The Shift Worker's Nightmare

It may be no coincidence that some of the most notable human failures have occurred in environments having "round the clock" operations. The Exxon Valdez accident, the Bhopal tragedy, and the nuclear disasters at Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl all share a common thread - They all operated on 24-hour systems. Today, the term "24-7" is used to describe ongoing activities in a variety of disciplines. Such operations are found in health care, utilities, airlines, manufacturing, law enforcement, and other vital fields. At least one-sixth of the full-time labor force in North America is engaged in shift work.

The main problem with shift work is the demand made on persons who must alter their schedules to accomodate a state of alertness and productivity at a time of the day when they should be sleeping. If a person cannot adapt to the working conditions, the results can be disastrous, as indicated, or can be expressed as depression, stress, poor health, divorce, alcoholism, and more.

To appreciate why shift work has the potential for such damaging consequences in the workplace, it is necessary to first acquire a basic understanding of the phenomenon. The physiological system responsible for measuring time and synchronizing any organism's internal processes with the daily events in its environment is known as the circadian timing system, or circadian rhythmns. There is a genetic basis for circadian rhythmns, and they can be found in our body temperature, hormone levels, and a wide variety of other bodily functions, each with its own pattern of rising to a peak level at one time of day and falling to a low point at another. This is also known as our "biological clock".

Fortunately, we are learning more about the exact causes of the problems associated with shift work, and more importantly, we are finding ways to cope with the challenges. In some cases, organizations are finding new ways of designing jobs and schedules to minimize the debilitating effects of night work, while another method seeks to help individuals find ways of modifiying their habits and behavior to better cope with the schedules. Ideally, the best match between a worker and the job must be derived from applying an optimum schedule and by adaptation to the existing conditions.

The purpose of this effort is to explore how businesses today are changing working conditions, and how employees are learning to cope. One method of learning to adapt more effectively is to find people who adjust well and see what they are doing differently from us. We will see how personality types and habits can even predispose certain people towards shift work. If you are engaged in shift work, I welcome your discussion and input, because this is an exciting and worthwhile subject, and can help thousands live happier and more productive lives.

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