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Handbook of Occupational Health and Wellness pp 297–322Cite as

The Role of Work Schedules in Occupational Health and Safety

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Part of the book series: Handbooks in Health, Work, and Disability ((SHHDW))

Abstract

Adverse work schedules increase the risk of accidents, injuries, acute illness and chronically impaired health for workers. As society moves toward providing many services 24 h per day and 7 day per week, the need is increasing for work schedules characterized by shift work, rotating shifts, and early start times. According to the 2004 Current Population Survey, 18 % of full-time workers in the USA spend some portion of their work schedule outside of a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. time frame (McMenamin, 2007). Extended work hours (more than 8 h per day, or more than 40 h per week) also are increasing steadily (Caruso, Hitchcock, Dick, Russo, & Schmidt, 2004) for a variety of reasons. Some workers elect to take secondary employment to boost their earnings, particularly those with low wages or whose household income has decreased because of a partner’s unemployment. Others choose, or are required to, work extended hours because of shift design (for example, 12-h shifts as a norm). Since the economic downturn that began in late 2008, there has been a trend for employers to use overtime to manage excess demand, which allows them to maintain productivity without hiring new workers (Maher & Aeppel, 2009). In the USA and Canada, employees work 200–300 h more per year than in France, Germany, or Sweden because of an absence of legal minimums for paid vacation days or holidays (Yelin, 2009).

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Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Russell A. Sanna, PhD (Harvard Medical School, Division of Sleep Medicine) for providing the thematic inspiration for portions of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family and Community Health, University of Maryland School of Nursing, 655 W. Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA

    Jeanne M. Geiger-Brown Ph.D., R.N. & Alison M. Trinkoff Sc.D., R.N., F.A.A.N.

  2. Center for Health and Homeland Security, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 500 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA

    Clark J. Lee J.D.

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Correspondence to Jeanne M. Geiger-Brown Ph.D., R.N. .

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    Robert J. Gatchel

  2. , Dept of Educational and Counseling Psych, University of British Columbia, Main Hall 2125, Vancouver, V6T 1Z4, British Columbia, Canada

    Izabela Z. Schultz

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Geiger-Brown, J.M., Lee, C.J., Trinkoff, A.M. (2012). The Role of Work Schedules in Occupational Health and Safety. In: Gatchel, R., Schultz, I. (eds) Handbook of Occupational Health and Wellness. Handbooks in Health, Work, and Disability. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4839-6_14

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