Why do some companies work on swing shifts?

[Nikia]

My friend is out of work and looking for good paying blue collar jobs. Many of the better paying jobs work swing shift which means that your schedule switches from one week or other period of time so sometimes you are working during the day and sometimes during the night. He doesn't really want to do this because he says that he's tried that before and it messes him up. Isn't that common sense? It is bad for people's bodies to have to be working at different times during the day. Most people are day oriented people but people who get night shift jobs often can adjust to staying up all night for work and aleeping during the day, but switching back and forth makes it hard to adjust. Another bad thing about it would be that it would be difficult to participate in regularly scheduled activities, such as community events or classes either during the day or evening. I don't really see advantages for the individual. As far as the company, I don't see a lot of advantages either. Do they want everyone to share in the same misery or something for those who complain about working at night? There are other ways to schedule work for set shifts for 24/7 operations so I don't know if that is even a good explanation.

[DBoon]

1. Proven to be harmful

Working these sort of shifts has been shown to be physically harmful. Here is a good link from a NZ site:

http://www.acc.org.nz/injury-prevention/safe-at-work/worksafe/action/hazard-management/people/shift-work/

It might be because it would be hard to populate the late night shifts otherwise - few people are willing to work graveyard shifts indefinitely.

[Sporadicus]

6. I Worked Graveyard Shift for Two Years Straight

and I found it infinitely preferable to the rotating shift. Of course, that's just me. Others may prefer to rotate, but I became accustomed to graveyard shift *by itself* and functioned much better than when I got only seven days of it in one dose.

[Nikia]

7. I would think that adjusting to one shift would be better

Some people probably have an easier time adjusting to night time hours than others. Some may be missing out on family time working nights or evenings and may prefer have a little time each month as the same hours as everyone else. If you are someone who would never adjust to working at night anyway though, your week on nights would be pure hell and the job better be something realtively easy and not dangerous. I would think that each rotation even for quick adjusters would result in at least a couple days of tiredness. People would either have less time because they slept more or feel extra tired and be less functional both at work and their time a thome.

[Sporadicus]

2. I Worked a Rotating Shift for Many Years

I'm certain it took years off my life. Working seven days on a particular shift, I would just begin to acclimate to those hours, then it was time to change. The graveyard shift was the absolute worst. Sometimes I would hit the sack immediately after work, then wake up in the early afternoon, only to get sleepy again shortly before going back to work - where I felt like a zombie. I only got one weekend off every four weeks, which fell after coming off graveyard shift (of course). My wife would always want me to function like a 'normal' person during my rare weekends off, but I felt like I had been run through the wringer most of the time. Upon finishing graveyard shift on Friday morning, I would try various strategies for adjusting to 'normal' life: staying awake until Friday night in a George Romero-esque sleep-deprivation marathon so that I would go comatose about 9:00 PM Friday night, taking a brief nap on Friday afternoon that inevitably stretched so long that I sprang awake in the middle of the night, going to sleep immediately on Friday morning and trying to sleep again Friday night; nothing worked. I always felt like hell.

I would never return to such a torturous existence. I would pick up soda cans along the side of the road to make a living before considering a return to those days.

[woofless]

3. I worked shifts in printing factories for 30 years.

Invariably Day shift was largely populated by management favorites, ass kissers, self promoters and whiners. Not all of them, but enough to notice. Evening and Night shifters might try for years to get a dayshift job to no avail. The practice of everyone working every shift in rotation stops that. It is very hard on some if not most people. I never saw my daughter grow up. I would see her off to school 5 days a week and she would be asleep when I got home. I would rather spread the pain across the workforce. Stops a lot of the petty back-biting between shifts.

[Nikia]

8. So everyone suffers

That was the only reason I could think of. These jobs, at least in my area, usually pay more than straight shift jobs at other places doing the same work but I don't think that would be a good quality of life. Like I said, you couldn't particiapte in either day or evening scheduled activities and you'd either spend more time sleeping or be tired a lot of the time.

[Wapsie B]

4. The JELLO plant here works swing shifts.

It really takes a toll on the workers. The body doesn't know whether it's coming or going.

[Sporadicus]

5. I Have No Good Explanation

for why any company would consider working their labor force under these inhuman conditions. The loss of productivity due to sleep deprivation alone should render it economically unfeasible. Factor in the costs of lost-time injuries, medical leave, substance abuse, spousal abuse, suicide, and reasons for this practice become incomprehensible.

[PVnRT]

9. To jerk people around

Seriously, that's really the only reason to do it. I think the only rationale behind it is that it keeps people from getting to know each other to well, or getting used to working with each other, so productivity goes down, stock prices fall, and the company can justify moving overseas to China.