Would you work night shift? Why or why not?

It really depends on the situation. I worked a ROTATING shift for 11 years in the Main Control Room at Fermilab. The particle accelerators run 24/7 holidays and all. Every year or two there is a 2-3 month maintenance shutdown and they will put the control room on a skeleton (3 man) crew at that time. For the most part I worked a 5 week rotating schedule. There was a week of days, a week of evenings a week of "owls" (i.e. midnight shift) a week of "back-ups" (day shift but in which you worked on back-up projects or training not in the Control Room) and days off scattered throughout to make it 5 weeks. We worked 2 out of 5 weekends (12 hour shifts for those).

It was a tough schedule. I did it for 11 years. Its' one thing to do right after college. You're used to staying up all night doing homework. Staying up all night running a particle accelerator doesn't seem like too much of a big deal. It wears on you though. Most people only do that for 5 to 10 years before moving on (a few people stick with it longer).

It wasn't so bad family-wise either until my daughter was in school. When she was little we had all day while I was on evenings to do stuff. My wife and I did a lot of tag-team parenting back then. And on Owls I has home and awake during "regular person" hours. I would sleep while everyone else was at work/school and I'd be at work when everyone else was sleeping. Their dinner was my breakfast.

I did it for 11 and had my fill. At 43 now I hope to never work another evening shift unless I REALLY have to.