Until you have worked shifts you don't know what it's like, you can't begin to understand the many very bad ways it affects your body. I have been working shifts as a nurse for over 20 years, and the last 6 of them on permanent nights due to childcare issues. You have no idea how it grinds you down, ages you, makes doing anything on days off (and a day off is the day you finish work at 8am, so you have worked 8 hours of your day off!!) seem like too much effort sometimes. The research is there to prove how risky shift work is or our health, but it's not like there's the option of running the NHS 9-5 so we get on with it and most of the time smile. Sometimes we vent. You get over that! Our sickness policy is that any episode of sickness automatically puts on you a disciplinary pathway. An interview with your manager on your return to work goes towards deciding whether you proceed on that pathway or not. Still pretty offensive though in my opinion. Oh, and when you phone in sick, you have to do it personally, can't get hubby to do it for you. And you can't ring your own manager, you have to speak to the senior nurse. It's just all extra hassle when you may well have your head down the bog or a chest infection so severe you can barely breathe. And non of that is the slightest inconvenience to the malingerers, cos they aren't ill! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!