Shift Work Effect

Abstract:

These days non-standard work schedules are becoming a hindrance to the proper functioning of families and causing a rift in the relationship between parents and children. The children are being deprived of their essential needs and this affects their socio – emotional development besides this they are lacking many things in the most prime time. Today it is become a necessity for both parents to work and this has become more prevalent in India. Parents are ready to work in any given shift that yield more income and are encouraged to even sacrifice their family life to earn for their livelihood. Individuals are striving for betterment in life and they are motivated to work hard even at the expense of putting extra hours at work. The

Review of Literature

‘The term shift work is defined as an arrangement of working hours that uses two or more teams (shifts) of workers, in order to extend the hours of operation of the work environment beyond that of the conventional office hours. The varieties of shift work include: stable/permanently displaced working hours in which the work schedule used does not require a person to normally work more than one shift (including night work), rotating shift work in which an individual is normally required to work more than one shift, changing from one shift to another and unscheduled working hours ( Atanu Kumar Pati, Arti Chandrawanshi & Alain Reinberg, 2001).

A study that documented the effects of shift work on marital quality found that one of the key problem issues reported by couples working nonstandard shifts was conflict over parenting. (White and Keith, 1990). One particular qualitative study suggests that husbands and wives in shift work couples rarely parent at the same time due to nonoverlapping schedules. They often rely on "solo parenting" while their spouse is at work. Not surprisingly, they face some of the same parenting challenges of single parents (Hattery,

According to Reena Patel’s “Working the night shift” workers are entangled in night shift because of the handsome salaries and good opportunities for their betterment and development. Though the author of “Working the night shift” says that the call center job has benefited the lives of employees, there is a reverse effect of the children being affected. The plausible reason behind women working may be that women have the same kind of work expectations and demands that men have (Y. P. S. Kanwar, A. K. Singh and A. D. Kodwani,