SUMMARY 
45 
continuously operative it is not always possible to organize 
night forces on a rotating basis because of the difficulty of 
forming complete and uniform shifts. These plants, there- 
fore, use the regular fixed shift plan of night work organiza- 
tion, while establishments which employ night forces for 
relatively short periods of time use the temporary fixed shift. 
Establishments which assign their workers permanently 
to night duty find it difficult to attract skilled and reliable 
employees for night work. Since in these plants night work, 
as a rule, is not better paid than day work, most employers 
find it necessary to offer special inducements to night workers 
in the form of bonuses, higher wages, paid time for meals and 
rest, etc. But even these incentives are frequently not suffi- 
cient to overcome the dislike which most men have for night 
work as a permanent occupation. 
The greatest difficulties with night work are experienced 
by those establishments which are forced to employ night 
workers temporarily at certain seasons of the year when the 
output of their day forces is not sufficient to meet the sea- 
sonal demand for their products or, as in the canning in- 
dustry, when a certain amount of work has to be done in a 
limited period of time. In the first place a good or skilled 
worker is unwilling to accept a temporary job. In the second 
place, the supply of any kind of labor is scarce in periods of 
high business activity when most companies are taking on 
additional workers. In the third place, even if a sufficient 
number of laborers can be obtained, their output, both in 
quality and in quantity, does not measure up to the standard 
of day forces. This is natural since in these establishments 
night workers are employed only temporarily and hence can 
10t become proficient on their jobs. 
The study shows that, if properly supervised and organized, 
night work may be as productive as day work. The diffi- 
culties of night work are inherent, not in the work itself, but 
In the organization of industrial operations. More than 70%, 
of the establishments using the rotating system of shifts, 
which replied to the Conference Board’s questionnaire stated 
that their experience with night work from the point of view 
of labor efficiency was just as good or better than with day 
work. The problem of night work must be solved by man- 
agement according to the needs of individual industries.