Shiftwork experience: worker's vision of its impacts

Abstract

Shiftwork, especially the one performed during the night, has been associated with health problems (e.g. sleep and digestive problems, tiredness). Besides effects on health, this work schedule also has been associated with additional troubles in the family and social life. Although the negative impact is the more emphasized perspective in the studies, this work schedule may, however, under some personal circumstances, represent advantages compared to the standard work schedule. In this study, we are shown the main impacts (positive and negative) put into perspective by 184 workers in relation to four work schedules (morning, afternoon, night, and rotating system) based on their own work experience. The data, of a qualitative nature, was achieved when we asked approximately 1,400 shift workers in the industrial sector in six companies from the north of Portugal. Specifically, the data is related to the comments that the workers spontaneously gave about their own experience. Generally speaking, the results indicate that each work schedule is put into perspective as having negative and positive impacts, even if in an asymmetric mode (e.g., at the level of health, the shifts involving night work are evaluated mainly negatively while the afternoon shift is viewed as advantageous). The results also suggest that the variables influencing the experience of shift work are many and diverse.