Shift work facts for kids
Shift work is a working practice which is designed to use all 24 hours of a day, and not only the standard working day hours.
A day for example can be divided into three eight-hour shifts. An employee only works one of the shifts in each day. The "first shift" is in the morning, the "second shift" is in the afternoon and evening and the "third shift" is overnight.
The "second shift", also known as the swing shift in some places, is the work shift which takes place in the afternoon and evening. It usually extends from 4 PM (16:00) to midnight, or from 3 PM (15:00) to 10 PM (22:00).
The "third shift", the night shift, is usually from 12-midnight (00:00) to 07 or 08 in the morning.
Health effects
The World Health Organization (WHO) decided in December 2007 that shift work, especially work at night, may cause cancer.
A study by Knutsson et al. in 1986 showed that people who work shift work for more than 15 years, are 3 times more likely to develop ischaemic heart diseases.
Images for kids
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4 o'clock shift at the Ford Motor Company assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan, 1910s
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A clock-based device for recording workers' working hours, from the beginning of 20 century. Exhibit of the National Polytechnical Museum in Sofia, Bulgaria
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Worker Health Charts provides a distribution of shift work by industry from 2015 NHIS data.
See also
In Spanish: Trabajo por turnos para niños
