A study on employee experience with shift work

Abstract

Shift work has become necessary for many industries operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, affecting individual workers and their overall well-being. Based on a survey of 1049 shift workers of various industries, ages, and genders from all fourteen regions of the Czech Republic, the paper analyzes their experience with different shift work rosters to determine individually perceived advantages and disadvantages of shift work and discuss perspective ways of improving shift workers' well-being. The findings confirm the importance of effective and efficient shift work planning and organizing to achieve demanded work productivity, desired work-life balance and overall well-being of shift workers. The analysis confirmed a hypothesis that the preference for work shifts depends on the age of shift workers. Individually perceived negative impacts of shift work included physical fatigue, sleep disorders, or depression. These could be limited by more flexible shift work scheduling to harmonize work shifts with personal matters whenever possible and thus support shift workers' work-life balance and well-being.