As you all know we now have a number of clients in lovely Australia which means us lucky (or unlucky depending how you look at it) developers now get to do night shifts every few months. I am now a veteran of the nocturnal team and there have been a number of different challenges and obstacles I have faced whilst being on the support desk during the night.
The first thing you notice is that you're all alone as the office is quite open and usually buzzing with activity (Though on occasions Scott does randomly appear through a night and scares the living daylights out of you). Being on your own does have its perks though, it's peaceful, calm and you can concentrate better (I think it so) on your tasks without the everyday noises. Also you don’t have the day to day distractions, no Project Managers asking you to have a quick look at a problem, no questions from colleagues and hardly any phone calls. Don't get me wrong these are a part of everyday office life and help us to work as a team, it's just nice to be able to focus on just your work without them every so often. These are the advantages of working on the night shift, (oh and the fact the shops are all empty, so no queues and fresh stock is plentiful!) it does have its drawbacks.
One of the toughest challenges I have faced whilst on nights as a developer is not having as much access to the knowledge of my senior colleagues. This has helped me to develop my technical and investigative skills, as any problems I have not faced before require me to delve deep into the system. At times this feels like a very daunting task but as we always strive to find solutions it pushes you to learn and whilst frightening it certainly gives you the challenge to step up which isn’t without its benefits. Even though I mentioned earlier that it's nice to have some peace and quiet, after a few days you do start to feel that the silence can be daunting. Working on nights your imagination does start to get the better of you, wondering where that strange noise is coming from (I'm convinced it's the fridge but others disagree) as you wonder when it is going to get light in the morning. As I am sure you all have guessed the hardest part of a night shift is keeping awake but that's nothing a mixture of coffee and energy drinks can't fix (and the excitement of a job well done of course).
Well there you have it, a little insight into the 'Dark' side of Zipporah. So next time you get nice and cosy in bed and just about to have a good night's sleep, remember that Zipporah is awake providing support to our clients 24 hours a day 365 days a year wherever they are in the world.
Darryl Shehan
Junior Developer
Zipporah Ltd is an established and leading supplier of online solutions to both public and private sector organisations. Our products include E-Booking, E-Commerce, Leisure Management, Queuing, Scheduler, All in one and One Stop Shop Applications – working to streamline processes, reduce costs, improve profits and optimise service management, facilitating a faster, more effective and efficient approach to business operations.
