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The alternative work day

Nearly 18 percent of Americans work outside of 9-to-5 work day

Feb. 5, 2010

There’s the traditional business day — 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — and then there’s 21st-century business hours. Flex time. Alternative schedule. Evening shift. Night shift.

In fact, 30 percent of American workers work some other schedule than 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with 17.7 percent working outside the typical daytime schedule, according to a 2004 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the most recent for such data. About 8.4 million people work the night shift.

Nearly every industry has companies that work more than one shift a day, said Bruce Oliver of Shiftwork Solutions, a California-based company specializing in assisting multi-shift companies. These shift-work operations include the traditional 24/7 services like police, fire, hospitals, utilities, manufacturing, mining and transportation. But there are a growing number of industries adopting shift work, such as customer-service call centers, retail establishments, insurance, information-technology monitoring and support centers, hotels, casinos and 24-hour news operations.

With the expansion of the work day to 24 hours, night shifts have become a more visible part of the working world. However, evening shift — a shift between 2 p.m. and midnight — accounts for only 6.8 percent of wage and salary workers and night shift — a shift between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. — accounts for only 3.1 percent, according to A Time to Work: Recent Trends in Shift Work and Flexible Schedules. The 2007 article by Terence M. McMenamin, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, examines the 2004 numbers.

Despite a recent decline in the percentage of people who say that they can vary their hours of work, the proportion of workers with this option is more than double that of 20 years ago, McMenamin wrote. Over the same period, the proportion of workers with alternate shifts has remained fairly steady.

Who is the night shift worker

Night-shift workers and other alternative-shift workers come from just about every background and demographic. But there are some differences from their day-shift counterparts.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, 4.4 percent of Black workers and 3.5 percent of Latino workers worked the night shift, as opposed to just 2.9 percent of Caucasian workers. Numbers stayed nearly even by educational level, with 4.1 percent of those without a high- school diploma and 4 percent of those with some college working a night shift.

Shiftwork Solutions conducted a survey of 20,000 shift workers. It found that about 22 percent were female, while about 78 percent were male. About 19.27 percent were single parents, while an overall 46.8 percent had children of childcare age.

Beyond the numbers, the person must also be able to work the night shift, said Celia Crossley, a Columbus, Ohio, career counselor. She has counseled day- and night-shift workers across many industries using the Birkman Method, which involves personality assessment for behaviors such as organization, productivity and handling stress.

Physically, it’s got to be someone who’s comfortable with that time slot, she said, noting demands on sleep and the lack of exposure to daylight.

But she also noted specific personality traits that benefit a night-shift worker.

Some individuals might like being the janitor on the night shift because they are more comfortable being alone, Crossley said. It might be someone who’s a little more introverted and feels they don’t need as much group interaction.

Night shifts, she explained, tend to staff fewer workers, be absent of upper management and require some autonomy among the workers. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t play well with a team; it just means they don’t need as big of a team, Crossley said.

Why the night shift

Is it night shift because it’s a 24/7 operation like a hospital, and is it the only shift they could get because it’s their first job in the door? Crossley said.

Oliver said companies use several factors when assigning alternative shifts.

The assignment often begins by asking for volunteers for the least desirable shifts — usually the afternoon and night shift, he said. If there are insufficient volunteers, the organization will assign people to the shifts based on seniority, job skills, experience and other factors. Since seniority is the most commonly used criterion, one could generalize that most night-shift workers on fixed-shift schedules are the least senior or younger members of the workforce.

Several factors determine why people work the night shift, according to the 2004 data. Nature of the job</> was the most common factor, with 1.247,000 people reporting it as their reason for working the night shift.

Keep in mind that many night-shift workers are not there voluntarily, Oliver said. They work the night shift only because they are on a rotating shift schedule or they were assigned to the shift and they want to stay employed.

Others made the choice. Personal preference was the number-two given reason with 732,000 responses, while Better arrangements for childcare or family ranked third with 626,000 responses.

The other work day

Feb. 10, 2010

Most people work during the day.

About 8.5 million American people

• work in the evenings.
• work at night.
• work in the early mornings.

These jobs include

• doctors and nurses.
• police and firefighters.
• factory workers.
• janitors.
• and many other jobs.

Most night shift workers were

• male.
• had children.
• had only a high school education.
• were Black or Latino.

Most night shift workers were assigned to the shift.

Others work night shift because

• they want to.
• it is better for their family schedule.

A career counselor said night shift workers should

• be good at dealing with stress.
• be ok working at night.
• be physically ok sleeping during the day.
• be ok without a lot sunlight.
• be ok working alone.
• be organized.