“Shift and night work causes health problems and high levels of stress”

He did research on the employees of a company. private companyremains anonymous in the thesis.

I’d say it’s in the Ferrolterra area. It was in an industrial company because most of the research on this topic is done in the public sector, and doctoral dissertations have to represent an advance in science. Shift workers in the public sector are already heavily researched as they are a captive population and their cooperation is easier to obtain. In a company, in the industrial sector, in the private sector, you have to either get authorization from the management or enter from the union sector, this was our case.

How did you develop your research and how did you find the company?

The research was carried out in two stages. The first was qualitative analysis. We organized discussion groups that invited people from A Coruña, Santiago and Ferrol. The unions UGT, CCOO and CIG sent us people working at that time in rotating shifts, including the night shift. 19 people in three groups collaborated between men and women.

And the second stage?

One of the cooperating unions had a works council that was interested in being part of the work, and we investigated their stress levels. This is a case study: it belongs to a specific company and data cannot be generalized to all shift workers.

How did you measure stress?

We prepared a questionnaire filled out by the workers. It contained several scales [métodos para cuantificar características y comportamientos en ciencias sociales]. We did one of the conclusions from the first stage.

What kind of damage does it cause?

Turning jobs, and especially the night shift, have been shown to have negative consequences. We begin on the basis that they are indisputable. It changes circadian rhythms, which in turn cardiovascular problems, risk of diabetes… It creates many health problems in terms of biomedicine.

And when it comes stress?

We use a model where we suggest that higher levels of stress are produced because shift workers have to constantly change their compromises day in and day out. In this company, in particular, we found a high risk due to stress levels by applying our survey and theoretical model. We evaluated dimensions that may produce higher levels of stress and suggested an intervention for higher scorers, but The company we intervened in was closed. This and other research has shown that each individual’s fit with their time organization will largely determine their job satisfaction and level of health.

How long did it take you to do this research?

I started research in 2009 when I joined the PhD program, but started my current research in 2011. I am in the Person-Environment research group at Universidade, formerly led by my thesis director, Ricardo García Mira, and now by Cristina García. There are people from interdisciplinary fields, from architecture, sociology, economics… I’ve been in this business for a long time, and in the meantime, I won a few scholarships, applied for competitive exams, and started working as a manager at the university. University…

Will you continue your research at another company?

This will be the most suitable. As we noted in the results, the ideal would be to conduct research in a company with some employees working in fixed shifts and others in rotating shifts.