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WotD: Graveyard shift
Today is November 1st, 2025, and Halloween has just ended.
Last night, children filled the streets in costumes, while houses were decorated with jack-o’-lanterns and cobwebs.
Now, as the festivities end, the real fright begins for some when the graveyard shift starts after midnight.
The term graveyard shift means working during the late hours of the night, usually from midnight until early morning.
It is called the graveyard shift because these hours are dark and quiet, similar to a graveyard at night, except at Halloween, of course.
Many people find it spooky and lonely, but it is an important time for work.
Nurses often work the graveyard shift to care for patients throughout the night.
Convenience store workers also work the graveyard shift, allowing nurses and others to purchase snacks and drinks late at night.
Garbage collectors might start their graveyard shift before the sun comes up, making sure our streets are clean by morning.
There are many other jobs where the graveyard shift is necessary to keep our communities running.
Working the graveyard shift can be hard.
It can make you feel like a vampire sleeping during the day and working at night.
Some people enjoy the quiet and the chance to earn money when most people are sleeping.
Others find it difficult to stay awake during the graveyard shift because it disrupts their circadian rhythm.
As Halloween ends and the supernatural creatures head home, let’s remember the people who are just starting their own graveyard shift.
Whether it’s in a hospital, a store, or on the streets, the graveyard shift is a time when important work happens, even while the rest of the world sleeps.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 6th-grade education (age 10 – 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 73.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.
