Do you have a job where your work schedule unpredictably changes every week or every other week? If so, a new study shows that you’re more likely than someone with a more predictable work schedule to suffer adverse health effects. The researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and UC Berkeley who conducted the study found that workers with unpredictable schedules exhibit higher levels of stress, poorer health, and worse sleeping habits than workers with more predictable schedules.
Of course, this makes total sense. If you don’t know what your work schedule is going to be next week, you obviously experience a lot of stress in planning your life. You might have to make last minute childcare arrangements. You might have to put off doctor appointments because you don’t know if you’ll have to work at the time of your appointment. You also can’t get a second job because you don’t know if the schedules at the two jobs are going to conflict. All of these complications, and more, obviously cause a lot of stress.
Some states and cities have laws that require employers to give more notice when they change workers’ schedules. There was a bill in Maine last year that would have added more predictably to some workers’ schedules. However, that bill did not pass. Employers complained that a requirement to provide more notice on work schedules would be too burdensome; but the costs associated with that burden could be recouped if workers were healthier and more productive due to more predictable work schedules.
While legislation could help this issue, workers could help themselves by forming unions. Work schedules are one of the most common topics of collective bargaining. Union membership has declined for years but it could be the best answer to this problem of schedule unpredictability.