Workers of the World Unite!

[jammies]

So I did a ~21 hour workday yesterday/today - from noon yesterday until 9 AM this morning - which made me wonder what the longest shifts others have ever managed to pull off. For me, that was number 2 or 3 on the list, as the longest I've ever worked straight was about 36 hours one time when I had to go to Edmonton to pick up a dead server, bring it back to Calgary and get it working again despite a blown hard drive and no backups.

However, I figure that if wussy IT guys can do 36, there must be guys out there who have worked hours that make that seem like an afternoon of suntanning by the pool to look good for your sugar mama. So tell me - what's the longest straight shift you've ever worked?

(Are there women that work crazy hours like that too? I've never met even one, which I assume is because women in general seem to lack the gene for doing idiotic things just to prove they can. I could be, and often am, wrong though.)

[Locke]

When I worked for greyhound, I did one shift from 4:30pm-2:30am and then had another from 4:30am-4:30pm.

I slept in my truck in the parking lot for 2 hours.

It was arguably one of the single most unpleasant 24 hours of my life. That and being tortured by Darth Vader...its a toss up really.

[T@T]

I pulled a 49 hour shift in Vegas once, gambling,3 full rounds of golf, a lot of booze and a hot red-headed school teacher from Tampa Bay.

Toughest shift EVER!!!

[3 Justin 3]

I have done 12 hours 3pm-3am at a pizza place, but that is pretty panzy compared to what some of the people I know have done. This guy I met in my hostel in London was doing like 16-20hour shifts every day for the past 2 weeks, and his friend had been doing that for 2 months. They worked at some fancy restaurant.

[4X4]

My bro-in-law is a concrete tradesman. He was scheduled to go on a vacation with his family but had to get 3 jobs prepped, poured and washed before leaving. For anyone that's not in on the secret, concrete is one of the best kinds of trade work. I love doing it, so I went and helped him.
We started at 530 friday morning and he dropped me off at 730 saturday morning. 26 hours of concrete work. Minus driving time whipping between the three jobs in their various stages of completion. Still can't believe the cops didn't come and shut us down as we were using a power washer to spray off the exposed aggregate on a fairly large walk in the middle of Kensington at 3am.

[Hemi-Cuda]

everytime i watch an episode of Deadliest Catch on Discovery and see those guys work 72 hours straight with no sleep on a violent artic ocean, i'm thankful for my cush office job

[Rathji]

30 hours straight.

I worked from 6am one day to noon the next day last year while we were moving a house. We had to set no parking signs all along the route, got back to pull the house out onto the road and we had some serious issues and we finished at 9pm, we had a 2 hour break for dinner but I had to drive back to the yard to pick up some equipment. We had to do the move that night because we had police escort, power company etc booked and paid for.

The first 14 hours were pretty hard work, putting supports in, doing demo etc. Once the pilot driving began it was less work, because we only had to run up and down the street to guide the house between the trees on 19th St NW. We took that house from Brair Hill up 19th to John Laurie, down John Laurie to Shaganappi, up Shag to Country Hills, North into Hidden Valley and beyond, cut across at Balzac where the railway crossing stuff was only 2 inches larger than the actual house, and then around the east side of the city to south of Strahmore. We got the house to the property at 10am, so thats about 12 hours of straight driving/running up and down the road, then it took us 2 hours to unload the house so we could go home.

That night, we got up and did another smaller move. All told, I worked over 90 hours that week and my invoice for that 2 week period was for over billing over 140 hours.

[NSFL]

Reading this thread makes me kinda sick. You people are insane.

[BlackArcher101]

I think my longest was about 38-40 hours... have done that twice. Working on a project that fell behind but the delivery date was set in stone and penalties were large. Mix of assembling equipment and doing docs in the office.

We should make a thread on the longest period of no sleep, that would be interesting.

[ricosuave]

26hrs to get a job done for me, man that night was hell and a half.

[metallicat]

16 hour shift. I don't do that anymore. I'm just not that dedicated to my employer.

[4X4]

Tradesmen are badass. In the height of summer, it's not uncommon for, say, a framing crew to work from 6am to 10pm.

I'm not sure if it's an equal comparison as it's physical vs mental, but there are plenty of stock brokers that pretty much work 24/7. They've got the NA markets to keep an eye on and after they close, the asian markets start going, and then there's the european. Grey hair by the time you're 30, but big bucks if you're good. Of course, it can all be wiped out in the blink of an eye (see: late 2008).

[T@T]

^^^ seems like a lot of employers aren't dedicated enough in Edmonton

[worth]

anyone whose ever been in the army likley had to go 3+ days without sleep sitting in a trench during basic.

add on top of that numerous exercises from 2 days in length up to weeks while sleeping an hour or two here and there.

[NuclearFart]

In the past, I'd done occasional 48 hour shifts with a 1/2 hour nap thrown in there somewhere.

Now I average around five ~25-30 hour shifts a month, which is on top of "normal" work weeks.

[Yeah_Baby]

[pope04]

During the '88 Olympics, we SAIT journalism arts students were able to work for Kodak down on the Stampede grounds. I was also approached by a guy from Sports Illustrated who needed help mounting slides.

I'd work for Kodak from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm, then I'd work for SI usually well into the wee hours of the morning.

I can't remember what the pay was, but the work was a godsend to a starving student.

[ClubFlames]

I did an 18 hour shift once when I used to work at a Mac's Convenience Store in Edmonton. I did my 9 hour shift and the guy who was suppose to work after me called in sick and my manager was out of town returning that night to take over so I had to stay there. The most horrible experience ever as the area where the Mac's was a little shady.

[spydermal]

Every place I have worked followed laws/rules and or were to cheap to pay OT. 13 hours is probably the longest.

[Ice]

Back when I worked for a bank, there was a move of safe deposit boxes from one branch location into ours and two employees had to be present for the move. I got to work at 6am in the morning to let the construction crews in to finish their work, worked a normal Friday business day, then stayed until 4:30am by the time they were done and the vault could be locked. It was a 22.5 shift and I didn't get any overtime. It sucked.