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Encyclopedia > Shift work

Shift work is an employment practice designed to make use of the 24 hours of the clock, rather than a standard working day. Double burden is a term describing the workload of women and men who work to earn money, but also have responsibility for unpaid, domestic labor. ... Image File history File links Gnome-globe. ... This article is about work. ... ...


A related yet different concept, the work shift, is the time period during which a person is at work.

Contents

Practice

A day may for example be divided into three shifts each of eight hours, and an employee works just one of those shifts; they might for example be 00:00 to 08:00, 08:00 to 16:00, 16:00 to 24:00 (times are given in the 24-hour clock). Generally, "first shift" refers to the day shift, with "second shift" running from late afternoon to nightfall, and "third shift" being the night shift. On occasion, more complex schedules are used, perhaps involving employees changing shifts, in order to operate during weekends as well, in which case there will be four or more sets of employees. A good example comes from a modern steelworks. Four sets of personnel are used, who work consecutive days in one twelve hour shift (06:00-18:00 and vice-versa). Shift A will work days, and shift B nights, over a 48-hour period, before handing over to shifts C and D and taking 48 hours off. The 24-hour clock is a convention of time keeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours, numbered from 0 to 23. ... Week End The weekend is a part of the week lasting one or two days in which most paid workers do not work. ...


Shift work was once characteristic of manufacturing industry, where it has a clear effect of increasing the use that can be made of capital equipment, and allowing for up to three times the production compared to an eight-hour day. It contrasts with the use of overtime to increase production at the margin. Both approaches incur higher wage costs, in general; shift work, requiring workers to live on a time-shifted schedule for extended periods, is unpopular, and typically pay must be at a premium. It is common in heavy industry, particularly automobile and textile manufacturing and is becoming more common in locations where a shut-down of equipment would incur an extensive restart process. Food manufacturing plants, in particular, have extensive cleaning programs that are required before any restart. The use of shift work in manufacturing varies greatly from country to country. Manufacturing is the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-manufactures. ... Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours; these may be determined in several ways, by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society), by practices of a given trade or profession, by legislation, or by agreement between employers and workers or their representatives. ... “Car” and “Cars” redirect here. ... For other uses, see Textile (disambiguation). ... Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a systematic preventive approach to food safety, pharmaceutical safety, etc. ...


Service industries now increasingly operate on some shift system; for example a convenience store will normally each day be open for much longer than a working day. Shift work has been traditional in the armed forces: for example sailors must be available to handle a vessel around the clock, and a system of naval watches organised to ensure enough hands are on duty at any time. This is shift work by another name. Shift work is also the norm in governmental and private employment in fields related to public safety and healthcare, such as police, fire prevention, security, emergency medical transportation, primary healthcare center urgencies and hospitals. Companies working in the field of meteorology, such as the National Weather Service and private forecasting companies, also utilize shift work, since weather needs to be constantly monitored. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The armed forces of a state are its government sponsored defense and fighting forces and organizations. ... This article is about maritime crew. ... A watch system or watch schedule is a method of assigning regular periods of work duty aboard ships and some other areas of employment. ... Health care or healthcare is one of the worlds largest and fastest growing professions. ... A primary care physician, or PCP, is a physician who provides both the first contact for a person with an undiagnosed health concern as well as continuing care of varied medical conditions, not limited by cause, organ system, or diagnosis. ... For the town in the Republic of Ireland, see Hospital, County Limerick. ... // Meteorology (from Greek: μετέωρον, meteoron, high in the sky; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting. ... The National Weather Service (NWS) is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States government. ...


The swing shift, also known as "second shift", is an employment schedule during the afternoon and evening, such as 4 p.m. to midnight or 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. According to John Frehse of the labor management firm Core Practice Partners, this swing shift is the least desirable of all three possibilities. As a matter of fact, graveyard is preferred twice as much as swing.[citation needed] This article is about work. ...


The graveyard shift means a shift of work running through the early hours of the morning, especially one from midnight until 8 am. There is no certainty as to the origin of this phrase; according to Michael Quinion it is little more than "an evocative term for the night shift ... when ... your skin is clammy, there's sand behind your eyeballs, and the world is creepily silent, like the graveyard."[1] Michael Quinion in his office Michael Quinion is the author and creator the the site World Wide Words. ...


Health consequences

The February 15, 2005 issue of American Family Physician noted that shift work has been associated with cluster headaches. The consequences of disturbing natural circadian sleep rhythms has been investigated also. Shift work sleep disorder affects people who frequently experience jet lag, either from travel, or by shifting their work or sleep schedules frequently. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The American Family Physician is a medical journal of the American Academy of Family Physicians. ... Cluster headaches are rare, extremely painful and debilitating headaches that occur in groups or clusters. ... The circadian rhythm is a name given to the internal body clock that regulates the (roughly) 24 hour cycle of biological processes in animals and plants. ...


A study by Knutsson in 1986 found that shift workers who had worked in that method for 15 years or more were 300% more likely to develop ischaemic heart disease. Ethan Franklin, Senior Partner at Core Practice Partners, points out that most companies blame shift length for health issues. "This is absolutely the wrong way to look at it," says Franklin. "These health challenges are directly attributed to circadian issues and not length of shift. Companies do an extreme disservice to their workers by limiting alternative scheduling options." Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ... Ischaemic (or ischemic) heart disease is a disease characterized by reduced blood supply to the heart. ...


In 1987, working the night shift first became associated with higher rates of cancer. This may be due to alteratins in circadian rhythm: melatonin, a known tumor supressant, is generally produced at night and late shifts may disrupt its production.


See also

Split shift, is an employment schedule, a type of Shift work where a persons normal work day is split in to 2 or more segments, for example a person may work from 5 a. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Circadian rhythm sleep disorders are a family of sleep disorders affecting the timing of sleep. ... Shift work Duty Timebar Scheduling Category: ...

Notes

  1. ^ "Saved by the Bell", Worldwidewords.org, March 27, 2000

References

  • Knutsson, A., Okerstadt, T., Jonsson, B. G. & Orth, K. G. (1986) 'Increased risk of ishaemic heart disease in shift workers'. Lancet, 2(8498), 89-92.

  Results from FactBites:
 
Shift Work - Overview - sleepdisorderchannel (608 words)
Nearly 20% of employees in industrialized countries are employed in shift work, which requires them to drastically change their sleep habits weekly or even daily.
In nonfluctuating shift work, the shift in circadian rhythm remains constant once the body adapts to it.
Shift work change affects circadian rhythm, which, similar to delayed sleep phase syndrome and jet lag, desynchronizes the body's sleep-wake schedule.
Shift work - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (636 words)
Shift work was once characteristic of manufacturing industry, where it has a clear effect of increasing the use that can be made of capital equipment, and allowing for up to three times the production compared to an eight-hour day.
Shift work has been traditional in the armed forces, and for clear reasons: for example sailors must be available to handle a vessel around the clock, and a system of naval watches organised to ensure enough hands are on duty at any time.
Shift work is also the norm in governmental and private employment in fields related to public safety and health, such as police, fire prevention, emergency medical transportation, and hospitals.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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