Concurrent Breakout Group Discussions

The breakout groups will discuss ways to move the science forward and issues to include in a national research agenda for long work hours. Breakout groups will generate summaries of their discussions for the final plenary session and work together via email for a short period following the workshop to refine and elaborate a working document that will be part of the basis for a published research agenda.

During the Breakout Group Discussions, the following general questions will be discussed as they pertain to the group topic.

• What more do we need to know? Identify priority areas.
• What improvements in methodology and conceptual frameworks are needed?
• What kinds of resources and partnerships are needed to advance research in the field?

In addition, each group will need to decide upon its process and timeline for finishing the written summary of their discussions after the workshop.

The six planned breakout groups are listed below along with some of the major questions that each will likely wish to address.

A) Long Work Hours And Schedules: Definitions And Measurement

• What dimensions or aspects of work schedules are useful to measure when studying the impact of long work hours and which are most important? (e.g. hours per day, hours per week; time of day; worker’s control over schedule; voluntary versus mandatory overtime, etc. )
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of various work schedule measurement options?
• How long is “long”? What range of variation in hours is most important to study?

B) Impact Upon The Individual: Fatigue, Stress, Health, Safety, And Work Performance

• Which outcomes of working long hours are most important and practical to study?
• Which types of research findings will be of greatest interest to industry, unions, legislators, and the general public?
• What is the relationship among outcomes?
  • Proximate outcomes: fatigue, stress, sleep loss, etc.
  • Ultimate outcomes: health, injuries at work, automobile crashes, work performance
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of measurement options?

C) Impact Upon Family And Community

• Which outcomes of working long hours are most important and practical to study?
• Which types of research findings will be of greatest interest to industry, unions, legislators, and the general public?
• What is the relationship among outcomes?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of measurement options?

D) Mitigating And Aggravating Factors: Job And Personal Characteristics

• What aspects of work are likely to interact most strongly with working hours in affecting health, injuries, and other outcomes?
• What aspects of workers’ personal situation and background are likely to interact most strongly with working hours in affecting health, injuries, and other outcomes?
• How should these factors be measured or otherwise taken into account?

E) Programs and Policies for Prevention: Research Priorities

• Which occupational groups are more likely to experience long work hours and to suffer any of their ill effects? Do we have adequate knowledge of this? What more do we need to know?
• Which interventions in which work settings are most important to study?
• What kinds of programs or policies at the employer level hold the most promise for reducing the negative effects of long work hours??
• What kinds of programs or policies at the industry, trade, local, state, or federal levels hold the most promise for reducing the negative effects of long work hours?

F) Large Scale Surveys And Studies: Opportunities And Directions For Development

• What kinds of data sets could be used, linked, or augmented for purposes of surveillance or statistically large scale studies?
• What would be the statistical strategy for demonstrating or measuring the effects of long hours?
• What are the potential contributions of surveillance and large scale studies within the overall research effort?
• What improvements in measurement of work schedules and outcomes in current data collection programs would move the science forward?
• Can any emerging occupations be identified who show increasing risk and might be targeted for new surveillance activities?