Air traffic controllers sleeping in their towers are emblematic of a much larger problem: how employers hurt American competitiveness through scheduling practices that create a bleed of back-end costs.  "They fall asleep because of the shifts they work," said a controller in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. A typical shift pattern starts at 6 a.m. on Monday, 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 8 a.m. and then again at 10 p.m. on Thursday. "That's right, two shifts in 24 hours. Which means that at 5 a.m., most controllers are exhausted," concluded the letter writer.

The air traffic control issue reflects a larger problem in the American economy, as documented in studies by Susan Lampert, Julia Henly and Anna Haley-Lock. Many private employers have shifted from the stable schedules of yesteryear to "just-in-time" schedules that change, with very little notice, from day to day and week to week. Airline catering workers are sent home if a flight is canceled, but are expected to work overtime on busy weeks. Nurses' aides arrive to find that their shifts have been canceled because the patient census is lower than expected. Restaurant staff often are sent home if the ratio of labor costs to sales staff exceeds 29% by 3 p.m., or if that ratio seems unlikely to drop below 21% by the end of the business day, according to one study. (click on link to read full story)