| Shift-work is increasingly necessary to meet wider economic growth desires and objectives, especially in law enforcement. Traditionally, police departments had officers working a 40-hour workweek of 8-hour shifts for five consecutive days, followed by two days off. In recent years, increasingly police agencies have moved to a compressed work week (CWW), in which officers' work four 10-hour shifts or three 12-hour shifts. The specific problem is a CWW of three 12-hour shifts may hinder police officers' subjective well-being (SWB) and job satisfaction. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore police officers' narratives related to their SWB and job satisfaction experiences while working a CWW of three 12-hour shifts. This study sought to gain insight rather than make a generalization about the topic. The researcher used a narrative inquiry approach to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena under study through police officers' storytelling. The participants of this qualitative study were a sample of three police officers from the Fort Pierce Police Department located in Fort Pierce, Florida. A critical event approach was used to document crucial events in the participants' narratives, thus addressing the study's purpose and research questions. Thematic analysis was used on the collected data to identify the underlying patterns across police officers' stories. Results of this study supported that police officers' SWB and job satisfaction were affected while working a CWW of three 12-hour shifts. The police officers considered eating habits, stress, anxiety, family activities, shift length, and shift scheduling to be major factors that contributed to their SWB and job satisfaction while working a CWW of three 12-hour shifts. Eating habits, stress, anxiety, family activities, shift length, and shift scheduling are but a small portion of the many factors that contributes to a police officer's experiences effecting their SWB and job satisfaction while working a CWW of three 12-hour shifts. While the present study showed there were factors that were considered, further work is needed to identify other influences that affect police officers' SWB and job satisfaction, so as to afford the best shift schedule possible. |
