Today's MOZEN: Life In The City That Never Sleeps

Photo and words by F LoBuono

You may find this as a surprise, but the work day does not end at four, five, or six p.m. In reality, it actually never ends. There is a whole world that exists beyond the so-called norm. And, weekends? For many of us, that's an arbitrary term. There really is no such thing. The world is a 24-7-365 kinda' place. I know, because I'm one that works (and lives) in that shadowy world beyond the 9-5, Monday-Friday grind.

As a kid, I never wanted to work a 9-5 job. I found the very idea of earning a living that way stultifying. So, I chose a career that would afford me the flexibility of different hours. Well, I might add to be careful what you wish for because you just may get it! In my thirty years-plus career in the TV broadcasting industry, I have worked every shift on the clock, but rarely 9-5! And, in doing so, I have found an alternate reality.

Most often, I leave for work when it's dark and return under the same conditions. Working at night and sleeping by day can leave one feeling like a vampire. And, I'm FAR from the only one who lives like this. In the City That Never Sleeps a whole cadre of workers toil throughout the night. There are policemen, firemen, ambulance and emergency workers, nurses, doctors, sanitation workers, reporters, prostitutes, pimps, taxi drivers, food servers, road workers, insomniacs, and more. Virtually anything that you can do during daylight hours, you can do at night, too.

There are certainly some advantages to working the off hours:

1. Little or no traffic - Generally, it's a smooth trip in and out. However, you would be surprised at how much road work is done after midnight.

2. Parking - your choice of spots, as long as you're gone by 8 am.

3. No bosses - at least none of the "big" bosses are in. They are sleeping with the rest of the world.

4. Work flow - although it can get very busy, usually the work load is not the same as those for daylight hours.

5. Magnificent sunrises - witness the sun coming up every morning.

And, of course, there are disadvantages, too:

1. Health - the hours are completely contrary to a humans natural biorhythms. It reaps havoc on your system. Even when you are awake you feel mentally "foggy". You can just never make up for the sleep that you lose. Study after study confirms that shift work can be hazardous to your health. They don't call it the graveyard shift for nothing! It can kill you - literally.

2. Social - as the great majority of the world is on a far more regular schedule, socially this leaves you as the "odd person out". It makes it difficult (if not nearly impossible) to establish and maintain any type of personal relationship.

3. Professional Advancement - the downside of not having too many bosses around is that your work is not seen by enough of the right people. Therefore, you tend to get "forgotten".

Like just about anything in life, it is neither all good nor all bad. It is both. Therefore, it is up to us to find the value in it. Because, in the end, the world is what you make it. Still, next time you lay your head down to sleep remember, that their's a whole other world out there.