Shift Work In Offices Predicted

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32358, 25 July 1970, Page 6

Shift Work In Offices Predicted

(By JUDSON BENNETT)

When 200 office workers and executives arrive home from work at the Paris' headquarters of a leading electronics firm, they sit down, not to an evening meal, but to a hearty breakfast.

For the hard night at the office has arrived. Now at least 20 industrial combines in America, and about the same number in Europe, have introduced shiftworking in offices. It’s the start, say management consultants, of an office revolution. “In another 20 years,” says Dr R. W. Jerome, author of a standard work on advanced business practice, “it will hardly be economical to staff a city-centre office for a mere eight hours a day. Only round-the-clock working will justify soaring overheads.” Office Bedlam Other experts agree. Mr John Harrison, a British business - studies specialist, told the Faculty of Commerce Teachers conference the other day that office shiftwork would become inevitable—if only to cope with computer output, and to offset the huge outlay on computers. Another major reason for extending the working day is to decrease the stress on staff by allowing long “quiet periods” for work needing intense concentration. During these spells—probably in the middle of the night—typing and telephoning would be banned. “Executives and men ‘who think for a living’ would probably work out most of their shift during these quiet periods," says Dr Jerome. Certainly something must be done to cut out the bedlam which reigns in the majority of present-day offices—about a third of it from such outside sources as traffic and aircraft Stress Factor A recent industrial study showed that day-time office noise can cause fatigue, absent • mindedness and mental strain. It has also been blamed for 50 per cent of typing errors. Before the war, according

to a World Health Organisation report, office noise was costing United States business s2m a day. Today’s cost is s4m. By 1980, it nothing is done, the bill could be six million dollars a day.

Bosses are taking the brunt of what has been called “the stress factor.” A recent time-and-motion study in United States and Canadian offices showed that the average boss is now interrupted —usually by the phone—every six-and-a-half minutes. No wonder an increasing number of executives are in effect working a shift system already—arriving late and working after the rest of the staff have gone home. Pilot Scheme “I can do more constructive work in the time from 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. than during the entire day,” remarks a tyre-company sales-director. When a Chicago bank circulated a questionnaire asking accounting staff if they would work a 12 noon to 8 p.m. day in order to take advantage of computer-time the company was paying for but not using, over 40 per cent agreed. When a pilot scheme was tried, staff found they had the mornings to themselves and still finished early enough in the evening to go out after work. The scheme is to be implemented permanently next September. Medical surveys have shown that many workers would in fact be much happier working night or even dawn shifts . . . although they might find this hard to believe. “Night People” In fact, research by the famed Professor Nathaniel Kleitman, the world's leading authority on sleep, appears to show that an estimated 30 per cent of the world’s population are technically “night people” and come to life only when the rest of us are ready for bed. Kleitman and his team of specialists have long urged that working hours should be staggered to fit in with our various sleep-waking cycles, and an increasing number of United States companies, impressed by the research findings, are beginning to staff their shifts with men

and women best suited to them.

By making it possible for the three basic groups—"morning," “night” and “day” people—to be employed during the hours when they do their best work, companies are hoping for an increase in efficiency and production. First indications are that they'll probably get it. Under the Kleitman system, if you were found to be a “day” person—and a few simple tests involving reaction-time and body-tem-peratures can determine this —the normal 9-5 office day will continue to suit you. At Their Best Research has shown that a "day person” reaches peak efficiency at around 1.30 pan. and retains it until just before five. “Morning people” find it hard to sleep in after 6 a.m. and are at their best around 10 a.m. An 8-4 p.m. shift or even a 7-3 p.m. stint would appear ideal for them. “Night people,” on the other hand, seldom come to life before 6-7 p.m. and are in top gear from 10 p.m. onwards. A 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift would probably suit them best. Studies into the implications of office shift-work at the London Institute of Executive Management have been going on for nearly three years. Winter Morning "There is also the social aspect to think of,” says Professor Jack Bainbridge, who has made several feasibility studies into staggered office-work. At least 50 per cent of an executive’s job is social contact—but how many visitors will he get if he doesn’t start work until midnight?” And imagine the absenteeism in the typing pool when a hit film or pop concert coincides with the hours they are supposed to be working. But despite the drawbacks, the experts still think office shift-work will eventually become inevitable. And with it will presumably come the end of the “working late at the office” excuse.

After all, who but a superman will feel like chatting up his secretary when his shift ends at 7.30 a.m. on a winter’s day?