There are many studies showing that night shift workers experience more mental and physical health issues than day shift workers. Obviously, some things absolutely require night shifts, such as hospitals, but not stores and restaurants. Convenient, sure, but not necessary. So in a socialist country that prioritizes the well-being of workers, do you think these non-critical 24-hour establishments would exist?
Some sources on the health effects of night shifts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
To have an efficient society, i don’t think those are necessary. They will waste a lot of resources like labour, electricity and reduce the lifespan of those equipments with electricity. A better solution would be to use technology to ease the work load of workers like in case of restocking that you mentioned. Also have two shifts of workers and let there be breaks for stocking goods. Like during lunch breaks in my country, everything is stalled for an hour.
I guess worker cooperatives might reveal insight into whether workers actually want to do night shifts, and I have never heard of a co-op business that operates 24-hour. Granted, co-ops are already fairly rare compared to bourgeois owned businesses, and 24-hour operation is also a niche, so I don’t know how accurate looking at them would be.
From experience, most supermarkets require night shift workers even if closed, to restack the shelves. Ergo, robotisation may be the only ethical option here.
either that, or the return to smaller stores
nobody should be forced to work night shifts unless absolutely necessary, even in a non-socialist setting (because of low demand, if nothing else)
For stores or restaurants, there’s not much reason to have night shifts. Even many capitalist countries don’t have them. Just do your shopping during the day so people can have their sleeping time free.
I prefered working third shift. A vacation day was never wasted on car maintenance or a doctor visit. I used to get frustrated that very little was open at night. I wondered why there wasn’t a centrally located movie theater open. Many years later I realized that zoning regulations were preventing businesses from staying open 24 hours.
As someone who’s a bit of a night owl, it’s really nice to be able to get food or gas when I need it without either having to wait for the sun to come up, or get up before the sun goes down.
I also find that I far prefer to work at night, as I tend to feel more productive shortly after the sun goes down. Also, living somewhere with oppressive summers, it’s really nice to be able to do work outside without the sun beating down on me, which is only possible at night. And, it seems the negative health effects of the night shift tend to take root in people who don’t want to work the night shift, which some end up being forced into under wage slavery. I like working through the night, I don’t feel the effects others claim to. Maybe I’m just a vampire tho?
So, I guess to answer the question, we’d have to ask the members of collectives what they’d prefer. I’m sure some workspaces will have normal hours, and some won’t. Simply because night owls exist, and might prefer to work during non-standard hours.
The places that tend to be 24hr under capitalism tend to be gas stations, bars/clubs, and fast food. People need to fuel their vehicles, people need to unwind after a long day, and people need to eat. I don’t see any of those fading into obscurity for a long time after the revolution, so I also don’t see those not operating into the later hours of the night post-rev.
Maybe my assertions are entirely wrong tho? It’s nearly impossible to say for certain.
Well, local convenience store franchise in Poland is experimenting with fully self-service shops (with workers just restocking), which within a socialist economy might just work
Companies in China is trying this too, as are 7-11 and Amazon (I’d boycott that last one out of principle though). Pretty interesting stuff, some are basically giant vending machines while even more advanced ones are actual stores that are completely unattended or only have a few staff, and use computer vision to track what you’re taking and charge your account automatically. I honestly prefer the former, but both are better than hiring cashiers and working them half to death.
Yes, Żabka (the “”“Polish”“” convenience store franchise) is trying the Amazon kind, with machine vision and pre-registration in an app. In a socialist system we won’t need as many anti-theft/checkout measures.
