Many approaches have been tried to improve the safety, health, and work-life balance of shift workers. Today, we look at three that have proven successful.
We’ve all heard the expression “24/7” — as in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — and we’re likely to be hearing it with increasing frequency as more countries move toward 24-hour societies.
But shift work (defined here as work shifts outside of the traditional 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. workday) brings with it associated health and social problems, including sleep disturbances, injuries and accidents, absenteeism, and substance abuse.
A widely reported study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) found that there are certain steps organizations can take to improve shift workers’ health, safety, and work-life balance.
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Researchers at England’s Durham University reviewed 26 smaller studies of a variety of measures that have been implemented in attempts to improve the lot of shift workers. They found that while none of the interventions were consistently harmful to workers, three types of changes had significant beneficial effects on health and work–life balance. These were:
- Switching from slow to fast rotation – This might mean rotating workers through shift changes more quickly, possibly every 3 to 4 days rather than every 7 days.
- Changing from backward to forward rotation – This means moving workers from morning shifts to afternoon shifts, or afternoon shifts to night shifts rather than the reverse of that order.
- Self-scheduling of shifts – The researchers found that giving employees more control over their schedules led to some improvements in health and work-life balance.
“For these three interventions where most of the evidence was found on work-life balance, it’s a less clear benefit for health,” said lead review author Clare Bambra. “I think employers may want to know these changes didn’t have big costs associated with them and they were not particularly disruptive.”
Sleep deprivation is one of most prevalent problems associated with shift work. The National Sleep Foundation’s 2008 Sleep in America Poll found that only 63% of shift workers said their work schedules allowed them to get enough sleep compared to 89% of non-shift workers. According to the poll, shift workers are significantly more likely than non-shift workers to:
- Spend less than 6 hours in bed on workdays (58% vs. 13%).
- Sleep less than 6 hours on workdays (33% vs. 15%).
- Have been told by a doctor they have sleep apnea (18% vs. 8%).
- Have driven drowsy at least once a month in the past year (48% vs. 30%).
- Be male (70% vs. 54%).
- Work more hours per week, on average (49.13 hours vs. 44.63 hours).
- Be blue collar workers (57% vs. 20%).
Writing in Occupational Health & Safety, Shiftwork Solutions’ Bruce Oliver and Jim Dillingham say that shift length might be one way to address the problem of sleep deprivation. And, while it may sound counterintuitive, the authors suggest that longer shifts may be the key.
“At first glance, it appears the people working 12-hour shifts get less sleep than those on 8-hour shifts,” the authors write. “But this is not the case over a span of several days or weeks because 12-hour shifts provide twice as many days off, and employees sleep longer on their days off.”
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While some studies have found that longer shifts increase safety risks, Oliver and Dillingham said that their survey indicates that longer shifts are just as safe as 8-hour shifts.
The authors found that workers on rotating shifts reported safety or performance problems more frequently than workers on fixed shifts.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll look at some of the health and bottom-line costs of shift work, how you can make the business case for shift work lifestyle training, and at an effective, low-cost solution that nicely fits that bill.