{"id":18781,"date":"2024-04-03T14:18:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T03:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theothershift.com\/?p=18781"},"modified":"2024-04-03T14:18:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T03:18:45","slug":"unsung-night-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theothershift.com\/unsung-night-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsung Night Heroes: Challenges & Triumphs of Night Shifts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links, meaning we receive a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, but this is at no additional cost to you. Please read our disclosure<\/strong><\/a> and <\/em>privacy statement<\/strong><\/em><\/a> for more info.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n An examination of the night shift professions, that while sometimes underappreciated, are necessary for civilization, in its current form, to exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A city can be thought of as a machine. Each business, citizen, politician, and service all have a purpose. And while the glamorous and most prestigious elements often make the newspapers, the lubricants necessary to keep that machine from grinding to a halt seldom do. In fact, they tend to be the ones delivering those papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On this site, we tend to focus on the important jobs that take place when the sun goes down. We know the obvious examples of law enforcement, medical professionals, and firefighters, the men and women whose job enthralls us so much we watch fictional dramas based on them. In this installment, we are going to look at the ones that they will never make a movie about. And thank heaven for that\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hey, What\u2019s That Smell\u2026 Oh\u2026 It\u2019s Me!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While you may be caught in a traffic jam on some idle Tuesday evening, not very far beneath you, an entirely different sort of commute is taking place. One that is as repugnant as it is necessary. Welcome to the world of modern sewers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spanning a city in an interconnected web, pipes of all manner of functions serve as the circulatory system of the modern metropolis. It brings fresh water in, while taking\u2026 Shall we say \u201cused water\u201d out. The modern sewer system is comprised of miles of these pipes, all of which are just begging for a reason to leak, clog, rupture, or just flat-out explode. That\u2019s where the sanitation engineer comes in. Much to his or her chagrin, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In reality, sewage workers maintain the vital water supply to and from all residents, and this necessary work happens twenty-four hours a day. When others go home for the evening, these stalwart overseers make certain that constant access to fresh water for everyone from the power plant that needs steam to spin a turbine to a baby-sitter heating up a bottle in a double boiler, have that water on demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the inevitable happens, and a section of pipe that was installed in the Taft administration ruptures, these people spring to action. When water pipes rupture, the drop in pressure can lead to contamination of water by microbes and bacteria. Now, anyone who ever watched a zombie movie can tell you, mass amounts of contaminated folks is bad. They tend to get \u201cbitey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, okay, mass cannibalism is probably not right around the corner, but dysentery, cholera, and all other manner of horrors are a possibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, while you relax at night, after a shower that likely didn\u2019t give you herpes, you can thank these individuals. The stoic heroes who climb down into the darkness of a manhole and brave the alligators, giant rats, and the mole people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The ice in my glass of Scotch has never been more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\nSanitation Worker \/ Wastewater Treatment Operators <\/h2>\n\n\n\n