"and time starts to move backwards at that point"

Question

What's the difference between opening and closing shifts? Opening and mid shifts commonly start with a lot of downtime filled in with side-work and time starts to move backwards at that point. With that said, closing shifts tend to be longer, and more hours mean more money.

Source: Closing Shift- How I Learned to Love Working the Closing shift

I don't understand the phrase "and time starts to move backwards at that point" - Suppose you arrive at your office/factory at 8:00AM for the opening shift, how can "time move backwords" from the point 8:00AM? It sounds confusing to me. What does it mean?

Answer 1

"Time starts to move backwards" is an idiom meaning "time seems to go very very slowly" (because the person is bored of the "downtime filled with side-work"). It is casual usage and not meant to be taken literally.