12-hour work shifts are mostly considered for increasing one’s productivity. An employer can adopt this method to explore the full potential of his/her employees. In this work method, employees of a company or an individual will work for at least 12 hours a day and 3-4 days a week. So, the total amount of work done will be 36-48 hours a week. And also, working for additional hours may help you in increasing your productivity. This article helps you understand some important pros and cons of 12-hour work shifts.

Pros of 12-hour work shifts

PROS 1. High Job Motivation 2. Builds a relation between employer and employees 3. Hourly pay 4. Overtime Compensation 5. Reduced staff 6. Employee expenses 7. Extra time to spend with family 8. 24/7 workforce 9. Flexibility

1. High Job Motivation

Yes. You heard that right. 12-hour work shifts may help build job motivation in an employee. Because, in this method, you will be working hard and put in all your efforts for almost twelve hours a day. At the same time, some people work just 7-8 hours a day and more than 5 days a week which makes less motivational towards their job and this ultimately results in less productivity.

Employers who choose the 12-hour work shift method for their staff can enjoy a lot of benefits like high productivity in less amount of time. For example, working for just 4 days a week you have already put in 48 hours whereas other work shifts require additional days to complete the same amount of work.

Moreover, employees tend to work with great joy as they know that they are going to have two days off at the end of the week. This is one of the biggest pros of 12-hour work shifts and so, is a great method to build job motivation in employees.

2. Builds a relation between employer and employees

This is true and this is another great benefit of adopting the twelve-hour work shift method. It is highly important that an employee has to maintain a great work relationship with his/her employees or else it will have a very bad impact on the performance of his/her company ultimately.

12-hour work shifts help you to build a good relationship with your employees as you will be spending more time in your office with them. In any traditional work method, employees are set to work for almost 8-10 hours a day except in this twelve-hour work schedule. Following this kind of schedule will help you know more about the performance & behavior of an employee in a very few days.

3. Hourly pay

The above two pros show us how employers can get benefitted from the 12-hour work shift schedule. Now, this point lets you know how this schedule can benefit an employee. Every employee dreams of a high salary and wants a hike every few years. Hourly pay is something that bothers when you are putting in extra time daily.

So, some states in the United States have laws that ensure employers who have chosen to follow the 12-hour work shift schedule have to pay huge salaries i.e., high hourly pay. As an employee, you are getting benefitted from this as you will be paid more and you’ll be having more days off at the end of the week.

4. Overtime Compensation

In the United States, the federal government has come up with several labor laws which protect the rights of working individuals. As per the laws, an employer has to pay overtime compensation to his/her employees who work for additional hours. And also, it is the responsibility of the employer to pay for lunch or dinner.

There is an additional benefit for the employees in the form of rest breaks. Government has also clearly stated that employees should be given sufficient rest in-between if they work for additional hours. So, this schedule is considered as a great advantage for all the employees.

5. Reduced staff

This is another major advantage of adopting this schedule. Everyone wants to achieve high productivity with less amount of effort and money. This can be possible with the 12-hour work schedule with ease. Because an employer requires a less number of workers when the same amount of work can be done by a few smart people.

A few people with great knowledge of work will be able to handle all the resources in a company. And moreover, adopting this kind of work schedule and employing someone with perfect skills results in a great performance. And also, it is highly possible that an employer may also run into profits as he/she is paying a very few people.

This is one of the major points in our list of pros and cons of 12-hour work shifts. Now, let’s move onto the next important pro.

6. Employee expenses

As we all know this work schedule requires working 12 hours a day and just 3-4 days a week, the employee can have many days off in a year. So, when observed on an annual basis, holidays will reduce the expenses of a working individual. So, an employee can save some hundreds of dollars on commuting every year.

This is a huge benefit to all those employees who are working in a business or company that has adopted a 12-hour work shift schedule.

7. Extra time to spend with family

Weekends help us to boost ourselves and enjoy a bit in our fast pacing lives. And so, most companies adopt a 2-day weekend policy but, those companies which have chosen the twelve-hour work shift schedule will be giving their employees a lot of time to chill out. Companies following this method usually give three days off in a week while some may adopt a 4-day weekend policy.

So, employees can come out from their busy lives and spend time with their family for almost 3-4 days every week. This is the biggest thing that can ever happen to a working individual. And so, it is one of the major points in our list of pros of 12-hour work shifts.

8. 24/7 workforce

This is one of the major pros of adopting 12-hour work shifts schedule. This helps a firm achieve its goals on time with great efficiency. Companies, especially startups and small businesses, need a 24/7 workforce to progress at a rapid pace and catch up with their competitors. A 24/7 workforce means you have all the essential ingredients to make your customer a happy consumer of your products or services that you sell.

A 12-hour shift workplace schedule makes it an easy task for you to manage your company. For example, an employer can appoint two people as customer service agents. The work is being divided between two at equal intervals of time and ultimately resulting in increased productivity and development of your company.

To be true, it is always said that a well-organized company with a great workplace schedule and perfectly skilled employees will undoubtedly be successful.

9. Flexibility

Unemployment is growing at a swift pace all around the world. At the same time, some highly talented individuals choose not to work only because of a bad schedule and due to some factors. The perfect example we can take is students. Present-day students are capable of handling multiple tasks at a time.

So, individuals can make use of the 12-hour shift schedule to live the life of their wish. They can apply for a job that suits them best and has flexible timings. Thus, a person interested in working at night hours can now make money and at the same time, pursue his/her dream.

And also, when seen in an employer’s perspective, this kind of work schedule can make it easy for him/her to manage the company at times when an employee is not in a condition to attend the job. In such a situation, the employer can make use of the other person appointed for the same job. This is the kind of flexibility you’ll have when the 12-hour work shifts schedule is put in place. These are some of the important pros of 12-hour work shifts.

Cons of 12-hour work shifts

Here’s the list of disadvantages –

CONS 1. Stress 2. Hard to manage 3. Overtime pay 4. Negative impact on productivity sometimes 5. Health problems 6. Employers prefer youth over old people

1. Stress

Working for twelve hours each day is not an easy task. It requires a great amount of effort which may result in stress. A person cannot work continuously over some time. Mental stress is something that we all know which affects our lives very badly. To avoid mental stress, one should always maintain a work-life balance.

This is the reason why some employers do not show much interest in the 12-hour work shift schedule. However, any workplace schedule, regardless of the type of work, has to be devised as per the labor laws put forth by the government.

In the U.S., companies or businesses have to make sure that their employees are given sufficient rest and especially those firms which follow the 12-hour shift schedule should give their employees some leisure time every day.

Stress is one of the biggest cons of adopting a 12-hour work shifts schedule. Now, let’s move onto the next important disadvantage of this schedule.

2. Hard to manage

It’s not that easy to maintain constant observation on your employees. As an employer, you may probably be visiting your office or workplace in the morning hours. So, you can look after those who only work in the day time. Then, how are you going to monitor your night-time employees?

This is one of the main reasons many corporate companies only look forward to implementing some traditional schedule like 8-hours per day and 10-hours per day. However, this is not a big issue for firms that don’t need too many night-shift employees.

So, having this kind of schedule may require some kind of regular communication between the employer and the employee to reduce any risk involved and to be problem-free.

3. Overtime pay

We mentioned this as one of the pros but, on the contrary, paying huge salaries can become a huge burden for most of the employers. At the same time, overtime pay can be beneficial to all those employees who want to work for more hours and to save money over time.

The federal government has mentioned clearly in its labor laws that an employee who worked for more than 40 hours in a week has to be paid an overtime compensation by the employer. So, this is an advantage to employees whereas it is a great disadvantage to all the employers.

4. Negative impact on productivity sometimes

Some employees may enroll themselves in any activity or do some other job making use of the extra time they have because of the 12-hour schedule. For example, a person working in your company who is part of the day-shift schedule can make use of the night hours for doing any other job at some other place.

It is not a great matter of concern and it’s his/her wish to do extra jobs but, it is the productivity that matters. Having no sleep or rest will have a huge negative impact on productivity.

And so, an employer has to pay decent salaries to his/her employees and also, need to provide some extra perks like annual bonuses to make employees happy so that they stay connected with the company and work more productively.

5. Health problems

Many types of health problems are commonly seen in people who are employed in the engineering sector. And also, nowadays, more complaints are coming from people working in the IT sector. These problems usually occur due to prolonged work without any breaks or rest.

This is why some top tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc have started exploring ways to lessen their employees’ stress. They started providing separate playrooms where their employees can play many types of games like table tennis, carroms, etc. Also, they provide gyms for body workouts.

6. Employers prefer youth over old people

Of course. This happens everywhere. But, the point here is employers who adopted a 12-hour schedule always try to appoint young people as they are capable of working for long hours especially during the night hours. Old people generally find it difficult to work at night hours and also during the morning hours sometimes.

This can be an advantage and also a disadvantage for an employer. The advantage is in the form of young people who can work more productively whereas the disadvantage is loosing highly experienced people who are the old people. However, this point can generally be applied only to a few jobs.

These are the 15 important pros and cons of 12-hour work shifts that every employer and employee needs to know. Hope this article helped you understand workplace scheduling and its importance.

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