Sad to Say

With the economy tanking, winter, and whatnot, I’ve tried to keep these posts positive lately.

But it’s tough out there. For everyone. Especially for those working nights. Layoffs worldwide often start with those on the nightshift. And then there’s the violence.

Many of you have thanked us for introducing you to the plight of the nightshift workers all around you, especially taxi drivers and doormen. An excerpt from Chapter 2, “I’ll Take My Chances on the Nightshift,” about taxi drivers:

“Night driving is dangerous,” says Malik.

He is cruising along the parkway across Queens. The lanes are empty, but he keeps to the speed limit. “Before,” says Malik, “every week a cab driver was killed. Everybody knows they have the cash.”

He explains that drivers frequently think, “Maybe they’re going to show a gun or something. Maybe they are going to rob me.”

Anyone who lived through the slew of murders of New York City gypsy cab drivers in 2000 knows that the job is a dangerous one. In May 2000, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration put a firm number to the violence by reporting that taxi drivers were “60 times more likely than other workers to be murdered on the job.” Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the report also said that they were more likely to experience violent assaults than any workers other than police officers and security guards.

Violence against drivers is especially likely at night. The sociologists Diego Gambetta and Heather Hamill, in their book Streetwise, discuss a survey they conducted of New York Times articles. Of those that reported the time of the crime, 64 percent of drivers injured or attacked were victimized between 10 pm and 6 am.

But now, says Malik, it’s “99.9 percent better.” In fact, it’s 55 percent better. Violent crimes reported by the New York Police Department, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, dropped from 174,542 in 1990 to 78,945 in 1999.

That was then. This is now. I refuse to give in to all the dire predictions, but I’m also occupationally obligated to tell the truth.

Nightshift workers are being victimized, violently; in some cases, fatally.

In Omaha, Nebraska, pop. 419,545, two nightshift convenience store clerks have been killed since November.

In New York City, a nightshift gas station attendant was killed last week on Staten Island, pop. 481,613. Like many of the nightshift workers we met in and around NYC, he was an immigrant. Like many nightshift workers around the world, he was new to his job. Pakistani Mohammad Ahmad, 50, had worked at the Gulf Station on Victory Boulevard only a few weeks. “He came to America because he wanted the American lifestyle,” his wife told the New York Times. “He told his father he wanted the American lifestyle, he didn’t want to stay in Pakistan.”

It's tough out there.

But we don’t have to give in to fear and despair. There are things we can do. Thank the nightshift workers who cross your path for doing their jobs. As I’ve posted before, tip your taxi driver well – and pay cash. Get to know your nightshift doorman. Find out his or her favorite cookies, snacks, or newspaper, and bring such goodies to help pass the night. Sit with them in your sleeplessness. Linger long enough to find out more about your nightshift store clerk, or gas station attendant. If you’re buying diapers or filling your car with gas, ask about their kids, their car, their lives. Reach out. Hang on. Things will improve.