Working on Sundays–Effects on Safety, Health, and Work-life Balance

Abstract

Several attributes of the work schedule can increase the risk of occupational injuries and accidents, health impairments, and reduced social participation. Although previous studies mainly focused on the effects of shiftwork and long working hours on employee health and safety, there is little evidence of a potential negative impact of working Sundays on the incidence of occupational accidents, health impairments, and work-life balance. A representative sample of employed workers in 31 member and associated states of the European Union (n = 23,934) served as the database for a cross-sectional analysis. The sample was collected via face-to-face interviews in the year 2005. The association of the risks of occupational accidents, health impairments, and decreases in work-life balance with working Sundays was calculated using logistic regression models, controlling for potential confounders, such as shiftwork, workload, and demographic characteristics. The results indicated that working one or more Sundays/month was associated with increase both in the risk of reporting one or more health impairments (odds ratio [OR]: 1.17, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.06-1.29) and poorer work-life balance (OR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.02-1.28). These effects remained after controlling for potentially confounding factors, such as other work schedule attributes, intensity of physical and mental workload, and individual characteristics. Furthermore, working Sundays was also related to increased risk of occupational accidents within the last year (OR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.03-1.73). Controlling again for individual, workload, and working-time characteristics, a significant association with accident risk, however, remained only in work sectors with low a priori risk of occupational accidents (OR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.02-1.91), although the increased risk could be observed for both medium and high a priori risk sectors working Sundays (without controlling for additional confounders). The results thus indicate that the detrimental effects of working Sundays on safety, health, and social well-being should be taken into account when designing work schedules. The potential hazards to employees' safety, health, and work-life balance, in particular, should be considered in discussions concerning extending work on Sundays in certain sectors, e.g., retail.

Social Stressors at Work, Sleep, and Recovery

“…That is, when individuals are no longer exposed to workrelated demands, such as during leisure Saturdays and/or leisure Sundays, psychobiological systems may stabilise again at baseline level, leading to recovery (Meijman and Mulder 1998;Sonnentag 2001). Leisure Sundays seem to be important for recovery from work demands: work on Sundays at least once a month has been shown to be associated with reported health impairments (Wirtz et al 2011). It is unclear whether working on Saturdays imposes a comparable risk.…”

Weekend work and depressive symptoms among Korean employees

“…The prevalence of weekend work in Korean employees was higher than that reported for European workers, although there is a 6-year gap between the two surveys. In a study based on the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey, around half of all workers (49%) had worked at least one weekend day in the last month (Wirtz et al, 2011). In most Western countries, the amount of hours spent working has reduced since the Second World War, from approximately 2600 h per year prior to the war to 1400-1800 h per year in the 2000s and a 5-day workweek with 7-8 h of work per day is now traditional (Zeytinoglu & Cooke, 2006).…”

“…In this regard, gender could be an important confounding factor for an association between weekend work and depressive symptoms. Being female is a well-known risk factor for depression and female workers are most vulnerable to work-life imbalance, although the prevalence of weekend work is lower among female workers than among male workers (Wirtz et al, 2011).…”

“…Weekend work affects time with family (Hook, 2012) and the quality of family life (Staines & Pleck, 1984). According to a study based on the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey performed by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), in which data were collected from a representative sample of workers from 31 European countries, working on one or more Sundays per month was associated with poorer work-life balance (Wirtz et al, 2011). Work-life balance is an important predictor of mental health (Frone, 2000;Gropel & Kuhl, 2009).…”

20th International Symposium on Shiftwork and Working Time: Biological Mechanisms, Recovery, and Risk Management in the 24-h Society

“…The short-term effects of shiftwork and long working hours are well known and are related to sleep problems, fatigue, work-life balance, work performance, and occupational injuries and accidents Härmä, 2006;Hobbs et al, 2010;Ohayon et al, 2010;Riedel et al, 2010;Wirtz et al, 2011). In the long run, shiftwork has been associated with increased risk of obesity (Di Milia & Mummery, 2009), breast cancer Pesch et al, 2010), cardiovascular disease (CVD; Puttonen et al, 2010), gastrointestinal disorders (Knutsson & Boggild, 2010), and possibly elevated mortality risk (Chen et al, 2010;Lo et al, 2010;Tanaka et al, 2010;Zhu et al, 2011), although it is debatable whether shiftwork, itself, is an independent risk factor for poor health (Frost et al, 2009;Stevens et al, 2010).…”