(07 Nov 2022, 7:34 pm)citaro5284 wrote In what way would you class them as the worst?

Up there with the worst. 

In no particular order:

- high proportion of split weekly rest days
- not uncommon to finish after midnight on the day before a rest day, then start before 6am on the day after your one rest day
- start a set of shifts on a late and work down to finish the set on an early so that the hours off between shifts are always reducing 
- not unusual to have an early(ish) shift in the middle of a late week and likewise a lat(ish) shift in the middle of an early week.
- no consistency.  An early shift can start at anytime between  4am and 9am (depending on depot) and so you could start at any of those times on an early week, try getting into a sleep routine for a week with shifts that have such a varying start time. 
- stupidly long shifts ( yes they may be legal, doesn’t make them acceptable) offset with stupidly short shifts.  I sometimes drive people to work then take them home after there working day has finished. 

These are off the top of my head.   I’m sure other drivers on here could come up with a few more.

You are never going to please 100% of people 100% of the time but bus companies seem intent on pissing off 100% of drivers 100% of the time.

Add to this the current staff shortages, which mean it’s harder to get time off when you want it.  

I hope you noted there was no moaning about working weekends. I agree that bus drivers complaining about working weekends or indeed unsociable hours are probably in the wrong job.   I’m actually in the camp that bus services on Sunday and Public Holidays should be more extensive.  Just as certain routes on an evening should have better frequencies and there should be an extensive night service offered. 

It seems to me that the people who think shift workers are moaning for the sake of it, work 9-5 Monday to Friday. And you can bet managers (especially those in commercial departments) and schedulers aren’t working the shift patterns they seem to think are acceptable. 

To suggest that rather than improve the working conditions of current employees it is easier to just recruit, recruit, recruit is extremely disrespectful and speaks volumes of the management ethos embedded in the organisation.