Shift work is slightly different from alternative work schedule options. When the
organisations invest high capital in equipment and are in the need to compete with
the world wide markets, they are forced into operating 24 hours a day. This requires
back to back or overlapping shifts that fill the 24 hours period.



Technology also plays are important role in this change, because most of the modern
processes require continuity e.g. steel making, pulp and paper, petroleum operations
etc. All these require workers to be on the job 24 hours a day.
Another important problem which had nudged the organisations to opt for shift work
is ‘transportation’. The heavily populated business and manufacturing centres
encouraged workers to start their jobs at different times to lessen the traffic congestion.
Therefore shift work is an employment practice which is designed to make use of
the 24 hours of the clock instead of the standard working day of 8 hours. The term
shift work includes both long-term night shifts and work schedule in which employees
change or rotates their shifts.
workers and particularly night shift workers have a higher rate of gastrointestinal
problems. They experience a high rate of digestive problems due to their eating
habits. The reasons are change in eating times, the difficulty of obtaining hot, nutritious
meals during the night shift and the inability to have social contact during meal times
with family or friends. There is a disturbance in the appetite also because of lack of
the social environment during the eating time. Sleep disturbances may also play an
important part in loss of appetite and eating patterns. Besides these some other
conditions such as personality, stress on the job, coffee drinking, family problems and
social difficulties are also contributing factors