To think only essential work should take place at night?

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www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/three-million-britons-working-night-shifts-and-endangering-their-health-10438592.html

Working nights is bad for your health.

Obviously some jobs like doctors and nurses just have to work nights and I get that can't be avoided, but does McDonald's and tesco and the like really need to be open 24/7? Isn't that unfair on the workers?

Or look at it from an industry perspective, we invest in expensive equipment and need to get the maximum use out of it to earn money so we operate 24 hours a day. If we only worked 8 hours a day we would go bust and all 70 employees would be unemployed, if this was repeated throughout the country the skilled workforce would be unlikely to find new jobs. We can't just get more equipment not just because of the cost but also the space it requires. We easily have enough work to run 24 hours a day.

The logic of only having 'essential work' done at nights because it is bad for your health just escapes me.

DH has gone out for the 5th night in a row to do real essential work, on the side of a motorway, overnight. It is essential, it is dangerous, as is a lot of overnight work - Railtrack and the London Underground use the, possibly disappearing, down time to do all cleaning and repairs, DH will be doing that next week.

So, by the previous posts logic, a shop worker shouldn't work over night, cos it would be bad for their health but, I am guessing, no one would want their travel infrastructure to close during the day for maintenance, each and ever day, forever.

Generally research suggests that continuously changing shifts are not good for health because our internal body clock cant change within a few days. Permanent night shift is a little better because people can acclimatize to the change in body clock. there are some shift patterns that are better than others but as a rule its difficult to persuade your body its daytime when your internal clock says its time to sleep. As a pp said, many accidents happen at night because people are not fully on top of things.

No it wasn't a joke.

Do you really think that Next doesn't have people working overnight when they guarantee next day delivery to your home if you order before 12.00 midnight on the front page of their website?

I work lates, and have to get up after a 5 hours sleep (need at least 8 to actually feel like I've slept) to get DS ready and out to school, and back to work that night. Struggle to sleep during the day. And back to it that night. I work lates 3 nights the week and a day shift on Sunday. I'm bloody knackered during the week. No one else in my work will take it in turns to do the late shift so no choice, stuck doing the late. It's a supermarket. How on earth did people cope when supermarkets and mcdonalds weren't 24 hour
Applying for another job though. Can't wait to get out and have my life and Christmas back

A previous poster was right though, a lot of leisure places, cinema, bars, restaurants open late, would be shit if everywhere shut by 8.
You would be stuck in the house with naff all to do. Just the way it is I suppose someone has to do the jobs, some people choose it, for say to save on childcare, some do it just to get by, and little else available, like I do.

I don't know what constitutes "night" for the purposes of the research - I've done a cursory Google but not found anything. I assume it means being up and working between 2am and 5am when your body naturally wants to turn off and hibernate, rather than 8pm til midnight - so you'd still be fine for restaurants and theatres that shut at 11pm but not nightclubs and all night cinemas.

I think many people have made valuable points but I am shocked that poor working conditions is seen as a positive as people will die sooner

People without jobs die sooner too. If you takeaway all the night work, how do you expect all those people to get work?

That's really not what was said though, is it?

I work for a place that's open 7 days a week and not even the minimum wage is paid, which is across the board, i.e. no more is paid for Bank Holidays, Saturdays or Sundays which is diabolical exploitation and should not be allowed. I've been there a long time though and only work part-time during the week (not on a Monday either, so they can't get me to do a Bank Holiday for pittance).

I've done 'night shifts' with 5 babies! Still here. Poor sleepers are poor sleepers

This thread is ridiculous

How are they 'poor working conditions'?

What hours do you work op??

Who said it was a positive? It's just a fact of life! As long as people want access to things at 6am or want a food shop delivered at 10pm, people have to work unsociable hours to facilitate that!

And what about restaurants, cinemas, bars, clubs, concert venues, takeaways etc? If you don't want anyone essential to work nights, everywhere would have to shut at 7-8pm so everyone could clean up and be home by 10!

"Poor working conditions" as in "known to be carcinogenic" Mum. I'd say that that's less than ideal working conditions, wouldn't you?

If you meant something different and I've misunderstood Osolea then i apologise but that's how I read it.

Just because people want food delivered at 2am doesn't mean it has to be provided Hermione. I want a night on the town with Gleb Savchenko, but it's not going to happen. Ambulances, late night pharmacies, nuclear power station skeleton staff, airline pilots on long haul flights: they need to be provided, but for most of the other stuff it's a legitimate question whether employers should be allowed to employ people in conditions which are hazardous to their health.

People want food at 2an, other people want to sell food at 2am, and plenty of people would rather serve food at 2am than not have a job.
You don't have to do any of those things if you have a problem with it, but why on earth would you think it any of your business if others do?

So you would be happy for everywhere to shut at 8pm, then? No cinemas, restaurants, nightclubs, bars, everything shuts? Because if you want nobody essential to work nights, that's the reality. Everywhere would have to shut early so that cleaning etc. could be done before 10pm, which is when the night-shift starts at most places.

Surely people can choose to take on the risks associated with working nights if they want to? Just like people can choose to eat McDonald's everyday, can choose to smoke, drink too much etc etc.

Nobody is forced to work nights. It's a choice and one a lot of people want to make. Why should anyone stop them, especially when it's pretty necessary to have at least SOME night staff in order for a majority of businesses to run.

x-post with ziggy!

Hermione you seem really belligerent towards me, I'm not obviously suggesting that but that maybe places like McDonald's, tesco, asda, could consider closing around 11 o clock. A lot of those people aren't on high wages and it just seems to be asking a lot from them in terms of health for a service that isn't vital is all I'm saying.

I'm not belligerent I just don't think you've thought it through at all.

I'm still wondering what you think should happen to all those night workers if you got rid of their jobs? Do you think they'd thank you for making them all unemployed?

I just think burgers aren't that important Ziggy although I take your point :)

DaphneWhiteThigh At the risk of repeating myself, if people want fresh food at 9.00 somebody has to drive through the night to deliver it and somebody else has to be up at sparrow's fart to stock the shops. It's impossible to define a list of "necessary" night jobs.

O/t: I like your screen-name. Are you another of the dwindling number who listened to Beyond Our Ken when it was new?