NIGHT WORK OPERATION 17 
demands which are quite generally being felt by all plants, 
thus increasing the demand for both day and night workers 
and the difficulty of securing the latter. At such periods of 
plant activity as was the case during and shortly after the 
World War, a number of wage earners who are regularly 
employed during the day offer themselves for night work in 
other plants in order to increase their earnings and are 
accepted either knowingly or unknowingly by the employ- 
ment officials. While the employees thus secured are more 
skilled than the class which is normally available for night 
work, the burden of working for such long periods is in many 
instances reflected in a reduced quality and quantity of out- 
put, as well as in a detrimental effect on the health of the 
=mployee, especially if night work is continuously practised. 
While most of the plants which have night work on a fixed 
shift basis hire directly for night work, some follow the pro- 
cedure of hiring for day work and then transferring the em- 
ployee to night duty after he is “broken in” on the job. 
Others use a modification of this plan by taking a crew of 
‘rained day workers for night work as a nucleus around 
which to build the night force by the addition of the less 
skilled workers which are usually available. The manner in 
which such a night force is maintained and adjusted is 
shown in the practice of an automobile company: 
“In case of extreme shortage of work the first move is a reduc- 
rion of hours proportionately on the day and night force; if this 
does not suffice to bridge the emergency the next move is to dis- 
band the night force, taking the steady long service night men on 
days and protecting them at the expense of the day force on the 
anderstanding that they are potential night men and as such 
will be the base crew to form a new night crew.” 
Another instance of such recruiting procedure, as followed 
by a pump and tank manufacturing company, 1s presented: 
“Last year in connection with our night force we took our 
regular department heads from the day force and placed them in 
charge of the night force, leaving their assistants to conduct the 
largest day force. We were also able to transfer some of our day 
men to night work and inasmuch as we operate on a production 
bonus wage payment basis, we obtained good results from our 
night force.”