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OCR for page 82
A STUDY 01? THE EFFECTS OF ODD SHIFTS UPON THE FOOO
HABITS OF WAR WORKERS
GLADYS E~-GEL-FRISCH
Changing occupational rhythms are bringing about changes in the food
habits of war workers throughout the country. In February of ~94~, 4070
of all war workers were on atypical work shifts A study of ~o8 war workers
in Seattle and Bremerton, Washington, attempted to answer two broad ques-
tions concerning the effects of these atypical shifts: ~) what are the impli-
cations for food habits of working on orate of the two atypical work shifts;
~) what indications are there of ways in which these dislocations in food
habits could be compensated for if the effect is found to be bad, or taken
advantage of if the effect is found to be good ? Seattle and Bremerton, being
typical defense boom towns, present pictures of the problems facing the
average odd-shift worker.
Shifts are generally spoken of as the first, second, and third shifts. In
general, the first, or dray shift, starts between 6:30 a.m. and 8:oo a.m. and
runs until 3 :oo p.m. or 4 :30 p.m. The second or swing shift begins when the
day shift ends and ends about midnight or ~ :oo a.m. The night or graveyard
shift begins at the end of the swing shift and ends at the beginning of the
day shift. While hours on the odd-shifts differ for the individual workers,
they are similar enough so that one can speak of the swing shift worker or
the graveyard shift worker.
The average odd-shift worker in the study was found to be male, only one
government shipyard and one aircraft company hiring women for manual jobs.
He is on the average 3~ years of age, and there is better than an even chance
that he is married. If he is married, chances are four out of five that his
wife is not working. He probably has one child and this child is most likely
to be of pre-school age. The worker is engaged in manual activity and most
likely he has come to Seattle or Bremerton within the past year. If he is
employed as an aircraft worker or in a private shipyard, he is a union member.
He probably has worked on the day shift all his life. Although he is now
on an odd-shift, there is almost an even chance that he still prefers the day
shift. He decidedly prefers the swing shift as opposed to the graveyard shift.
Advantages relating to sleeping appear to be the reason he will most often
give for preferring a particular shift. Two groups of responses, those relating
to sleep, and those relating to advantages of both sleeping and eating, con-
stitute almost one-third of the total reasons given for preference. The ad-
vantage of sleeping late in the morning appears to be a significant reason for
his preference of the swing shift over the graveyard shift. However, when
both advantages as to sleeping and eating are considered, he definitely pre-
fers the regular day shift to either odd-shift. The day shift is "natural"
to him.
The older he is, the less likely it seems that he will prefer the graveyard
82
OCR for page 83
Food Habits of War Workers
83
or swing shift. If he is over 35, there is a greater probability that he will
prefer the day shift. If he has worked only the graveyard shift, he is less
likely to prefer the graveyard shift than he is to prefer the swing shift if
he has worked only swing shift. He decidedly does not like the idea of
alternating shifts, especially in short time intervals, because of the amount
of time (at least one month) which it takes to adjust to a new shift.
Place of employment (aircraft, private shipyard, government shipyard),
type of domestic arrangement (with family, rooming, batching, boarding),
type of work (clerical, manual), and length of time on the shift, are found
to have no significant relationship to his adjustment to the odd-shift.
In comparing adjustments made ire food habits on the two principal types
of odd-shifts, food habits are found to be integrally related to sleeping habits.
Although there is no significant difference in the number of hours of sleep
the typical graveyard shifter gets as compared to the number of hours of
sleep of the average swing shifter, the lower average hours of sleep of the
night worker is found to be suggestive. Over one-fourth of those on the
graveyard shift sleep' less than seven hours a night while only about 47o
secure that little sleep on the swing shift. Sleep on the graveyard shift is
often broken and restless because of daytime noises.
On the swing shift, the arrangement of sleeping hours is almost unanimous,
with 80 of the 86 swing shift workers sleeping during the night following
their return from work. The graveyard shifter may either sleep during the
daytime following the return from work or split his sleep into two parts. The
swing shifter is less apt to eat before sleeping than the graveyard shifter and
while his typical "retirement" meal is a snack that of the right worker in
breakfast.
, (= , _ ,
c, . .
The odd-shift worker averages about three and a third meals per day. The
only "normal" meal neglected by the worker on the night shift is breakfast.
There is a substitution of snacks for regular meals among the swing shifters,
about ~67o not eating dinner, and redo skipping breakfast. Where break-
fast and dinner are eaten by the graveyard shifter, they' are, in general, 'eaten
at the time of day usually associated with these meals. On the swing shift,
each meal appears to be, on the average, about three hours later than is usual
on the day routine.
The worker attempts to adjust his food habits to the "normal" day with
as little substitution and change' as possible. The swing shift sleeps during
the night, following the usual pattern. If he eats before he retires, he eats
a snack as most people will do in the early morning hours. Upon waking,
since it is morning, and since he has just risen, he makes his first meal break-
fast. If he eats about noon or later in the afternoon, the next meal, because
of the time factor, is more likely to be lunch or dinner. Likewise, the grave-
yard shifter makes his first meal in the morning (if one is eaten) breakfast.
He then sleeps and wakes for the family dinner in late afternoon. While a
few odd-shifters substitute breakfast for dinner, or vice versa, in general,
workers on both shifts attempt to fit their new occupational rhythms to the
old one. Time of day, because of tradition, is the most important factor
determining what kind of' a meal will be eaten, except in the case of the
OCR for page 84
84
The Problems of Changing Food Haltits
meal eaten at the plant where tradition alone determines the meal to be eaten.
Since traditional times of eating are most changed in the swing shift, food
habit adjustment is more difficult on that shift than on the night shift. Esti-
mation is that from one-half to three-fourths of the odd-shift workers lack
proper nutrition, but there is no significant difference between the two shifts.
More swing shift workers eat by themselves than do those on the graveyard
shift.
Complaints and suggestions from the worker center about cafeteria condi-
tions, lengthening of lunch periods, variety in box lunches, the need of nursery
schools, and family relationship problems precipitated by odd-shift conditions.
He does not think a ~5 minute lunch period is long enough, although a half-
hour appears to be sufficient. He gets tired of the lack of variety in his box
lunch, and wants a hot meal on a cold day. A cafeteria, to compete with the
box lunch, must serve varied, tasty food at a reasonable price, in the short
lunch period Family problems arise when -children work on different shifts
than the father, where his wife is on another shift. and when there are small
,
children whose sleeping habits differ from the worker's. Nursery scl~ooIs
were suggested as a part solution of the problem.
Problem areas, then, center about these points: poor plant cafeterias; no
cafeteria; poor restaurants in the plant area, often inaccessible; lack of eat-
ing facilities for the graveyard shifters; failure of older workers to adjust
eating end sleeping habits to odd-shift requirements; difficulty of food habit
adjustment on the swing shift; difficulty of sleeping adjustment on the grave-
yard shift; nutritional deficiencies on both shifts; interference of recreational
needs with physical needs, and vice versa; family problems caused by the new
occupational rhythms.
Recommendations called for include: at least a half-hour period, prefer-
ably with pay, if efficiency is actually found to be speeded by the longer
period of time; adequate cafeteria service for all shifts; sale of well-balanced
lunches in plants; nutritional education for heads of families and of boarding
houses; an industrial policy of putting older men on day shift except where
odd-shift is specifically requested; pooling of information concerning daily
schedules through governmental studies and trade-union workers, followed by
suggestions to workers; cooperation between agencies interested in recrea-
tional and food habits; segregation of workers on separate shifts, where
possible, in boarding houses and in governmental defense housing projects;
well-equipped, adequately staffed nursery schools for small- children; careful
consideration of requests for shift change where reason centers about shift
status of other members of the family.
Trends in hiring at the present time point to an increasing number of
women entering industry as the war continues, an increasing proportion of
older men remaining in industry as young men are called to active military
service, and an increasing proportion of workers on odd-shifts as war indus-
tries become continuous-process industries. Recommendations given here, if
worked out, should make the changes necessitated by these trends easier and
more efficient in the making.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
graveyard shift
