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Shift or night work involves schedules outside traditional daytime hours, presenting unique challenges to employee health and well-being. Working non-traditional hours can disrupt sleep, disturb circadian rhythms, and increase chronic illness risks, affecting social connections and overall well-being.
Employers and managers play crucial roles in mitigating these risks through thoughtful organisation of shift work. Employers are responsible for ensuring compliance with relevant labor laws and setting overarching workplace policies. Managers are responsible for implementing schedules that prioritise employee health and well-being. This includes creating predictable schedules, minimising rotations when possible, and providing resources to support healthy sleep habits.
This page offers resources on the health impacts of shift work, schedule organisation, and sleep improvement tips. Regulations and pay rates vary, so consult national labor laws and internal policies.
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We can feel groggy when our sleep schedule is thrown off even just a little. This article from Harvard Medical School covers what happens when shift work requires you to regularly stay awake through the night and sleep during the day, providing advice for how you can protect your health and well-being when working overnight or early shifts.
In this video by AQNB Productions, Dr. Chris Harvey from the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience (SCNi) institute at the University of Oxford looks at the effects that night shifts can have on your physical and mental health, providing steps that you and your employer can take in order to reduce the negative impact.
The article by the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health gives advice for managers and employers on how to organise night and shift work in a healthy way. It builds on the German legislation but the recommendations of healthy shift work are also applicable across the Baltic Sea Region.
These guidelines by Health and Safety Executive UK provides advice on risk assessment, design of shift-work schedules and the shift-work environment. It also suggests measures employers, safety representatives and employees can use to reduce the negative impact of shift work. While it builds on the British regulations, it provides practical advice that is also applicable in the Baltic Sea Region.