title: How do employees prioritise when they schedule their own shifts?
abstract: We investigated how employees prioritised when they scheduled their own shifts and whether priorities depended on age, gender, educational level, cohabitation and health status. We used cross-sectional questionnaire data from the follow-up survey of an intervention study investigating the effect of self-scheduling (n = 317). Intervention group participants were asked about their priorities when scheduling their own shifts succeeded by 17 items covering family/private life, economy, job content, health and sleep. At least half of the participants reported that they were giving high priority to their family life, having consecutive time off, leisure-time activities, rest between shifts, sleep, regularity of their everyday life, health and that the work schedule balanced. Thus, employees consider both their own and the workplace's needs when they have the opportunity to schedule their own shifts. Age, gender, cohabitation and health status were all significantly associated with at least one of these priorities.
  Intervention studies report limited health effects of self-scheduling. Therefore, we investigated to what extent employees prioritise their health and recuperation when scheduling their own shifts. We found that employees not only consider both their health and family but also the workplace's needs when they schedule their own shifts.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Public Health , University of Copenhagen , Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1014 , Copenhagen K , Denmark.
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nabe-Nielsen
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.forename: Jeppe Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Ajslev
authors.forename: Åse Marie
authors.initials: ÅM
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Albertsen
authors.forename: Helge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hvid
authors.forename: Anne Helene
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Garde
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003132:Commerce / Q000379:methods; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006304:Health Status; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D012146:Rest; D012737:Sex Factors; D012890:Sleep; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017748:Time Management; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance / Q000523:psychology*