Welcome to A Healthy Shift | The Shift Work Podcast, the podcast helping shift workers thrive while changing how organisations think about people working in 24/7 environments.
Hosted by Roger Sutherland, Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist, this is where evidence meets lived experience.
After more than 40 years of working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, followed by years studying nutrition, circadian biology, chrononutrition, sleep, human performance and women's health, Roger is on a mission to challenge the belief that fatigue, poor sleep, burnout and declining health are simply part of working shifts.
Because they don't have to be.
Whether you're a nurse, paramedic, police officer, firefighter, doctor, aged care worker, manufacturing employee, FIFO worker, miner, pilot, flight attendant, truck driver, dispatcher, or anyone working outside the traditional 9-to-5, this podcast will give you practical, evidence-based strategies to help you sleep better, improve your energy, optimise your health and perform at your best.
If you're a leader, manager, People & Culture professional, WHS specialist, or responsible for leading a 24/7 workforce, you'll discover a different way of thinking about shift work—one that focuses on building shift work capability from within through education, leadership and practical systems that create healthier people, stronger teams and higher-performing organisations.
Each episode explores topics including:
• Shift work • Night shift • Sleep after night shift • Circadian rhythm • Fatigue management • Shift worker health • Nutrition for shift workers • Chrononutrition • Recovery and resilience • Women's health and shift work • Leadership in 24/7 organisations • Human performance • Workplace wellbeing • Fatigue risk management • Building healthier, safer and higher-performing workplaces
This isn't another podcast offering generic health tips.
It's a podcast about changing the future of shift work.
Because healthier people create stronger teams.
Stronger teams build better organisations.
And it all starts by understanding how to work with biology, not against it.
Are you struggling to separate your work life from your personal life? Do the boundaries seem blurred, and the stress seems never-ending?
I will share insightful advice drawn from my own personal experiences. Listen in as I dismantle the notion that being constantly plugged into work-related communication and gossip adds value to our lives. Instead, I argue it fuels our stress and robs us of tranquil personal space.
Have you ever considered the impact of your work colleagues on your stress levels? How often do you involve yourself in work-related chit-chat even after work hours? I will make a compelling case for distinguishing between work colleagues and friends.
As a shift worker myself, I understand the unique challenges faced by those in similar roles and emphasise the need for a healthy work-life balance.
Get ready to rethink your lifestyle as a shift worker and explore ways to navigate work relationships without adding to your stress.
Come learn, and perhaps unlearn, as we dive into the subtle art of managing stress as a shift worker.
Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.
After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.
Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.
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Speaker 1
As shift workers , we are classic self-sabotages . We do a lot of things which causes more grief than it's actually worth , and we just blame shift worker . But in today's episode , I'm gonna talk about something that every single one of us that does that really contributes and adds to the added pressures and stresses of shift work . Shift work can be brutal , but it doesn't have to be . Welcome to a healthy shift . My name is Roger Sutherland , certified nutritionist , veteran law enforcement officer and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades . Through this podcast , I aim to educate shift workers , using evidence-based methods , to not only survive the rigors of shift work but thrive . My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love . Enjoy today's show . Welcome to a healthy shift podcast . I am your host , roger Sutherland , and , as always , I get great pleasure in personally welcoming you to this episode of the show and I thank you for listening .
Speaker 1
Now , in today's episode , on the back of the episodes that I've been doing around stress , I'm gonna talk to you about something that you do that causes you stress without you even realizing it . We've all done it , we've all been involved in it and most of us do it with a monotonous regularity . We're involved in chat groups or we are involved in communicating with people from work which , instead of value adding to our lives , are actually just causing us more grief . Now , before you turn this off , I want you to actually listen and have a really good think about what it is that I'm about to say to you . Chat groups are not healthy . They serve absolutely no purpose for you in any way whatsoever , because what actually happens is you tend to find that nothing good comes out of a chat group . What they do is people are talking about other people . They're causing all sorts of grief in the background that we don't realize , that we're taking on board . It's also giving us a dopamine hit every single time that Betty's got something to say , or Karen's got something to say , or Jenny's got something to say , and we think , oh , oh , I'm in with the gossip . I'm in with the gossip , but what's actually happening is this gossip is continually dragging you down all the time . Now , this is exactly the same as when we are talking to our colleagues outside of work , thinking , oh , I'm a shift worker , they get it , so therefore I'm going to have an unload on them .
Speaker 1
I want you to try and put a rule in place when you're communicating with colleagues from work outside of work , and that is is this person value adding to me or is this person actually adding to my stress ? If you think about it , by the time you finish talking to everybody at work , you haven't even left work , right ? The problem that you've actually got at this point in time is you've brought your work home . There is no boundary , because you're making phone calls , you're talking to people from work and you're staying in this cycle of work , and it's really really important that what you do is you put a boundary in place between work and home and make sure that the people who you love and adore are the ones that you're giving your attention to outside of your work .
Speaker 1
Now we work ridiculous shifts . They're tough , it's hard , we get drained out of our shifts , but we're going there to do a job and when we go there , we're getting paid to do it . If you weren't getting paid , you wouldn't even be there Now . We get good money and I obviously agree with you that we need those colleagues at work to help us to get through the actual shifts that we're doing , and they do help us while we're at work , and I want you to keep this in mind , and I beg you to keep this in mind that they're not a vital part of your life outside of your work , now , people obviously we do have friends , but I know that I have friends from my job , outside of work , but there's boundaries in place in relation to the conversations and that has just organically got to that stage now , and I think it's really really important that we , as shift workers , don't add to our stress anymore than what is actually necessary . And if you're sitting here and this actually offends you , I'm probably talking to you . So I think you probably need to have a really good think about that .
Speaker 1
Even if you're a single person and you're on your own and there's no one at home and these people are reaching out to you , I want you to put a rule in place that , or keep this rule in mind that you are literally somebody who is paid to do a job and you go to do that job and that's it . They're people from work , but they are not actually friends majority of them . That people will only talk to you to gain the gossip . You only talk to other people to gain the gossip , and that is literally the reality of it , because you're looking for a dopamine hit or some sort of something to occur in your life that keeps you away out of what could be something that you could be actually focusing on at home . Now , the thing is , where we water the grass , it is actually the greenest . So if you want to keep talking to people at work , then what you're doing is you're nurturing those relationships and staying in the downers of what is going on at work .
Speaker 1
And some of our work relationships at the moment are really really or our work environments sorry , not relationships environments are in a position where they are really really stressful , and I'm talking in frontline health and I'm talking in emergency services , like for paramedics and doctors and nurses and anybody working in frontline health , as well as people that are working in police as well . It's extremely stressful at the moment , but if you're in chat groups and everybody's coming at you with their two bobsworth , you are actually taking that on board , whether you realize it or whether you don't . You are actually contributing to your own stress . And I think the important thing is forget the FOMO , because FOMO is an amazing thing when you're not communicating with colleagues from work outside of work . Now , I know there will be people out there that will absolutely not agree with me on this one here , and that's you're right and you're entitled to that opinion .
Speaker 1
But I also know from my own experience , over almost 39 years of shift work , that the more time we spend talking to our colleagues outside of work , the more miserable we actually are . It's one thing to go camping , it's another thing to go shooting or whatever it is that you go and do is your hobby with people every now and again , but this continual chit chat outside of work all the time is actually causing you nothing but grief . So what I want you to actually think about have a think how often it is that you are communicating with people outside of work , the people that you're communicating with from work , outside of work . So you spent eight hours or 12 hours or 14 hours with them and now you're communicating with them outside of work , talking about people at work . It doesn't do you any good at all .
Speaker 1
Have yourself a healthy interest with people outside of your work to break that tie , because you will find that the people that spend more time with people at work , outside of work , are the people who have more issues than the people who have what they call hobbies or activities that they can do away from their work . That keeps them away , and that's what's called a work-life balance . If you're bringing your colleagues into your personal life and communicating with them all the time or socialising with them , going out for drinks with them , eating with them , talking to them , doing whatever , and you're not got any work-life balance at all , have you ? Because what your work-life balance is , it's work , work , work all the time , and we do need to walk out of work and have a boundary in place going from work into our home life . Now , I know a lot of people , as I said , are not going to agree with me there and I'm happy for you to take me up on it and argue with me , but I think you're fine that , as much as we fall into this spiral vortex of communicating with people at work , we are actually taking on a lot more than what we want to be taking on , and it's really important that we step away from that , because we work in a really stressful job . We're doing really stressful things , and I understand that the people at work get it , but you are , at the same time , neglecting the people who love and adore you outside of your shift-working life that have so much more to add value to your life outside of your working life . So go and find something that you can do and something that you can enjoy outside of work . And to corner phrase from my friend , sean O'Gorman , you don't have to tell people I'm not associating with you anymore . What you do do is you actually literally untie the boat and you actually just let the boat drift away and then you will find that you will live a much happier life . So untie the boats and let the boats drift and focus on the boats that are actually tied up , that you want to be around and nurture those relationships and do hobbies and things outside of that with your family and with friends from outside of your work , because that will give you the ideal work-life balance .
Speaker 1
All right , it's only a quick one today . If you get any value out of this podcast this is a hard hit of this one I really do ask you if you would please go and give it a rating . On Spotify , you can just go back to the start and just hit the three buttons and the three dots and you can give it a five-star rating if you feel so inclined , and on Apple , you can go back to the main page and scroll to the bottom and you can give it a rating . And if you'd be so kind and give it a review , because other people like you are looking for podcasts and if you really related with this one here and it gave you a moment of oh my God , then I just asked that you just give it a review and tell people that , because you can share that with other people . And , as always , please remember to be patient and kind to yourself as you navigate these challenges of shift work and prioritize your mental health which is what this is all about and your wellbeing .
Speaker 1
And , as always , I want to thank you for tuning into a healthy shift . I hope you found this episode helpful and inspiring and , if you did , please share it with your friends and colleagues and until next time , keep moving forward one percent at a time and make yourself a healthy shift . Thank you for listening . If you enjoyed this episode , be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released . It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on . If you want to know more about me or work with me . You can go to Ahealthyshiftcom . I'll catch you on the next one .
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