As a shift work veteran and trainer, I often wonder is shift work training really necessary. That is, is it absolutely necessary to give people an induction and heads up on what they’re about to get themselves into?

The simple answer to that is absolutely.

Starting any new job can be stressful at the best of times, but when you’re about to undertake a role that involves working crazy and erratic hours I feel that companies and organisations have an obligation to inform and educate their staff on the perils of having to work shift work.

You see the benefits of shift work training are two-fold.

When you provide new staff (and existing staff for that matter), with the knowledge and tools to help them to cope with having to work irregular hours sick leave decreases, morale increases and even more beneficial to any organisation – productivity increases.

Increased productivity means increased profits.

We all know that’s a win-win scenario for everyone.

Now when I think back to my very first day of working shift work (gosh that was so many years ago now), I have to say that I was never really given any shift-work training per se.

I had a very intensive month of training which included product and system knowledge which provided me with the tools to undertake my job, but I certainly received no training (or warning) on what was about to happen to my overall health and well-being from having to get up at 2:00am in the morning.

Yes that is not a misprint. I had many shifts that required me to start my job at 3:00am and I can tell you they hurt, really hurt.

And the once friendly and harmonious relationship which existed between my alarm clock and I soon began to head down a rather perilous and downward spiral. In fact I could safely say it was skating on thin ice because I really, really struggled with shift work when I first got started.

In fact to this day I still struggle - but I’ve since become much wiser and now take more responsibility for my health that I ever did before.

And here lies the key. As good as shift work training is – if you’re not prepared to take responsibility for your life, then any training is deemed useless.

Which is why I have listed my Top 5 Shift Work Training Tips as below:

1. Take responsibility for your health. You are in total control on what does and does not go into your mouth – no exceptions.

2. Focus on improving the quality of your sleep as opposed to stressing out on how little little sleep you are getting.

3. Keep moving. To stay energized our bodies need to exercise. Even if you’re feeling totally exhausted, try and allocate as little as 10 minutes a day to exercise. A leisurely walk around the block can work wonders on your mental and physical health.

4. Enlist your family and friends for support. Their help and understanding when it comes to certain sacrifices that you will have to make will make a huge difference to your life – both in and out of work.

5. Stop eating junk. Your body needs high quality, nutrient dense food in order to function at its peak. Just like you car won’t run on contaminated fuel, nor will your body move easily if it’s carrying extra weight and toxins.

Each and every one of these elements are critical in improving any employees overall health and well-being, but even more so when you work shift work.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly wish somebody had shared those 5 simple tips with me before I started shift work some 18 years ago … it would have been a much smoother and less perilous roller-coaster ride!

Are you unhappy in your current shift working job? Do you dread going into work each day knowing that you just don’t want to be there?

If so, then I might just have the answer for you.

It’s called gratitude.

You see whenever you’re feeling frustrated and jaded at work – this puts you in a negative frame of mind which inadvertently adds to your fatigue and overall feeling of unhappiness.

How you think at work can have a huge impact on your energy levels- or more appropriately, your lack of energy.

We all know that shift work is physically demanding on our bodies. OK let’s not kid ourselves here – it’s absolutely exhausting.

But if your attitude and mindset about work is in the wrong place to begin with, then you are only adding to your fatigue and overall feeling of unhappiness. It’s a bit like being around a really negative person all of the time – they sap your energy big time!

So the next time you feel disgruntled about work, instead of saying, “I have to go to work today,” change it to “I get to go to work today”.

Because so many of us today focus on all of the negative things and on what we don’t have in our lives, as opposed to what we do have.

We feel that our lives would be better if we drove a certain type of car, lived in a certain area or neighbourhood, wore certain types of clothes and so on.

We essentially forget to live in the moment – that is, being grateful for what we already have in our lives instead of focussing on all that we don’t have.

So the next time you’re feeling a bout of ’shift worker unhappiness’ coming on, I want you to remember that there are many people around the world who would just love to be able to “go into work”. Unfortunately for them, they may not have a job to go too or their ill health prevents them from doing so.

Gratitude in life is everything. When you begin to shift your thinking into a more grateful one, your shift working job and everything else in your life will begin to improve for the better.

Try it. I promise you won’t be disappointed.