“I’ve Stayed Up All Night Before”

Posted January 8th, 2007

One of my favorite stories is about a good friend, who is a high level manager with an oil company. He is also a professional engineer and a sound financial analyst. We were on a team and discussing a recommendation about allowing shiftworkers to choose their shifts.

The team was considering allowing shiftworkers a choice between the current shift and two options that allowed twelve hour daily shifts with more days off from the job. The twelve hours shifts would cause an additional cost per employee to the company. This cost was not significant per employee, but the total costs were a concern.

I worked shiftwork for many years and felt a responsibility to communicate those effects to the team. After one discussion, my good friend said, “I just don’t understand what the big deal is! I’ve stayed up all night before studying for exams or working on a maintenance shutdown. After sleeping a few hours, I was all right.” If you have not worked shiftwork regularly, it is hard to understand its cumulative effects.

An epiphany occurred! I recognized that one’s experience determines one’s viewpoint. I said, “Imagine that you’re going to be required to stay up all night for a week and be allowed to sleep during the day. Then the next week, you’ll work from 3 PM to 11 PM and sleep after work. The third week, you’ll work from 7 AM to 3 PM and sleep at night. Now think about repeating that schedule for your entire career. What would the cumulative effect be on you?”

The team recommended that shiftworkers be allowed to choose from one of three shifts. That does not remove the effects of shiftwork. Shiftworkers who are involved in the selection of their shift are more likely to have job satisfaction.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Managing Fatigue.