Latest news with #shiftwork
Independent Singapore
18-07-2025
- Business
- Independent Singapore
‘His whole body clock is gone': Man shares his brother's company makes him work from 10 pm to 6 am once or twice a week, and it's destroying his health
SINGAPORE: A man took to Reddit to share that his brother is being worked to the bone under a gruelling new shift system that is taking a toll on his health and sleep. Posting on r/askSingapore on Thursday (July 17), the man explained that his brother was already working long hours from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Recently, however, his company introduced a new shift system that now forces him to return for additional late-night work. According to him, his brother is now required to return to work on certain nights from 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., and sometimes even as late as 6 a.m. Despite the overnight hours, the company reportedly expects employees to return to the office later that same day. If the night shift ends before 3 a.m., they must report back by 10:30 a.m. If it ends after 3 a.m., the return time is 1 p.m. The company allegedly tries to compensate by allowing staff to leave at 3 p.m. the day before their night shift. However, the man claimed that this does not provide adequate rest, as most workers still have to go home, settle down, and prepare for the overnight session. 'He [my brother] reaches home maybe at 4+ p.m., eats, showers, tries to sleep, then has to wake up for night work, and then, the next day, still goes back to the office. It's not real rest; it's just delaying the burnout,' the man said. 'His whole body clock is gone, sia. Even his eating is weird already. Skips dinner, eats breakfast after shift, and wakes up feeling like crap. He doesn't even know when to eat or sleep properly anymore.' The man also highlighted that the company has a 'loophole' to make it seem that their employees are not exceeding daily work hour limits. 'They split the night work over two days in the system: 10 p.m.– 12 a.m. = 'yesterday', 12 a.m. onwards ='next day'' he explained 'So, technically, they did no more than eight hours a day, but the guy is getting like three to four hours of sleep max between shifts. How is that normal? And they only give 1:1 time off. No matter what time you worked or how long you stayed up, it's just one hour for one hour, even if your entire day and night are ruined.' Although the company claimed that these night duties would only happen once or twice a week, the man argued that even a single overnight shift is enough to mess up someone's sleep and leave them drained for days. He also shared that his brother, who used to be energetic and sociable after work, has completely changed. 'He used to always hang out and chill after work. Now he cancels last minute, is always tired, and his mood is different. He's not even himself anymore. It feels like he's burning out and nobody cares. Worried about the long-term impact on his brother's health, the man ended the post by questioning whether such working conditions are acceptable or sustainable in Singapore. 'HRs of SG, is this normal meh???' he asked. 'Just posting because maybe others out there are going through this also. This kind of setup is not right and damn rubbish, leh. It's slowly destroying people.' 'Update resume and find another job with normal working hours, bah.' Many were shocked by the post, with several Reddit users calling the company's shift system outright abusive and totally 'unsustainable.' 'I hope this is a joke. If not, it's abuse,' one user said. 'What in the world is this. Which company is this???!!!' another wrote. Some also urged the man or his brother to report the situation to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), saying no employee should be forced to work under such exhausting and unreasonable conditions. One user said, 'I do wish he would inform the authorities. This shift work is not sustainable. If it's not your brother, it will be his colleagues who will report this eventually, the earlier, the better.' See also M17 Entertainment raises US$25M for R&D and more Another added, 'Classic SME skirting written law with grey areas. Just complain to MOM only.' Meanwhile, a third user suggested quitting altogether. 'I remember seeing some studies about how nocturnal shift work ruins your health, and night shift workers have more health issues. Although I don't think you need to see the data, your bro is already experiencing it himself.' 'Update resume and find another job with normal working hours, bah. Even if he can mentally tolerate it, he's gonna end up with more physical health issues if this continues. It sounds like the company just wants to justify their arrangement without giving any F about the well-being of their staff.' In other news, a frustrated tenant has taken to an online forum after her landlord withheld about 30% of her security deposit at the end of a long-term lease. In a post on the r/askSingapore Reddit forum on Tuesday (July 15), the woman shared that she had only received roughly 70% of her deposit back, with the rest allegedly retained for 'repairs.' Read more: 'We haven't received proper receipts for the deductions': Tenant says landlord kept 30% of deposit without clear justification Featured image by Depositphotos (for illustration purposes only)
Malay Mail
11-07-2025
- Health
- Malay Mail
‘Extraordinary' stress: Putrajaya lowers work week to 42 hours for emergency doctors, nurses, health assistants
PUTRAJAYA, July 11 — The Government has agreed to provide exemptions to shift work hours for five critical service schemes in the Health Ministry (MOH), by setting working hours to 42 hours a week. The Public Services Department (JPA) said the government understands the concern of medical personnel about the implementation of the weekly 45-hour shift under the Public Service Remuneration System (SSPA). 'After a detailed study of operational needs and critical duties performed by medical personnel directly involved in keeping patients alive around the clock, the government deems such duties as requiring extraordinary levels of physical, mental and emotional readiness. 'This step is also the Madani Government's commitment to continue listening and taking action with regards of the welfare of medical personnel who form the backbone of our country's healthcare system,' the department said in a statement today. The exemption involves 82,637 healthcare personnel, social nurses, medical officers in the emergency department, assistant medical officers and healthcare assistants. — Bernama
Medscape
23-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Proposed Headache Diagnosis — Shift Work Migraine Disorder
MINNEAPOLIS — Irregular night shift work is well known for its potential to cause sleep problems, but a new study suggested it can also be associated with an increased risk of developing migraines. Overall, the systematic review and meta-analysis showed that individuals engaged in irregular shift work had a 61% higher likelihood of developing a migraine compared with fixed-shift workers. Previous research has shown disruptions in circadian rhythm can increase the risk for migraines. Shift work in general has been linked to a lower quality and quantity of sleep, but individuals can take steps to mitigate the adverse impact night shift work has on sleep. However, the nature of irregular night shift work can exacerbate circadian disruption. While menstrual migraines have a hormonal trigger and chronic migraine is based on frequency, migraines associated with irregular shift work are due to rotating shifts, quick returns to work of less than 11 hours, and amplified triggers such as bright lights and dietary irregularities, Yohannes Woldeamanuel, MD, first author and assistant professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, told Medscape Medical News . This type of migraine among individuals engaged in irregular shift work should be its own diagnostic entity separate from other migraine subtypes, the researchers explained. 'Shift work migraine disorder is distinguished by its etiology: Chronic circadian disruption from irregular night shift work,' Woldeamanuel said. 'Mechanistically, it most likely involves hypothalamic dysregulation and circadian gene alterations, proposing a distinct phenotype requiring specific diagnostic criteria and management.' The findings were presented here at the American Headache Society (AHS) Annual Meeting 2025. Screening Is Critical In a systematic review and meta-analysis, Woldeamanuel and colleagues identified 51,642 participants across 17 cross-sectional and three cohort studies who engaged in irregular or rotational shift work — defined as having irregular night hours that changed every few days — who were compared with individuals who had nonrotational or fixed night shift work. Overall, 75% of the participants in the study were women. The results showed participants who engaged in irregular shift work had significantly higher odds of developing migraine (odds ratio [OR], 1.61; 95% CI, 1.32-1.96; P < .05). In three studies with data from 28,764 participants, the researchers found women were significantly more likely to develop migraine compared with men (OR, 2.48; 95% CI, 1.85-3.33; P < .05). The finding that women who engage in irregular shift work are at greater risk for migraine than men warrants further study, the investigators noted. 'Future research should focus on longitudinal studies to establish causality, neuroimaging to explore hypothalamic and other brain area changes, and trials evaluating mitigation strategies,' Woldeamanuel said. He noted he is conducting a clinical trial of diagnostic criteria and evaluating circadian interventions in shift workers who have chronic migraine. 'These findings support tailored management for shift workers to prevent migraine exacerbation,' said Woldeamanuel. 'Screening shift workers for migraine, especially those with rotating schedules, is critical.' Shift workers can lower circadian system disruption by limiting the number of consecutive night shifts to three or fewer, shortening the duration of the shifts, allowing for 48 hours or more of recovery time, reducing the number of 'quick return' shifts with less than 11 hours of turnaround time, and using a shift rotation that moves the shift from morning to evening to night. The use of circadian resetting tools such as blue blockers and timed light exposure can also help reduce the risk for migraine, the researchers said. Researchers proposed shift work migraine disorder be considered as a distinct subgroup of other migraine types. Under the proposed criteria, shift work migraine disorder would meet the criteria for migraine with or without aura and be present in a patient with a history of irregular shift work for at least 3 months. The migraine should start or be worsened as a result of shift work within 24 hours of a shift change, and the patient should have evidence of circadian disruption, such as sleep-wake irregularities or excessive daytime sleepiness. Shift work migraine disorder would also be a diagnosis of exclusion, considered when it is not explained by a different medical condition or headache disorder. 'These criteria ensure the disorder is distinct from other migraine subtypes (eg, chronic migraine, menstrual migraine) by tying it to a specific environmental trigger (shift work) and circadian pathophysiology,' the researchers wrote in their study. Separate Diagnosis Warranted Commenting on the research for Medscape Medical News , Noah Rosen, MD, neurologist at Northwell Health in New York City, said he isn't convinced shift work migraine disorder should have its own distinct diagnosis. He noted that headaches associated with air travel are very similar but are not in a different diagnostic category. 'This is an interesting area, but with no great data to separate it from migraine with a sleep issue as trigger. It does not suggest a novel pain pathway or differentiation from migraine with other known sleep triggers,' Rosen told Medscape Medical News . Rather than real-world descriptions, what is needed is the collection of more data with a more structured testing of the hypothesis, Rosen said. Evaluations with multi-sleep latency studies, modified sleep schedules, and preclinical studies would help researchers understand more about migraines associated with irregular shift work. 'While some of the preliminary work is interesting and suggestive of an underrecognized and undertreated situational trigger, there is little to suggest that it would merit a separate diagnosis,' he said.
