Aurora Lyda | Dive Bar Kitchen Staff and Server

For the past year, 20-year-old Aurora Lyda has balanced being a cook and server at Columbia’s Dive Bar with her coursework as an MU student. Despite having only a few customers all evening, Lyda and her coworker Brendalynn Hill staffed the kitchen while Ben Herzog manned the bar on Tuesday, Oct. 3. 

Since her class schedule prevents her from working during the day, Lyda’s shifts start in the afternoon and typically lasts until 11 p.m. or midnight. When she’s working in the kitchen, Lyda prefers calmer nights, but when she’s serving, she wants there to be more customers so she can earn more tips. She works four or five days a week, and at the end of each shift she feels exhausted, dirty and ready to go home. 

“Even if I wasn’t working, I’d still stay up this late,” Lyda said. “I feel like on my days off I sleep all day, which I feel like isn’t really normal. But I don’t get too much sleep during the weekdays.”

Kylie Adams | Night Auditor at Comfort Inn Sedalia Station

In addition to being a full-time elementary education major at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Mo., 19-year-old Kylie Adams is a night auditor at Comfort Inn Sedalia Station in Sedalia, Mo. 

Adams usually falls asleep around 2-3 p.m. before waking at 10 p.m. and driving to work. Once her shift ends at 7 a.m., she drives back to Warrensburg for her morning classes. Because of her irregular sleep schedule, Adams said she snacks rather than having three meals a day, and she’ll sometimes have coffee in the wee hours of the morning to help her stay awake during class. 

“I drink a lot of caffeine,” she said. “It’s a problem.” 

During her shift on Friday, Sept. 29, Adams slid check-out receipts under guests’ hotel doors. Even though she enjoys watching horror movies, she said walking the hotel’s hallways, especially the lower level, in the middle of the night creeps her out. Since she is a teenager who likes to text, Adams said she can get lonely at times, especially when she’s working alone and feels as if she’s the only person in the world. She listens to music and reads to stave off boredom while sitting at the hotel’s front desk, finishing three novels in the past month alone. 

“It gives me a lot of time to do homework. With another job, you wouldn’t have that; like if you’re waiting tables, you don’t have that,” Adams said. “That was kind of why I took the night shift job. I’m awake, and I have a lot of time to do things. I’m a night owl. I’ve always been up late, so it’s pretty fine. And then I’m never late to class in the morning, so that’s another thing that’s good about it.”

Clyde Jones: After Bite cook

After moving to Columbia, 36-year-old Clyde Jones found a job at After Bite, a late night restaurant that opened earlier this fall. This isn’t Jones’ first time working nights, but it is his first experience as a line cook in a kitchen. When he first started, he said he struggled to keep up with the orders, but now he has a better handle on how to manage sudden rushes. He said his favorite item to make is the Ultimate Breakfast Grilled Cheese because of all the different ingredients it involves. 

After Bite is open from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, so for the majority of the week Jones needs to be semi-nocturnal to do his job well. 

“I can still stay up and handle whatever I need to handle during the day and then at night I can still get enough sleep to make it into work,” Jones said. “I don’t prefer to be on nights, but, I mean, it’s a job.”

Dipak Patel | Manager at Hitt Street Mini Mart (aka No Gas)

In 2017, Dipak Patel began working as a cashier at Hitt Street Mini Mart, more commonly known as No Gas, in Columbia. Now, after becoming manager, the 31-year-old is responsible for customer satisfaction and knows nearly all No Gas customers by name. He said he enjoys seeing customers come in with their friends before going to the bars on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

During slower nights, especially during the winter, however, Patel said he sometimes feels as if his safety is at risk, which is why he carries a firearm as a way to keep himself, as well as everyone who enters the store, safe. Patel usually works twelve-hour shifts that end after midnight, but there are days when he arrives at 9 a.m. and doesn’t leave until 1 a.m. He then falls asleep between 3-4 a.m. before waking between 9-10 a.m. to do it all again.

On Wednesday, Oct. 4, Patel kept No Gas open past midnight so he could finish ringing up customers who arrived right before close. But even with the long hours and personal sacrifices his job demands, Patel loves what he does. He said working at No Gas, which allows him to build a better life for his wife and 3-year old daughter, is an opportunity he would never let go.

"Those two are my best friends. They’re everything to me, so I don’t really miss out [on] going out drinking or having fun because that’s what I look forward to is seeing them.” Patel said. “My wife is doing a great job. She updates on every single step that my daughter takes, and it’s great. And I do take time off once in a while where I can be with them. So it’s like, yes, working nights does kind of hinder my reputation with my daughter, being able to be there to tell her bedtime stories or to be able to be there at night kind of with family dinner or whatever, but at the same time I’m doing it for them. So it’s a win and a lose situation there.”

Ben Herzog | Bartender at Dive Bar

After losing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, 25-year-old Ben Herzog began working as a bartender for Columbia’s Dive Bar. He usually works a seven-hour shift, and, although the bar technically closes around 11 p.m. or midnight most nights, Herzog said he could work as late as 2 a.m. on weekends, which can make waking up and sticking to a normal routine difficult. 

Near the end of his shift on Tuesday, Oct. 3, Herzog sanitized behind the bar while talking with his partner of four months, Caroline McCone, before he and two coworkers closed the building for the night. Herzog said sometimes he has a hard time scheduling doctors appointments or building in social time with friends, but in general he said his job doesn’t interfere too substantially with the other aspects of his life. 

“It’s very much so a social job, which I enjoy that aspect of it, but it can be tedious. The hours do affect you after a certain point,” Herzog said. “The radio, we don’t get to pick. I don’t know who chose that radio station. I mean, it’s unfortunate that we listen to the same 10-12 songs over and over again. It’s awful after a while. But I do generally like the selection that they have. But when you’re closing at night, sometimes I’ll bring the speaker out and play music then, but I felt like tonight kinda wasn’t the night for it.”

Lateef Adepo | Fiber Optics Technician

Lateef Adepo is a fiber optics technician based out of Jefferson City, Mo. He usually works days, but on Thursday, Sept. 28, his job brought him to Sedalia, Mo., where he repaired and retested fibers around midnight to beat Fastwyre Broadband’s installation deadline. 

On average, Adepo sleeps about 5 hours a night, maybe eight if he’s sick and extremely tired. In order to stay awake and focused on the job, Adepo will “indulge himself” by listening to music, playing YouTube videos and talking on the phone with friends so he doesn’t “go insane.” Although he loves what he does, especially that his job allows him to travel to the country, Adepo said a negative component of what he does is that he’s not able to socialize with many people other than his colleagues, bosses and family. 

“You need full concentration to be able to do the job. You can’t be distracted. It’s like performing a surgery: there’s no room for error,” Adepo said. “When I’m working, it is work. I know it is work. But it doesn’t affect me psychologically in any way once I’m back in town. Social life continues.”