If you work evening or night shifts, you’re at greater risk of stress-related illnesses such as heart attacks and diabetes. Shift workers are also more likely to get injured on the job at almost twice the rate of day workers. On top of that, shift workers who return to work after they’ve been treated and given a so-called clean bill of health by their physician are not only more likely to be injured again, they’re also more likely to get fired.
Shift work isn’t healthy, both physically and financially.
Who are the people suffering from shift work? For the most part, they’re the working class. Their income is only a little over twice the official poverty line. They tend to be a single income household. They average 31 years of age and have only a high school education. In other words, they are people who are just getting by. They really need their jobs. Surprisingly, African-Americans and Latinos are not over-represented in this class of shift workers. As you would expect, the bulk of injuries and illness from shift work is in occupations such as machine operators; but also prominent are service workers and professional and technical workers.
Why do these people suffer these risks? Biologically, shift work disrupts circadian rhythms, the ticking of the biological clock that tells you it’s time to sleep when instead you’re running a drill press.
Socially, shift workers suffer because the needs of industry trump the health and safety of workers. Although not the Satanic mills of Charles Dickens’s novels, current industrial practices still count workers as fodder. With the fear of losing steady work, people within sight of poverty have little choice but to take the jobs they can get and, if injured, get back to work as quickly as possible. That in itself creates its own cascade of stress and with it the risk of illness.
This is bad news. But it’s not the worst. People who work long hours are at consistently greater risk of injury and illness than shift workers.
Biologically, long hours disrupt the circadian clock not by confusing your body because you’re active when it thinks you should be sleeping, but because you’re active when you should be resting. Yes, rest and relaxation should be part of our day. It’s healthy.
Socially, long hours have two sources. One is the use of overtime as a substitute for hiring additional workers. This is a long-standing and time-honored way for companies to minimize costs: making two existing employees work overtime is cheaper than hiring a third employee. That’s for wage workers.
For salaried and independent workers, industry has nurtured a butch work culture in which you are expected to put in 60 hours per week. Anything less and you’re napping on the job. If you pause, you’ve lost. Despite your white collar, you’re still fodder.
Sleep and rest are good for us. We deserve a culture, and especially a culture of work, that honors our biology.
