Attention Recent/Future Retirees: USPS FERS Annuity Estimates Are Too Low Between MRA and age 62

You should read the following post at PostalReporter.com:

PostalReporter.com Blog » USPS FERS Annuity Estimates Are Too Low Between MRA and age 62

Jobs With Justice Rally

6/18/09 Rally against CVS at 12 noon, 5110 E 38th Street, Indianapolis

Join the effort to cure CVS now.  CVS is the nation's largest retail drugstore chain.  But instead of leading the way in providing quality medicine, goods and services, CVS has a questionable record on customer health and safety.  Join us for a rally and petition signing.

 

http://curecvsnow.org/

Voluntary Benefits Plan [VBP]

Additional Benefits

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Shift Work Change (SWC) [also called shift lag]

[also refered to as ‘third shift syndrome.   gdl]

While there are no statistics for the prevalence of SWC effects, approximately 20% of shift workers report falling asleep during work, which increases the risk of industrial accidents and decreases productivity. Ironically, shift work can diminish the economic gain it is designed to create.

…the body simply cannot rest and rebuild when circadian rhythms are frequently disrupted. Sleep-wake routines vary with continually changing external cues, known in the sleep medicine world as "zeitgebers," the German word for "timer." In SWC, zeitgebers such as daytime and nighttime are never permanently synchronized with shift end time and shift start time. For SWC patients, predisposition to sleep and wake is governed by consistently mistimed circadian rhythm and alternating external cues.

…For example, a person may work the night shift for five nights in a row, followed by two days off. During the two days off, the person resumes a normal daytime (diurnal) activity with family or friends. This disrupts the person's previously adjusted circadian rhythm, and he or she must readjust their sleep-wake pattern when they go back to work. Without a constant pattern, biological rhythms remain out of synch.

…Many factors such as age, sleep disorder, psychiatric disorder, and family demands make shift work difficult. The ability to stay active during different times of the day varies among people, as does their preference for wake and sleep time. People who wake up early in the morning and are most active early in the day have a more difficult time adjusting to shift work than people who prefer to stay up late at night. Predisposition to sleep pattern may figure largely into the lives of shift workers.

Aging, however, has a significant detrimental effect on a person’s ability to cope with shift work. It is common for a person who has been working shifts for years to start having difficulty as they grow older. Many sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, surface later in life. Sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea or narcolepsy, usually compound the effects of SWC.

Generally, mood cycles and physiological processes, like the fluctuation of hormone levels, play significant roles in sleep routine. These factors are, in turn, altered by frequently changing sleep habits. So there may be complications for a shift worker who suffers from, say, seasonal affective disorder or depression. Spending nights awake and days asleep may intensify the effects on a person with a psychiatric disorder.

…Shift work places demands on family, infrastructure, and the management of employee resources. Often, the time spent off work is as frustrating to the employee as late-night work…

From the ‘Sleep Disorder Channel’:  http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.com/shiftwork/index.shtml

submitted to INDY Info, not yet published.