters For Health

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to support our health while we're working shifts. And that education matters enormously. It does. But I also think the social side of work deserves a fair spotlight on it as well. Having colleagues you trust, people you enjoy spending time with, and a sense of belonging within a team or an organization can make a real difference to your experience of work. Now, I'm not suggesting that good colleagues somehow cancel out the biological challenges of night shift. They don't. But I don't want to put a dampener on this either. And a great team doesn't make a poorly designed roster suddenly become a healthy one. But the people who work who you work with can influence how we experience that working day, how supportive we feel, and whether we actually enjoy being part of the workplace. Remember, everyone's in the same boat. And for someone spending a significant part of their adult life working around the clock, I think this is something that's really important and worth recognizing. One of the things I really want to achieve with these positive episodes is to literally remind people that shift work isn't all bad. There are challenges, absolutely. And I spend a lot of my professional life helping people to understand and manage those challenges. But there's also some epic experiences, some absolutely unbelievable opportunities, great friendships, and simply unbelievable memories that I would not trade for anything. And for me, some of the best of those came from the people that I actually worked with. And we need to keep that foremost in our mind because now I've been out for over two years, but I can look back and smile because it happened. I don't live with regret because I'm no longer doing it, because the jobs change for me. The values, my values don't align, or I've spoken about values. But the people, I smile because I got to know them. I met them. I chatted with a former colleague through DMs the other week that I haven't spoken to for a good 10 years and had a really good chat. And it was great. And what do we do? Of course, you come up with stories. Anyway, let's wrap this one up. Here's what I'd really like you to do after listening to this episode. And promise me, please, that you'll do this. I want you to think about somebody

Message A Colleague Who Helped

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who you've worked shifts with who made your working life better. It might be somebody that you're still working alongside today, or somebody who you haven't spoken to for years. It might be the person who always made you laugh, somebody you could rely on when things got difficult, or simply a colleague whose company you genuinely really enjoyed. I'd love you for you to forward this episode to that person and share a story with them. Tell them, hey, listen to this because you were this person for me. And that would mean the world to them. Because you know, imagine if someone sent it to you and said, listen to this, because you are that person for me. Remind them of something funny that happened. Tell them about a moment that you've never forgotten, because those are where the memories are. Or simply let them know that you really valued working alongside them. It doesn't have to be a great big emotional conversation. Sometimes a message saying, Do you remember when this happened? My God, mate, I still laugh about that. It's more than enough. And who knows? You might actually make somebody's day. Because after more than 40 years of shift work, I can tell you that while I remember plenty of the work, it's the people and the memories that we made together that I find myself thinking about most. And I reckon that's something worth celebrating. If today's episode resonated with you, don't let the conversation stop here. Share it with a colleague, a

Share The Conversation Forward

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manager, a friend, a leader, or someone who has the opportunity to improve the lives of people working in a 24-7 environment. Because real change starts with awareness, and awareness changes conversations, and conversations change organisations, and organizations change lives. So thank you for spending this time with me. And until next time, I want you to remember this. It doesn't have to be this way. Take care of yourself and take care of each other.