Switching teams



Many years ago, when I was living in Holland, I was a regular visitor of a heavy metal message board. The internet was still a new thing then (I’m talking early 2000s here) and the possibility to discuss the finer things in life, like music and drinking, with strangers who were many miles away, without leaving your seat, was still a novel and exciting experience. 


I don’t remember exactly what the lead-in to the discussion was, but it was something along the lines of someone posting that they had been to a gig and afterwards had gone on the most epic of pub crawls and gotten home at 6 in the morning. This triggered some more tall tales of people running into the mailman when they got home, going to an early bar straight after and more of those familiar party-til-you-drop stories.


Someone then interjected that he didn’t understand how people could do shit like that and that he went home straight after a gig to go to sleep because he was a morning person. 


I was quick out the traps to proudly proclaim myself a life long night owl and also to state that being a morning person or a night owl was something that is in your genes. Whichever side you were on- you were down for life.

I had no data or research to back up these claims, but I just knew it was true. How could it not be? When you’re in your twenties, you always think you’re right. I’m a grown up now! I know everything!


It was actually true. Both me and my fellow Night Owl friends all had problems getting up in the morning for jobs with regular working hours. We had no problem partying or watching movies or playing video games until the small hours though. The night was ours. Daytime was for suckers and for making money to be spent on night time entertainment. 





The discussion proceeded with many people proclaiming allegiance to either side (mostly to Team Night Owl though).


The debate then continued in a predictable trajectory with Team Night Owl accusing Team Early Rise of being pussies who didn’t deserve the right to call themselves metalheads and the Early Risers calling the Night Owls feckless drunks who were afraid of both daylight and sobriety and hid in the dark behind a mountain of empty beer bottles. 


The Big Twist in the entire thread came when someone who had stayed out of the debate thusfar, I don’t remember now who it was exactly, but it was someone I knew personally and had met several times for beers, came forward and claimed that he, too, had been a Night Owl initially, but now had switched to the Early Risers.


I laughed in his digital face and ridiculed his statement. He said he had landed a sales job with a, for our age, high salary, which required him to face customers at 9 in the morning in a presentable state. He said that it had taken a month or two to change his habits but that, now, he had no problems with going to bed a bit earlier and getting up bright and early for his job. 


I again stated that he was insane, that what he said was impossible and then launched the theory that he had probably been an Early Riser all along, but had posed as a Night Owl for a while to get on the good side of us cool kids. (“Poser” is one of the gravest insults you can level at a metalhead, on par with calling a hooligan a runner or a Dutchman a German) 


Like every message board discussion in the history of the internet, the battle eventually petered out and people moved on to more pressing matters like the new Cannibal Corpse release and the upcoming festival season.






The whole thing slipped from my mind for a very long time, but then a few things happened.

About 5 years ago, I started a new job which, through a couple of promotions, led to my current job. 


My new job had pretty standard working hours, 9am-6pm, so I got going and enjoyed the new job. After a couple of months I was promoted to a position of more authority, which I enjoyed even more.


Then, about a year and a half ago, I started suffering from bouts of insomnia. I had experienced this before. In summer, I have trouble sleeping past the time the sun comes up which, in Ireland at the height of summer, is around 4.30AM. For a few days, I would just lay in bed, staring at the wall, unable to get back to sleep, but then I decided that, if I couldn’t sleep anyway, I might as well start work early and have some time left in the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine. So I started working from 7AM til 4PM. 

I contacted my supervisor to explain the situation and ask him if he was okay with this. He had no problem with it.


Then, a few weeks later, it was my supervisor who contacted me. He told me that the management and some people in our unit’s early shift had requested that someone in a position of knowledge be available to support them from 6AM. 

He said that, if I didn’t want to, I could say no, but I made a few quick calculations and realized that if I cut my morning exercise routine by 10 minutes and didn’t linger in the shower for too long, I only had to get up 30 minutes earlier but would be off work an hour earlier, at the impressively leisurely time of 3PM. What also weighed in is that, at the time, we were housed in a building that was a 5 minute walk away from my favorite pub, which meant I would be in prime position, on my favorite bar stool, at 3.05. I agreed immediately and started my 6AM shifts.


The strangest thing happened. Whereas I had always had issues with getting to the office in time for 9, I now had no issues whatsoever with the 6AM starts. I don’t know if it was the knowledge that I had no margin of error at such an early hour, or if it’s the prospect of heading for a cold drink in mid-afternoon, but somehow it worked. I still work, a year and a half later, from 6AM every day, and I’ve been late only once and that was because I realized I had forgotten my key card when I was halfway to work.


A few months ago, I realized a few things. 

I actually enjoy getting up at 5.15, starting work at 6, and heading into the city at a time when my colleagues are just getting back from lunch. I enjoy watching the city wake up. Even in the weekends, I set my alarm for 8AM, so that I can do some stuff around the house for a while, have breakfast and then go explore the city. 


On the other side of the equation, I am rarely awake beyond 1AM and, even on the weekends, I’m typically in bed by midnight. Apart from when I am on holidays, the routine 4AM and 5AM finishes of old have vanished. 

I enjoy having a relaxed breakfast while watching the sun climb into the sky.


And that was the biggest shock- I realized that, like my message board adversary all those years ago, I had switched teams.


So, whoever you were, and wherever you are now, I am ready to admit:


You were right. 


Cheers!







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