This is the 6th in a series of posts regarding employee alertness or fatigue in the workplace. This post will focus on employee preferences regarding their shift schedules.

People judge their work schedule, not by when they have to come to work, but by when they can stay home. In short, they focus on their time-off.

What people really want is a schedule that minimizes the conflicts between when they want to be off work and when they can be off work. There is rarely a perfect fit and you will never find a workforce where 100% of the people want the same thing. However, minimzing a majority of the schedule conflicts should be your goal.

Why? When there is a conflict, people will find a way to do what they want to do, often at the expense of sleep. Less conflict equals better sleep patterns, which results in higher alertness and better performance.

There is no pattern that is "best" fo every employee demographic. If you want to know what your workforce wants - ask them.