Opening And The Core Belief

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It doesn't have to be this way. For far too long, we've accepted fatigue, poor sleep, burnout, and declining health as simply part of working in a 24-7 environment. I don't believe they are. Whether you're a shift worker, trying to feel better, or a leader responsible for the people who keep your organisation running around the clock, you're in the right place. Welcome to a healthy shift. I'm Roger Sutherland, and after more than four decades of working 24-7 shifts with Victoria Plus, followed by years of studying nutrition, circadian biology, human performance, and working with literally thousands of shift workers, I've made it my mission to change the conversation around shift work. Because healthier people create stronger teams, and stronger teams build better organisations. And it all starts by understanding how to work with your biology and not against it. Let's get into today's episode.

Challenging Normalised Fatigue And Turnover

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And thank you for joining me in today's episode. You are so welcome. Now I want to start today's episode with a statement that I genuinely believe. You heard it at the start, and that is it doesn't have to be this way. For decades, we have been accepting fatigue, poor sleep, declining health, and a high staff turnover as simply part of working in a 24-7 environment. We've normalized it. We've almost convinced ourselves that if you choose to work shifts, then this is just the price that you pay. And I don't believe that that is true. And I think it's time that you and I started challenging that thinking.

Forty Years On Rotating Shifts

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First of all, let's go into a bit of my story because I spent over 40 years working 24-7 shift work with Victoria Plus. From the start to the end, I worked 24-hour rotating shifts. Like thousands of others working in healthcare, emergency services, manufacturing, transport, mining, pilots, long-haul flight attendants, you name it, but I've lived the reality of working when my body wanted to sleep and trying to sleep when the rest of the world was awake. I saw outstanding people, quality people, slowly getting the life sucked out of them and becoming more and more exhausted. The weight crept on. That sleep got harder. Relationships at home really started to suffer, as well as at work. Staff relied on caffeine just to get through the shift, and then they struggled to switch off when they finally got home. And the thing that troubled me most wasn't that it was happening, it was just that everybody has just started to accept this as normal. Nobody has questioned whether there might be a better way. Now that curiosity eventually led me back to study. I studied nutrition, which led on to body image, which led on to chrononutrition, which led to circadian biology, which led to human performance. And I'm well read in women's health. And then I went off and I've certified as a trauma-informed breathwork practitioner. Now, not because I wanted another qualification, I've done all this over the last seven years. It's because I wanted answers. And after years of studying the evidence, I've reached one very simple conclusion. It doesn't have to be this way. Now the problem.

Why Fatigue Is A Warning Signal

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One of the biggest misconceptions I see is that fatigue is the biggest problem. It isn't. Fatigue is actually the alarm bell. It's telling us something deeper is not working. And when we ask people to work through the night, rotate rapidly between shifts, or continually disrupt their biological clock, we create a mismatch between the way work is organized and the way human biology actually functions. And that mismatch affects almost everything. It impacts on sleep, metabolism, mood, decision making, reaction time. It impacts greatly on hormones, relationships, recovery, and ultimately performance within the workplace and at home and socially. The question isn't whether people are resilient enough. The question is whether we've designed work in a way that gives them the best opportunity to thrive.

Why Standard Wellbeing Fixes Fail

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Now I want to talk about why our traditional approaches are falling short. Because this is where many organizations unintentionally are now missing the mark. When fatigue starts increasing or turnover climbs, the response is often another well-being initiative. We'll have a resilience workshop. Oh, we need a mindfulness app, a healthy eating campaign. And those things have value. Make no mistake, but they're rarely enough. Because we're trying to improve the individual without first looking at the entire system that they're working within. It's a bit like asking someone to paddle harder while the boat's taking on water. You might help for a while, but you haven't solved the real problem. So we need a different way of thinking. And I believe organizations need to stop asking, how do we make our shift workers more resilient? And they start asking, how do we build an environment where people can succeed despite working shifts? And this is a completely different conversation. It's now become about capability, it's about education, and it's about leadership. It's about understanding circadian biology and applying that knowledge in practical ways. It's about helping people know not only what to do, but when to do it. This is the biggest problem. When to eat, when to exercise, when do we seek daylight? When to recover, when to sleep. Because I can assure you, small changes applied consistently can literally have a profound impact on not only the individual, but on the organization. So

Capability Through Circadian Education

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that's why I have created a healthy shift, shift work champions framework. Not because organizations need another well-being program, but they don't. But because they need capability. Education creates awareness, and capability creates lasting change within. When people inside an organization understand the science and are equipped to support their colleagues, the benefits extend well beyond better sleep. The organization benefits with healthier people, safer workplaces, stronger teams, far better retention, and much better decision making. And ultimately, far better organizational performance. Lower accidents come from lower fatigue. Let's reduce the staff turnover by educating our staff literally how to go about shift work. Because one of the biggest problems is these days, all we do is we actually just feed them information and that's it. And what happens after that? So

The Organisational Benefits Of Better Support

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if you're listening to this as a leader or a manager or someone in people and culture, health and safety, or you're in operations, I'd encourage you to ask yourself one simple question. Have we started to accept the outcomes that we should no longer accept? Because fatigue, burnout, and poor health shouldn't be considered unavoidable consequences of working shifts. Absolutely, they are challenges. But challenges can be addressed with the right information and education. And that's where I come in. So I want to say to you, thank you for spending this time with me. My hope is that this episode hasn't just given you information, I'm really hoping that it's encouraged you to actually think differently. Because I genuinely believe that once we change the conversation around shift work, we begin to change the outcomes as well.

Shift Work Champions Framework Invitation

SPEAKER_00 9:25

I highly encourage you to go into the show notes, go down to the bottom, and you will see a link there to my Shift Work Champions framework. There, you can read about it, learn about it on that web page, and there is a position there for you to download my executive brief. And the executive brief explains the framework to you. And then we can have a conversation around this. Let me help you in your organization. And if today's conversation has actually resonated with you, share it with someone who has the opportunity to change the way that Shift Work is supported in your organization or their organization. Because that's where the real change begins. Honestly, it does not have to be this way. I said it at the beginning, and I'll say it again. It does not have to be this way. There is a better way. And until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other.

Final Reminder And Take Care

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If today's episode resonated with you, don't let the conversation stop here. Share it with a colleague, a manager, a friend, a leader, or someone who has the opportunity to improve the lives of people working in a 24-7 environment. Because real change starts with awareness. And awareness changes conversations, and conversations change organisations. And organisations change lives. So thank you for spending this time with me. And until next time, I want you to remember this. It doesn't have to be this way. Take care of yourself and take care of each other.