Night Shift Dilemma: How Do You Handle Employees Sleeping on the Job?

Hi, we are facing problems in the night shift as our night shift employees have been found sleeping during office hours. This issue will impact our day-to-day operations. Please provide me with some solutions to resolve this.

Regards,
Hetal

What industry are you serving? Is it manufacturing/production related? The staff who were found sleeping on duty, what kind of roles do they play? Are only operational staff working in the night shift, or do we have a supervisor?

In the initial days when one of my family members started a production unit that needed to be operational in both shifts, the owner used to go for a surprise visit at any time during the shift to check what the workers were doing. However, this was in the initial period when the operations were just setting up. This is one way. Alternatively, you can monitor the working by installing a CCTV camera that will video record the performance and also serve as proof of non-performance if any.

Just a reminder that it is challenging to stay awake and be fully productive during the night shift. Consider incorporating some engaging activities such as:

1. Playing music or the radio for 30-45 minutes during the mid-shift.
2. Organizing small snack parties for all employees with birthdays in the current or upcoming months.
3. Ensuring well-lit interiors to prevent dozing off.
4. Providing 2 to 3 rounds of tea/coffee to keep them active.

Engage with your staff and ask them what would make them more productive at work. Sometimes, the best ideas come from the employees themselves.

Whether it's the day shift or night shift, employee engagement is crucial for productivity. If your staff is engaged with the organization and motivated to excel, they will perform well regardless of the time; otherwise, the night shift becomes just an excuse.

Hope this helps.

Thank you so much for your quick reply. We are in the KPO industry, and most of our staff are middle-level or higher-level employees who work on the live website, serving customers' queries. We have conducted surprise visits, installed CCTV cameras, provided a tea/coffee vending machine in the office pantry, and allowed them to play music. Despite this, we still face these issues. Additionally, we celebrate birthdays once a month with a small get-together. In short, we have given them lots of leverage.

While talking to the Night Manager, they act more like executives rather than managers. It is very difficult for us to monitor the CCTV cameras all day. Please help me resolve this issue.

Regards,
Hetal

What are the shift timings? Are they rotational shifts for employees? If the shifts are longer than 8 hours, it may not be easily solvable. Has the floor manager listened to the employees' working status? Providing coffee or tea may help solve some problems. The first-floor manager needs to monitor the calls in case any issues arise. He should talk to the concerned employees and ask them to avoid such situations in the future, providing proper solutions. Offering soft skills training could be beneficial. Employees must understand their responsibilities. Recognize and reward the best performers with gifts. Spend more time engaging with the employees, especially during their coffee or break times, to identify potential solutions. Organize weekend tours every six months. Consider increasing salaries and granting promotions based on performance. Set achievable targets. Most importantly, it is crucial to urgently train your manager.

Thank you.

Addressing Night Shift Challenges in a KPO Environment

KPO and working with clients solving queries...

I would like to ask again if all the employees or most of them are working casually or only a few of them.

If the issue involves all or most employees, we need to conduct a meeting with everyone. Do they have specific targets and incentives linked to performance?

If only a few of them are casual, call each person individually and ask them about the problems they are facing.

The challenge in working with humans is that none of us are perfectly the same. What works for you may not work for me, and vice versa. At the same time, we cannot customize facilities to suit all employees.

Yet, call a meeting with the entire staff. Instead of pointing out names or saying everyone is found sleeping, start by saying:

"I believe that working at night when most of our friends and relatives are fast asleep is very boring. So we are planning to do something that will motivate and excite you to perform your jobs, so it does not become a routine task."

Prepare a short note that does not label them as non-performers but emphasizes your wish to improve their experience.

Ask them what will make them more productive and help them focus better on work.

In such meetings, we get ideas from the employees who will perform the tasks, which will likely fit their requirements better than what we try to figure out.

Engaging Employees Through Family Involvement

What is your night shift time? You can plan a surprise family day.

Designate one day as an official family day.

Invite one person from the family of the employees working the night shift. Provide pick-up and drop-off services for them (though this will involve a cost, it will help engage the employees).

Call the family member a week prior to the date and inform them of the surprise visit. Ask if any family member can support you by coming to the office premises on the specified date.

Arrange for a photographer to take pictures of the staff with their family members. Provide a copy to the employee to display on their cubicle walls or work desk.

Having a family member on the office floor, proud of the employee's hard work, will motivate them to perform better. The photograph on the desk will serve as a reminder of that day and how proud their family members are of them.

I believe this solution will partially address the problem.

Hope this helps.

Are you a factory? Do you have standing orders?

If yes, you can take disciplinary actions as per standing orders, as "sleeping whilst on duty" will amount to misconduct.

Steps to Address Sleeping on Duty

1. Spread awareness about "discipline," "commitment," "work ethics," etc.

2. Deploy a team of managers who should take surprise night rounds. If anybody is found sleeping, note down their name, call them to the office of their Head the next day, and counsel them.

3. Educate unions (if they exist) about this concern of yours.

4. Issue mass communications (Notice) that:

"It has been observed that some employees sleep during duty hours, especially during night shifts. This is a serious indiscipline which also amounts to loss of productivity, unsafe act, and unsafe condition. Please note that sleeping while on duty is misconduct as per section ( ) of the Standing Orders applicable to you.

You are aware that management has conducted a drive to educate employees about the seriousness of this indiscipline of sleeping while on duty.

Management has decided to view this act seriously, and anybody found sleeping while on duty will be liable for disciplinary action and punishment as per the provisions of standing orders.

We appeal to each employee to act as a responsible employee and contribute towards improving the effectiveness of our organization by instilling discipline.

We also appreciate the affirmative response from the union in this regard, and we are confident that there will be self-imposed discipline in our company, leading to improved organizational effectiveness.

(.............................)

Regards,
Shailesh Parikh

Vadodara, Gujarat

[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

It will be better if we find out the solution as to why they are sleeping. We have to motivate them about their duties. We have to talk to each individual and sort out the problem. Apart from the manager, we have to appoint a team leader from the same group to bring them closer to the common goal. Appreciate them at each step and provide them with rotational shifts every three days.

After all these valuable comments from our fellow members, I just wanted to share my views.

Despite implementing measures such as installing CCTV, conducting surprise visits, providing vending machines, playing music at the station, organizing birthday celebrations, etc., you are still facing issues with employees sleeping on duty. This could be due to inefficient employee utilization.

Determining Team Size

How do you determine the team size? Have you conducted any analysis based on the volume of business/work? This aspect also plays a crucial role in addressing your concern.

You have not mentioned any targets in your query. If you are not receiving any complaints or escalations from customers, it may indicate that there are too many resources allocated to the team, considering the business volume. I recommend having a meeting with the Manager/Floor Supervisor to discuss employee utilization. Additionally, assess whether the Manager/Floor Supervisor is a suitable hire. If an employee responsible for managing a team is ineffective in their role, they contribute no value to the team/organization. Pink Slip 

Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Best regards,

Since you have tried almost everything and received the best of suggestions from our experts, here's my question to you: Have you tried training your employees on their lifestyle?

Assuming that the employees in consideration have been working in the sector for the last few years, they are supposed to find the sleep balance. However, if this has not happened, are they in the life-cycle stage where they are almost living two lives, utilizing all their body strength during the day and falling asleep at night?

Please look deeper into the issues. If these employees have been productive and efficient at work otherwise, a certain degree of training by a health expert might help them improve their lives.

At a firm where I worked, we did see this pattern for a while with a batch of employees. Right from the extra soda in the food at the cafeteria, we accounted for all we could. When we observed it a little more, we found that since their cabs were registered early, they used to work out at the office gym before the office hours. We discussed with a health expert and rescheduled the cabs for an extra hour towards the end of the day. This helped them work out before they reached home, which is why they slept better and got up fresh for the office hours. Certain arrangements such as an hour break midway through the workday for the ones who felt more active after working out did work wonders for us.

Thank you so much for your valuable comments. We found out one reason that employees work in the day shift is that they have their own side business, and that's why they get a few hours to sleep during the day. Are employees allowed to work at the same time with us?

Thank you.

While the other members have given very valuable and practical suggestions based on their experiences, I would like to highlight a basic human factor: by nature, human beings are wired to work without breaks for longer durations in the daytime rather than during nighttime. So unless you break the monotony of the work each of them does—either by way of some leisure/recreation activities during the night shifts OR switch the work from one activity to another—like the saying goes: "Relaxation is nothing but a change of work." Maybe you can plan role changes/rotation among the team members. Just give this a thought.

Addressing the Query on Employee Avocations

Coming to your query, "employees are allowed to work at the same time while they are working with us," many companies actually bar such avocations by the employees as this has the scope to create a loss or diffusion of focus towards the company's work by the employee(s).

However, you mentioned this regarding one employee—is this found with only one or many employees? If not, you would need to figure out the reasons for the others.

Conducting a Full-Team Meeting

Like all the members suggested, a full-team meeting could give you some leads (obviously you can't expect many employees to clearly state the actual reasons for sleeping on duty, unless they are very honest by nature)—this also depends on YOUR body language; IF you are PERCEIVED as being probing for taking any harsh/punitive measures, none will come out with the ACTUAL reasons. Hope you get the point.

You can then pursue/probe further to get to the truth and then begin implementing corrective measures.

Regards,
TS

Dear All,

Thank you so much for your valuable comments. We found out one reason that employees work in the day shift too as they have their own side business, and that's why they get a few hours to sleep in the daytime. Are any employees allowed to work at the same time while they are working with us?

Having gone through the posts and responses, it is admirable that you have zeroed in on the root cause of the problem. You have to, if you do not have it already, incorporate a clause in your appointment letter/terms and conditions of employment that the employees shall not indulge in any private business, including full-time or part-time employment with any other person or company. Subsequently, take major punitive action if you come across such cases.

Warm regards.

I have gone through all the above suggestions. There is something called Responsibility and Accountability. Please identify the Supervisors who are accountable for customer service, productivity, etc. The Team Leader has to be held responsible. He is the Team Leader for supervising the team members; he has to be held accountable for the lapses of his team members. Actually, if he is facing any such problems in his team, it is his job to scale up the issue to higher levels to resolve the same. Despite offering so many sops, if the employees are found wanting in discharging their duties, they can be warned, reprimanded, and ultimately sent home packing. India has a huge population, and you can always get better employees who are disciplined. Either the errant employees can be counseled, motivated, and trained to change their attitude, or if nothing works out, then turn them out... maybe as the last resort. Tell them in advance what will happen. If they are biologically unsuitable for the kind of work, better replace them with people who can work. If they are not suitable for this kind of work, they should not have been employed at all in the first place!

Worker Protection in Indian Labor Laws

Our traditionally Indian governments at the federal and state levels have always made an effort to ensure a high degree of protection for workers. For instance, a permanent worker can only be terminated for proven misconduct or habitual absence. Sleeping during a night shift can be considered misconduct and may be escalated by issuing more than three memos to address the behavior, withholding any increments and promotions citing misconduct in the remark sections.

Legal Precedents and Challenges

In the Uttam Nakate case, the Bombay High Court ruled that dismissing an employee for repeated sleeping on the factory floor was illegal, a decision that was later overturned by the Supreme Court of India. Additionally, it took two decades to complete the legal process.

Criticism and Complexity of Indian Labor Regulations

In 2008, the World Bank criticized the complexity, lack of modernization, and flexibility in Indian regulations. Therefore, according to labor law, handling this issue with labor unions and reservation cadres could be very complicated.

Dear Hetal ji,
Up till now, all the responses have been from HR Managers. This is the response from the IR Manager regarding your issue.

Misconduct: Sleeping on Duty
Being found sleeping while on duty is considered misconduct for which the employee is liable for disciplinary action. If you do not take disciplinary action against such an employee, you may face action from your management.

Steps to Address the Issue
Therefore, please make the case concrete, issue an SCN/Charge sheet, conduct a domestic enquiry, and take disciplinary action against the employee within the framework of the law so that there will be a deterrent effect on others. If you require an enquiry officer, please feel free to call me. Nowadays, there are no jobs for professional enquiry officers.

Regards,

Understanding the Nature of Your Business

It is very important first to understand the nature of the business your organization is in and the timelines or deadlines that have been set to complete the tasks, i.e., the organization's goals and vision.

HR Policies and Guidelines

Also, HR policies and guidelines set by the organization that are approved by management.

What is KPO?

KPO stands for Knowledge Process Outsourcing, which involves gathering or collecting information about anything a client may require. Such organizations have a different organizational structure compared to a general structure. Some KPOs may have high stress levels, whereas some may have lower stress levels.

Employee Comfort and Monitoring

Generally, in terms of HR or management, they try to comfort their employees since working hours are sometimes extended, especially in 24x7 operations where shifts are involved. One must be careful, especially during night shifts. As many have rightly said, there should be surprise visits, CCTV monitoring, but sometimes it may not be effective. If the workforce is equally important as well, the option of penalties should be considered. Stress levels and the work environment should also be taken into account.

Creating a Relaxation Space

If employees are overstressed, you may consider creating a panic room where an employee feeling sleepy can take a power nap, listen to music, or engage in some activity to feel relaxed and fresh before returning to work. However, sleeping on the desk should not be allowed, and supervisors should ensure this rule is followed. Monitoring supervisors remotely via CCTV is feasible through technology.

Overall, the text has been corrected for spelling, grammar, punctuation errors, and paragraph formatting. The meaning and tone of the original message have been preserved.

If the employees have recently been moved to the night shift, give them some time to settle down. Otherwise, you can give them a warning. It would be better if you place CCTV cameras to monitor and record their activities.

According to me, this is a management problem. Please tell me if any increment process is done in the factory. If yes, what is the issue? It is common behavior for everyone to be in a "sleeping mode," meaning some are goofing off without all acting the same way. Please identify the issue between management and employees and then consider another approach.

Hello dear senior, We have found our employee slipping in working hours. I need your guidance to issue a 6-day suspension to that employee. I request you to please guide.

Regards, Ganesh Gaikwad

Sleeping while on duty, though it is an act of indiscipline and misconduct, can be addressed with punishment based on the merit of the case.

First Instance of Sleeping on Duty

If the act of sleeping is his first instance, you should advise or caution him. Any repetition of the act calls for a warning. If he commits this act again, then you can award the punishment after completing all procedural formalities.