The Effects of Shift Work on the Lives of Employees
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The effects of shift work on the lives of employees About 1 in 6 employees works other than regular days schedules, but data are scarce on how workers are affected; incomes may rise, but family routine, social life, and health often suffer PETER FINN At least 10 million Americans are regularly engaged in on-the-job safety. However, shift work provides unique shift work. According to data from the Current Popula- benefits for many employees as well as proving advanta- tion Survey,' which almost surely underestimates the geous in many ways for industry and for society at prevalence of shift work,' nearly one worker in six was large. It is important for government policymakers, employed full time in 1978 during hours that differ business leaders, and shift workers themselves to be- from typical daytime schedules. There were 4.9 million come familiar with the major effects that working eve- nonfarm wage and salary workers on the evening shift, nings and nights may have on employees and their 2.1 million on the night shift, and 2.8 million on miscel- families, in order to consider ways to modify the fea- laneous shifts. tures that are deleterious, while retaining or enhancing The term "shift work" means different things to dif- those that are beneficial. This study summarizes what is ferent people. Shift work is popularly regarded as work currently known about these effects, with principal at- in which employees "shift" schedules on some regular tention focused on the harmful consequences that call basis from daytime to evening or nighttime. Many re- for amelioration . searchers define shift work as employment in which two Most of the information in this article comes from or more groups of employees work at different times of original research studies of shift work from both inside a 17-hour or 24-hour time span, including a so-called and outside the United States . Secondary sources have "day" shift. Most discussions consider shift work to be also been examined. Anecdotal evidence from these any employment that regularly occurs between 7 p .m. sources about the personal experiences of shift workers and 7 a.m., the definition used in this study. and their spouses and children has been used to provide For a significant proportion of these employees, understanding of what the data mean in human terms. working after-dark hours may not only reduce satisfac- There is limited evidence regarding many of the ef- tion with their jobs but may also create troublesome fects of evening and night work on employees . Further- problems for their health, family life, social activity, and more, many of the data that have been reported are contradictory . A major American study of shift work Peter Finn is a senior research analyst at AN Associates, Inc ., Cam- concluded, "We have here the unhappy picture of a bridge, Mass . group of men doing something for their daily bread 31 MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW October 1981 e Effects of Shift Work on Employees which they would prefer not to do if they had the op- situations or responsibilities . The comaraderie and sense portunity to start over again." Yet an investigation of of loyalty that is a feature of certain evening or night- 600 English shift workers determined that "for subjec- time occupations can be a satisfying substitute for or tive well-being in both its somatic and psychological as- addition to normal social and family life.' pects, shift work can in general probably hardly be Many shift workers have less tension and a more re- called a problem."' These and similar conflicting re- laxed pace on the night shift than during the day be- search results represent in large measure a failure to cause of less supervision or fewer interruptions from control for numerous variables that may influence em- clerical or management personnel . Finally, shift work ployee attitudes toward evening and night work includ- accommodates "night owls," who function poorly in the ing type of shift and work, job prestige, workplace morning and best during evening or night.'° amenities, age and marital status of shift workers and number and age of their children, neighborhood atti- Drawbacks tudes toward evening and night work, and the preva- The attractions of shift work are considerable for lence of night work in the community.' Despite this and many individuals. But the benefits must be weighed by other limitations in the research to date, there are a shift workers and policymakers alike against the draw- number of consistent findings regarding the advantages backs that affect the health, interpersonal relationships, and drawbacks of shift work. leisure time activities, and perhaps the safety of a large proportion of shift workers. The central feature of shift Benefits work that creates dissatisfaction for many evening and Some jobseekers accept shift work simply because night workers is that it puts them "out of rhythm" with there are not enough daytime jobs available.' For these their minds and bodies, families and social lives, and individuals, evening and night work provides a unique routines of the rest of the community. source of gainful employment. Shift work's most allur- ing feature, however, appears to be its wage differential . Health. There is a well-documented circadian (24-hour) According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these shift rhythm that governs many of the major biological func- premiums average 10 cents an hour for the evening shift tions of the human body. Disturbance of these cycles is and 13 cents for the night shift.6 responsible for several of the most upsetting physical Shift work also enables workers to increase their in- and emotional problems evening and night workers ex- come by moonlighting on daytime jobs. One study perience. Diurnal rhythms control pulse, blood pres- found that shift workers who did not wish to change sure, the cardio-pulmonary system, blood composition, shifts cited as their overriding reason the opportunity to endocrine secretions, appetite, elimination, and the hold a second job their current schedules provided . wake-sleep cycle." Shift work, of necessity, interrupts Significantly, 23 percent of night workers and 19 per- these processes and requires that they occur at times for cent of evening workers held second jobs compared which the body is not genetically programmed or envi- with 11 percent of daytime employees.' ronmentally conditioned for them. Shift work provides another financial incentive rarely There is disagreement over the extent to which the mentioned in the literature but frequently observed by body, over time, can adapt to changes in these rhythms. the author. Although it has been pointed out that "the Although several studies have found rhythmic adjust- rapid expansion of service employment has . created ments to a new work schedule may occur within four many opportunities for part-time or intermittent work days to two weeks," several considerations suggest that for young people whose main activity is pursuing their such ready adaptation may not be commonplace. A education,"' what has gone unnoticed is that many of significant minority of shift workers, for unknown rea- these service jobs are during evening or night, enabling sons, never significantly adjust, biologically, to the al- students to take courses during the day. Many security terations imposed on their normal body cycles . In guards and nurse's aides, for example, use evening and addition, most evening and night employees in the night jobs to work their way through school and, not United States are on rotating shifts . The continuous al- coincidentally, to provide a quiet environment in which teration of day and evening; or day, evening, and night they can spend some of their paid hours studying. work, seriously diminishes or entirely precludes adjust- Shift work provides a number of nonpecuniary ad- ment of bodily rhythms. Furthermore, any adaptation vantages for some workers. Working evenings or nights that may be achieved even among fixed shift workers is allows employees more free time during the day and, in repeatedly undermined by days off, holidays, vacations, the case of rotating shift work, to accumulate several and sick leave, when employees revert to normal living days off in a row on a regular basis. Some workers en- schedules." Not surprisingly then, problems related to joy a variety of rotating shifts, while others appreciate sleep, appetite, and digestion are the most common and being able to remove themselves from unwanted family persistent complaints for many shift workers. 32 Particularly widespread among shift workers is insuf- state mental hospital and an electronics plant attributed workers do- ficient or poor quality sleep resulting from trouble fall- less prestige to their own jobs than did day plant ing asleep, waking during sleep, and waking up early . ing the same job . The daytime workers in another Although many of these difficulties are from disruptions regarded the company's night workers as "odd."Z' in the body's normal diurnal sleep rhythms, sleep dur- family-related ing daytime is also often disturbed by excessive and un- Family. Shift workers experience more employees because of the avoidable light and heat, and by noises from children, problems than do daytime the job and housework, telephone calls, and street traffic. "Have lack of synchrony between their hours on most serious family you ever gone home in the morning after a night's their families' daily routines . The who work evenings and work," one shift worker asked rhetorically, "when the disturbance is that many people their children, sun is shining and a bed awaits you with the blinds nights are less able to spend time with bed early, than are tightly drawn to keep out the light-are you going to especially small children who go to ." sleep?" 14 Sleep can also be unsettled by over-fatigue, employees who work during the day to spend with their restlessness, and tension.