Les 2x12h : une solution au conflit de temporalités du travail posté ?

Abstract

Twelve-hour shifts appear to facilitate the flow of temporalities involved in shift work schedules and the different temporal dimensions of human functioning: particularly biological rhythms, private life, and fatigue. In a social and economic context that favors the increase of 12-h shifts, this paper sums up the effects of 12-h shifts on health, personal life, and work. 12-h shifts seem to have less impact on health and personal life, when compared with other shift-work systems. This synthesis shows the importance of other factors (characteristics of the operators concerned, exposure duration in shift schedules, properties of the shift-work system) on these effects and the need to integrate the analysis of job content and job requirements into the analysis of 12-h shifts effects. Before considering the 12-h shift as a solution for managing the conflicting temporalities of shift work, reflection when planning work schedules must integrate a systemic and detailed work analysis that accounts for job content, tasks requirements, and the work strategies aiming to coordinate the different temporalities agreed upon and implemented by the operators involved in the activity.

Keywords

• shift-work
• 12-h shifts
• Ergonomics
• Work activity
• a-typical work schedules