Working remotely - from abroad

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joemcdokes said:
I love studies, can you give me a link?
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Tried from my phone, so you may have to copy and paste. Hopefully they'll work!

You'll be able to access some of the full articles, but some are just abstracts. If you're interested, you could try to access some of them through Google Scholar.

Mental Health Status, Shift Work, and Occupational Accidents among Hospital Nurses in Japan

Health effects of shift work and extended hours of work

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/000368709500047X

The effects of shift work on physical and mental health
 
C-S-L Mackem said:
Tried from my phone, so you may have to copy and paste. Hopefully they'll work!

You'll be able to access some of the full articles, but some are just abstracts. If you're interested, you could try to access some of them through Google Scholar.

Mental Health Status, Shift Work, and Occupational Accidents among Hospital Nurses in Japan

Health effects of shift work and extended hours of work

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/000368709500047X

The effects of shift work on physical and mental health
Click to expand...

The way I see it and I've worked shifts for more than 27 years is the ability to adapt.
Loads of people I've worked with and work with are shattered late into the shift on nights, they are normally the ones who go straight to bed when they get in from work.
Some of them don't even bother having a couple of hours before the first shift either, which seems mental to me, it should be a priority.

That is not adapting to the work pattern, you don't go to bed when you get in from work when you work normal hours, you have an evening to wind down etc.
Doing what they do on nights is like someone working normal hours going to bed when they get in and getting up out of bed around 2am in the morning, possibly earlier.

It makes no sense at all, this can only have an adverse effect on anyone, for me you need that time to wind down as you do working days, where my problem lies is what to do when you come off night shift, trying to get back into a regular sleep pattern.

I don't think I'd want to work normal hours as shift work has lots of benefits for me and always has done, it worked pretty well when the kids were young, being able to take them to school and pick them up when on late shift, I find shift work gives you more freedom, appointments and alike are easier to sort although there is the anti social side to it.

The working environment can be shit whatever hours you work I feel that is what causes problems rather than the shifts themselves.
Of course that is only from my experience, loads will say otherwise.
 
joemcdokes said:
The way I see it and I've worked shifts for more than 27 years is the ability to adapt.
Loads of people I've worked with and work with are shattered late into the shift on nights, they are normally the ones who go straight to bed when they get in from work.
Some of them don't even bother having a couple of hours before the first shift either, which seems mental to me, it should be a priority.

That is not adapting to the work pattern, you don't go to bed when you get in from work when you work normal hours, you have an evening to wind down etc.
Doing what they do on nights is like someone working normal hours going to bed when they get in and getting up out of bed around 2am in the morning, possibly earlier.

It makes no sense at all, this can only have an adverse effect on anyone, for me you need that time to wind down as you do working days, where my problem lies is what to do when you come off night shift, trying to get back into a regular sleep pattern.

I don't think I'd want to work normal hours as shift work has lots of benefits for me and always has done, it worked pretty well when the kids were young, being able to take them to school and pick them up when on late shift, I find shift work gives you more freedom, appointments and alike are easier to sort although there is the anti social side to it.

The working environment can be shit whatever hours you work I feel that is what causes problems rather than the shifts themselves.
Of course that is only from my experience, loads will say otherwise.
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I get where you're coming from. However, the evidence suggests that, generally, people that work shift patterns tend to suffer more ill effects than those that don't. I've no doubt that not adapting to the situation, as you mention, is a primary factor to this. One of those studies I linked to argues that shift work messes badly with the circadian cycle, and it's that which is the root cause of a lot of the issues. This makes sense to me, and it's not easy to adapt to.

The next question would be what can we do to help those people who do have issues with shift work? Can reframing, as you've done, help? Some form of resilience training? Are certain people just more susceptible to the problems associated with shift work (different personality types - better for those who are open to change than those who are neurotic, etc.). I'm sure there's been plenty of work done into these questions, but I haven't come across it yet (it's not really my area).

Definitely agree with your last point about the work environment. I'd imagine that the people worst affected by shift work probably perceive the work environment as being pretty horrendous (though as you say, shite working environments exist in all patterns of work!).
 
C-S-L Mackem said:
I get where you're coming from. However, the evidence suggests that, generally, people that work shift patterns tend to suffer more ill effects than those that don't. I've no doubt that not adapting to the situation, as you mention, is a primary factor to this. One of those studies I linked to argues that shift work messes badly with the circadian cycle, and it's that which is the root cause of a lot of the issues. This makes sense to me, and it's not easy to adapt to.

The next question would be what can we do to help those people who do have issues with shift work? Can reframing, as you've done, help? Some form of resilience training? Are certain people just more susceptible to the problems associated with shift work (different personality types - better for those who are open to change than those who are neurotic, etc.). I'm sure there's been plenty of work done into these questions, but I haven't come across it yet (it's not really my area).

Definitely agree with your last point about the work environment. I'd imagine that the people worst affected by shift work probably perceive the work environment as being pretty horrendous (though as you say, shite working environments exist in all patterns of work!).
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I find it pretty easy to sleep during the day, as I said the problem lies in getting back into a pattern, quite tough to turn around from nights to days which is what we do.
It's really difficult to sort that side out and I try not to go away on holidays after coming off a nightshift, I've fallen asleep in bars, went away for nights and not even made it out after a few afternoon drinks. :lol:
 
joemcdokes said:
I find it pretty easy to sleep during the day, as I said the problem lies in getting back into a pattern, quite tough to turn around from nights to days which is what we do.
It's really difficult to sort that side out and I try not to go away on holidays after coming off a nightshift, I've fallen asleep in bars, went away for nights and not even made it out after a few afternoon drinks. :lol:
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That's when you know it's bad! :lol:
 
C-S-L Mackem said:
That's when you know it's bad! :lol:
Click to expand...

I have been working on it recently and did manage an afternoon into night session with a few mates on Saturday.
Went to bed on the Friday around 8:30 but didn't sleep past midday, stayed up late on the night and had a good lie in, that seems to be a way around it but Sunday morning wide awake at 4am. :rolleyes:
 
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