Entering the twilight zone... meet the workers on the nightshift

A house alarm agent, a council road worker, and a radio presenter tell Jonathan deBurca Butler what it's like earning their crust while most of us are asleep

Kiran Kumar behind his desk at work at Phonewatch: 'When I’ve done my last [night] shift, I try to stay up for as long as I can so I get back into the daytime routine. That’s what works for me.'

In my house, the dog and I are always the last to go to bed. By midnight, I’ve fallen asleep on the couch and I wake up to a creaky neck and BBC News telling me about Donald Trump’s latest whimsical declaration.

After bringing the dog out and sending her to bed, I go to the hall and put on the house alarm, before ascending the stairs. I’d never thought about the people who monitor that alarm, but while my family and I sleep, Kiran Kumar and many more like him are keeping a watchful eye.

Originally from Hyderabad in India, Kiran has worked with Phonewatch for 11 years. In 2006, he came to Ireland to complete a master’s in business administration at Dublin Business School and stayed.

“I felt that this country was the best,” says the 46-year-old. “The crime rate is low. It’s calm, and there’s no pollution compared to my city.”

After working in what he calls a “typical telemarketing job” with a phone company, Kiran joined Phonewatch as an agent. He is now a shift leader, maintaining stats, preparing reports, and “making sure everyone is doing their work correctly”.

Kiran works 12-hour shifts, rotating from three-day weeks to four-day weeks, with one week on days and one week on nights. That’s typical in security. “I’ve been doing this since I joined, so I’m used to it now,” Kiran says. “I love working here. The culture and atmosphere are very good.

Normally, in customer service, you have a routine job, whereas this is varied. You get to work with different customers and different situations every day. We are really helping people protect their lives and property. It’s very satisfying.

“Nights are usually quite calm,” says Kiran. “There aren’t as many alarms going off, but you have to be attentive. The company makes sure we get plenty of breaks throughout the night and morning, so that really helps.

“When I finish at 7am, I go home and go to bed. Then I get up, get ready, and go back to work. Night shifts don’t really allow for much ‘me time’ or ‘family time’. I get a lot of support from my family. My wife makes sure I’m not disturbed.

“When I’ve done my last night, I try to stay up for as long as I can, so I get back in to the daytime routine. That’s what works for me.”

Kiran is one of thousands who work while the rest of us sleep.

Night work is working between midnight and 7am, and according to a 2023 Labour Force Survey, 22.5% of employees in Ireland worked night shifts. That was up from 15% in 2012.

While much of Keith Power’s work for Cork City Council’s road department is done during the day, the winter is different, particularly when there’s been a belt of snow or ice and the operation to salt the city’s roads and footpaths is implemented.

“We’re on a rotating roster. In our section, we have four drivers,” says the 45-year-old, from Togher. “Obviously, throughout the whole of Cork City Council, there’s a lot more.

Keith Power, who works for Cork City Council’s Road Department, a role that can involve night work in winter.

“If the roads need salting, my co-ordinator will make a call on it by late afternoon and then they’ll ring us to go in for eight.”

Keith’s route covers 44km, starting at the salt station in Ballyvolane, going out as far as Whitechurch, before heading to Upper Glanmire, Glanmire, including the village, and then out to Rochestown and Douglas.

“I’m usually out until around three or four in the morning,” he says. “I’ll have to pick up at least two, sometimes three, loads of salt and that takes time. There’s a spreader on the back of the truck. We distance it out, so it covers the paths and I have someone with me who helps monitor the amounts, and, often, there’s someone behind us in a van to make sure everything is safe.

It’s a big operation. It takes a lot of concentration. I’m driving on a road that’s already icy and I’m trying to make it safer for people coming after me. So you need a lot of awareness.

Before joining the council two years ago, Keith spent years driving trucks in Ireland and Europe. As a result, he says he is “well used to working nights” and it “doesn’t faze” him.

Even when the weather is playing ball and the salt spreader is gathering dust under the late summer sun, Keith will be on call every few weeks.

“We have to be on call for emergencies, fallen trees, or potholes, anything late at night that needs to be repaired,” Keith says.

“It’s part and parcel of the job. It’s what you’ve signed up for and it’s grand. We have a good team there and we get on with it.”

Just as Keith’s weary head hits the pillow, broadcaster Shane Beatty is getting ready to make his way from his home in Naas, Co Kildare, to the Newstalk studios in Dublin, where he hosts the station’s early weekday programme, Breakfast Briefing.

“I’ve been doing it for over five years,” says the 37-year-old. “I have a well-drilled routine, at this stage.

“I get up at 3.30am and spend a bit of time going through international news feeds.

“I catch up on any news that I’ve missed, especially from the United States. I get into the office for 4.30am, get through about 12 newspapers to get them ready for the newspaper review, and then I have to get the news ready for 6am.

So a lot goes on between 3.30am and 6am. That’s probably my busiest time of the day. It’s all in the prep.

For most of us, the thought of trawling through newspapers and getting a show ready at such an ungodly hour would be daunting, but, for Shane, there’s nothing but upsides.

“I think a lot of people imagine us coming in, in the morning, all sort of downbeat, but the office is buzzing. The breakfast team is in, about 10 or 12 people, and everyone is in flying form and wide awake. So we’re all used to it.

Newstalk Breakfast Briefing presenter Shane Beatty gets up at 3.30am and says a two-hour nap when he gets home from work is crucial to his day.

“Before I was doing this, I was a reporter. I had to be in for 10am. Because of the traffic on the N7, it could take me two and a half hours. So, yes, it’s hard getting up in the middle of the night, but I’d take that over wasting time in my car every morning.”

When he finishes at 10am, it’s straight back home via the now empty roads and into bed for a two-hour nap. By lunchtime, he’s up and about and has the rest of the day to himself or to spend time catching up with his partner and their dog.

“It also means that I get a bit of daylight,” Shane says. “During the winter, a lot of people leave in the dark in the morning and they’re home in the dark in the evening.

It also means you can go to the dentist or the doctor during the day and you’re not missing work or taking days off. So there are definitely upsides to it.

There’s not much room for a social life during the week. He’s usually in bed with a cup of cocoa after the main evening news.

“On the other hand,” he says. “My weekend starts on Friday at 10 in the morning.”

Shane is a small part of what he thinks is an evolving work culture.

“It’s great to meet so many people who tell you that you’re part of their morning,” he says. “There are loads of people listening to us at 6am, whether going to the gym or just getting to work earlier. It’s not all nine to five anymore. Ireland has changed like that.”