The Impact of Shift Work on the Health and Wellbeing of Campus Security Guards

Abstract

The health and wellbeing of campus security guards continues to be ignored in academia particularly by the researchers and by those who employ these guards. The main aim of the study was to gain a clearer understanding of the impact of shift work on the health and wellbeing of campus security guards. The evidence from the study clarifies what many other researchers’ have revealed about the negative impact of shift work on the health and wellbeing of employees. However, more specifically, the study revealed five issues around how shift work has an impact on the health and wellbeing of campus security guards. These issues were deduced through the application of semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. The study showed that shift work has an impact on a number of underlying factors such as disrupted family lives and religious gatherings; limited control leading to stress; working conditions’ impact on health; and disturbed sleeping patterns. All of these had a role in decreasing employees’ job performance and ultimately impacting on the organisation’s effectiveness. Apart from regulation, the study calls on government to be more involved in the health and wellbeing of the South African workforce, especially security guards. The study makes a number of suggestions to that effect.