While many of us enjoy the luxury of leaving the office or logging off at 5 p.m. on a weekday, fundamental to the functioning of our society are the little-mentioned, often-forgotten “third-shift” workers, otherwise known as the night shift.
The majority of research focuses on the prototypical, 9 to 5 office dweller or assumes a similar lens when discussing front-line, healthcare, or blue-collar workers. The resulting analysis tends to focus on how to optimize an employee’s workday to increase engagement or well-being, or decrease employee turnover, with an implied context of an “average workday.”
However, many businesses — including grocery stores, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and call centers — have 24/7 operations. Even with this reality, the differing needs of third-shift workers are frequently overlooked in the literature, despite their essential role.
Most U.S. workers are “first-shift” workers, and have a typical, Monday-Friday daytime schedule. Shortly after begins the second shift, covering the time from the middle of the afternoon until approximately the end of the calendar day, typically at 11:00 p.m. or midnight. The third shift covers the overnight schedule — starting after the second shift and ending in the morning, typically right around the time the first-shifters show up.
Understanding Third-Shift Demographics
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, anywhere from 5% to 10% of the U.S. population works these late hours, with approximately 16% of U.S. wage and salary workers operating outside of a typical 9 to 5 schedule. These jobs are concentrated in several industries, particularly emergency services, security, retail, news, customer support, manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality, to name a few. These jobs are often less sought after compared to first- and second-shift jobs because of inconvenient sleep schedules, social isolation, and lack of exposure to sunlight.
Although there are downsides, people have a variety of reasons for selecting third-shift work. One is the type of skills or training they have. For example, 20% of those without a high school diploma work schedules outside of a typical day shift, as opposed to fewer than 2% of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Similarly, these jobs may be localized in lower-paying industries, and people may opt for the third shift as a chance for increased pay. Overall, 21.2% of workers earning less than the 25th percentile of pay work non-day shifts compared with 8.3% of those working above the 75th percentile of pay. People may be new to the industry or organization, with more jobs at the entry level available overnight, or they may have caregiving responsibilities that make the night shift attractive.
Even when these hours are by choice, it has been well-documented that working the night shift is associated with significant negative health outcomes, both in the short and long term. In the short term, night shift workers can expect decreased cognitive performance, fatigue, and sleep deprivation, while in the long term, they have increased health risks for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer, and depression. With 24/7 operations being commonplace at many workplaces, the third shift isn’t going away any time soon, so it’s incumbent upon organizations to help mitigate these effects.
Addressing the Well-Being Gap
How can organizations work to make the employee experience better for those who are working while most of us are asleep?
The first step is pinpointing the problem. It should be no surprise that in our research, first-shift workers had the highest self-reported well-being, followed by second-shift workers, and third-shift workers came in last. That is, the later the shift, the worse the well-being tended to be, which follows the trend showcased by prior research. What starts as an employee well-being problem later evolves into a physical health problem, which can result in lifelong consequences. Therefore, fixing third-shift employee well-being is not only a matter of performance outcomes for an organization but can also quite literally be a matter of quality of life.
Knowing that third-shift workers have lower well-being isn’t particularly surprising, nor is it terribly actionable. After all, what are organizations to do with this information, if they can’t simply tell employees to feel better? There are negative impacts of third-shift work that simply can’t be changed. It will always include a nighttime schedule and thus produce non-traditional sleeping hours, increased social isolation, and more. That much is unavoidable. But what options do organizations have to legitimately improve the situation for this employee group?
The Manager-Employee Disconnect
Our latest research from the Center for Workforce Transformation about shift workers also uncovered a vital insight: aside from well-being, third-shift workers also reported being the least comfortable sharing concerns with their manager, relative to first- and second-shift workers. Often, managers work the first shift, and rarely stay around for the duration of the third shift, meaning there is an inherent disconnect present between the third-shift worker and their manager, particularly relative to workers on other shifts. With such limited time to interact with their managers, third-shift workers do not have the same opportunity to build the relationships with their managers that others do, meaning issues related to their health and well-being often go unspoken and thus, unaddressed. Organizations must examine this reality and ensure that all workers have an opportunity to connect with managers regularly and that managers have the coaching they need to bridge this connection gap, even with more limited face time.
Perceptyx has previously reported how vital managers are to the employee experience, with many managers being the key contributing factors for engagement, well-being, intent to stay, and overall performance. Therefore, the inability to form a trusted relationship with their manager makes lower well-being virtually a foregone conclusion for third-shift workers. While organizations may not be able to change most aspects of a third-shift schedule, they can potentially change the extent to which third-shift workers can confide in a supervisor. Whether that’s by altering managerial shifts to better coincide with shift changes, or providing ways for third-shift employees to have periodic check-ins, even asynchronously or outside of typical work hours, small interactions to improve managerial support can make an enormous difference.
Perceptyx Can Help You Bridge the Communication Gap
Managers should approach those conversations with an abundance of empathy and curiosity, and seek to understand the things that impact third-shift workers the most. Without regular interaction between managers and employees, these issues may go unnoticed and unheard. For managers of third-shifters, keeping an open mind, listening with intent, and asking follow-up questions should be key to their approach. This, in turn, creates an environment of psychological safety and trust, such that employees feel comfortable sharing concerns with them in the future.
Do you work for an organization that has around-the-clock operations with third-shift workers? Get in touch with Perceptyx today to discuss your listening strategy, review data-driven opportunities for manager development and behavior change, and discover ways to activate everyone in your organization, no matter what shift they work.
“Perceptyx is the only employee listening, people analytics, and leadership coaching platform that lets you design and execute an Employee Experience strategy as unique as you are. Select the listening type, channel, and cadence that’s right for you, then let us help you turn data into insights and your managers into leaders.”
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