Clock Change

 

In the early hours of this morning, Sunday the 26th of October, all clocks in Britain will be wound back one hour. 01:59:59 will be followed by 01:00:00, not 02:00:00 as it normally does. This is common practice across much of the world, mostly in countries lying in the temperate or polar zones of the planet. Its purpose is to make the evenings as long and bright as possible. This has always caused a few problems for many people, especially in the NHS. As a twenty-four-seven operation we are working during the moment of this change which means service people on nightshift tonight will have to work an extra hour. The portering nightshift is 10 PM to 6 AM which is eight hours; but tonight we'll be working nine. We will not get paid for that extra hour. Unions have been trying for years to remedy that discrepancy, but management reply with: "Well in spring when the clock goes forward you work seven hours and get paid for eight so it's as broad as it's long." However there's no guarantee the same porters will be on nightshift on both occasions. We also have to be careful with log records during that extra hour, making sure to add the labels to every time stamp: (BST) for British Summer Time and (GMT) for Greenwich Mean Time. As for the early shift, that always relieves the nightshift at 6 AM regardless... or it should. When the clocks go forward in spring many members of the early shift will turn up at 7 AM and say: "Did the clocks go forward? Damn! I forgot about that." Are they just saying that as an excuse to turn up late? Probably. How do I know? Because I can bet that not a single porter will forget about the clocks going back tomorrow morning and turn up an hour early.