What do you think about shift work?

Tweet

Most of my work life has involved working different shifts. When I first started work we had 8 hour days which ment three shifts per day. You stayed on a shift for 3 months and then rotated to the next shift. 8 hour days also ment working 5 days a week. There was a change of bosses and then our work day was extended to 10 hour days but an added benefit was you only worked 4 days and had 3 off every week. We stayed on the 3 month rotation. Along came another new boss with a better idea...he put us on 12 hour shifts...three days on and three days off...this also ment that the company now had only two shifts per day...and as an added way to save money he changed the shift rotation to every two weeks. So we now work 5 PM to 5 AM for three days, get three days off and work 5 PM to 5 AM for three more days and then get three days off then 5 PM to 5 AM and get two days off because you then start dayshift on the 3rd day (that's 5 AM to 5 PM). We are now considered to only work 36 hours per week so there is no overtime. When I was young we changed shifts every 3 months...now that I'm older we change shifts every 2 weeks. When I tried to discuss how hard that is on a persons body and health it was pointed out that I was free to quit and find another job. I was wondering if I'm the only person who see's a problem with working 12 hour shifts and changing every 2 weeks. What do you think?