Contents
Shift workers are a special type of people. With its way of life, warehouse of character and habits. No, it’s not about bad habits. And about the craving for hard work, moving from home to work and back. In the head of the townsfolk is full of stereotypes about shift workers. Many of them are not unfounded, but it is obvious that they are exaggerated. It is surprising that for a long time they did not have their own professional holiday. But now the celebration exists, albeit not officially. We tell about the Day of the Shift Worker in Our Country: its history and traditions of celebration in 2023.
When is Day of the Shift Worker celebrated?
The holiday of all the strong in spirit and body of workers on a rotational basis is celebrated 27 April. The day is not a day off for employees on such a schedule.
history of the holiday
If you look for information about this celebration, you will stumble upon the same phrase everywhere. Sites echo the mantra that Shift Worker Day in Our Country appeared in 2011. Allegedly, it was proposed to celebrate it in social networks, and the labor collectives of the whole country, to celebrate, supported the tradition. In fact, there is no Shift Worker Day by 2023 in official documents. This holiday is not fixed either at the international or at the level.
Where did he come from then? If we are talking about 2011, then why is there practically no mention of it? If you study the posts on Instagram using the hashtag # day of the shift worker, you will find that the first entries with such a postscript date back to 2018. Rotational workers post selfies, congratulate colleagues and are surprised that it turns out that today is their professional holiday. It is also difficult for VKontakte to find any mention of the holiday before 2018. The first congratulatory videos with similar names also belong to the same year.
It remains a mystery, where did 2011 come from then? An abandoned group called “Shift Worker’s Day” has survived on social networks, but now the community is closed to outsiders. However, open data says that it was planned to hold the celebration on April 27th. Perhaps this is the first mention of this holiday on the Internet. In any case, without the popular support on social networks that the celebration received, the tradition would not exist today. But a good undertaking found a response among the workers. It is possible that someday, at the initiative of the trade unions, the Day of the Shift Worker holiday will be officially approved.
Shift Worker’s Day Traditions
It is interesting to observe from the records in social networks of different years how the ideas about the Day of the Shift Worker have been transformed. At first, everything was at the level of posts by ordinary employees who shared photos of working everyday life and congratulated colleagues in the comments. But if you scroll further closer and closer to our year, then larger companies join the celebration, inviting employees to work on a rotational basis. Various socio-political organizations are also joining in the congratulations. For example, they meet shift workers at the airport and train stations and arrange a small concert. Firms also organize their flash mobs.
Interesting facts about shift workers and their work
In the Empire, there was no concept of a watch. People who worked on a similar schedule were called otkhodniks. This comes from the word “departure”, because it was necessary to move away from their permanent place of residence.
A full-fledged shift method was organized in the USSR. Those who wanted to earn good money went to the North for a long ruble. At the same time, the modern practice of charts developed. Shift workers work 15 through 15 or month after month, but there are also more extreme schedules. However, according to the Labor Code, the shift should not exceed three months.
Employers often arrange shift camps near places of work. Temporary settlements of vans, prefabricated structures so that employees can live close to work. But there is nothing more permanent than temporary. Therefore, history knows examples when such a workers’ settlement turned into a solid settlement. For example, the city of Pokachi in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, which arose from a temporary settlement where oil producers settled.
According to Rosstat data for 2017 (no more recent study was conducted), there are about 1,5 million people employed on shifts in Our Country. And this is only the data of those who are officially employed.
Today, shift workers are invited not only to remote corners of the country. Of course, salaries are higher in the fields, logging and construction in the northern regions. But you can work on a shift in large cities. For example, in Moscow, such a schedule is offered by greenhouses and light industry enterprises. Companies also accommodate employees in a hostel and provide meals.
Shift work is popular not only in Our Country. In European countries, drivers with international rights are most often invited to watch. People go to South Korea to work in the local fields. There are exhausting working conditions, in which few people can withstand more than a couple of months, but everything is compensated by a decent salary. In the USA and Canada, people are invited to sail on fishing boats.