Shift Work

Shift Work

Shannon D. Gibson

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Worldwide

 ASCI 638: Module 5, Activity 5.4

Submitted to the Worldwide Campus

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

Masters of Aeronautical Science

February 9, 2015

 

            .           Looking at this schedule, I would have several questions as to the needs of the operation and mission. Also not taken into account often by leaders is, what exactly are the suggestions given by those personnel actually working the shifts? More often than not, the answer is right in front of you, all you have to do is simply ask for input. Although the short description relays that they give 24/7 support, 365 days a year, in my experience, some shifts are busier than others. In stating that, the night shift may not need the same amount of people that the day shift needs on station. I would also take into account that some positions could also be on an “on-call” status, for instance a tech to fix any equipment issues. If they are forward deployed to a combat zone, they will never be far from the ground control station, and the sleeping and eating facilities would most likely be close by, if you had two techs assigned to a crew, then possibly one could be on station and one could be on-call and work a day on/day off schedule. Having said this, not everyone in the crew might need to have the same working days and days off. The techs may have one rotation in the crew and the pilots another. Keeping to a “strict” schedule that everyone has the same exact schedule offers no flexibility. Also not annotated in the example is the typical “day-workers”, leadership and administrative support are typically not in a shift, they are usually in a 0700-1600 shift and days off are given on a routine basis or for some, such as a Officer in Charge, they rarely have a day off when forward deployed. However, those don’t seem to be the focus in this example but burnout can happen all the same.

First thing I would do is take away the fourth crew and add those personnel, divided evenly, to the other three crews. Then I would keep them on the same schedule for an entire month. The additional personnel added would then give the ability to give days off to their respective crew. It might even add additional days off and create more flexibility. Hard to forecast this without knowing exactly what qualifications (quals) are mandatory and how many of each qual is needed. Perhaps they could go into a 3 on/1 off schedule. When deployed I have noticed that it isn’t as important to have two days off in a row. Without outside distractors, a person can have more flexibility.

Also note, with a constant month of having the same schedule, the crew members would better be able to conform to a more natural circadian rhythm and daily schedule. For example, working the 23:30-0800 on a constant basis would allow a person to go to the gym at the same time every day, eat at the same times, and sleep at the same times. Rotating this schedule with a week on each would defeat the ability to have normalcy.