Aside from stress, fatigue also occurs in a number of workers in the work place. According to Cercarelli and Ryan (1996) fatigue involves a diminished ability for work and possibly decrements in attention, perception, decision making and skill performance. In addition, Hancock and Verwey (1997) defined fatigue as an individual's multi-dimensional physiological-cognitive state associated with stimulus repetition which results in prolonged residence beyond a zone of performance comfort. Stress and fatigue in the workplace could be due to a number of factors. The work environment could contribute to the physical or mental pressure that the employee feels. Furthermore, poor lifestyle choices could also be partly responsible for the fatigue and stress that a worker feels.
This paper examines the fatigue in the work place. A discussion on the issues of sleep and stress cause by poor lifestyle choices will be given in this paper. Moreover, fatigue management techniques and the impact on a person with fatigue both at work and home will also be discussed.
Stress
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Service (2003) stress in the workplace is the outcome of the interaction between the individual and the work place. For the worker it is the knowledge that he or she is not able to cope up with the demands in his or her job together with the negative emotional response. What are the causes of stress to an individual particularly the worker?
Stress can either come within the work place or outside the work place. Stress in the workplace includes pressure to finish the task, different shifts, physical factors in the work environment such as noise, heat or cold, unrealistic deadlines. Stress outside the work environment involves family problems, second job, poor physical and mental health, and poor lifestyle choices. What are the symptoms and signs of stress?
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Service (1998) there are two forms of symptoms of stress in the workplace and these are the personal and the organisation symptoms.
Personal Symptoms- personal symptoms are divided into four categories and these are physiological, behavioural, cognitive, and emotional.
Physiological- symptoms include increase in the blood pressure, pains in the chest, palpitations of the heart, hyperventilation, headaches, gastro-intestinal disorders, sleep disorders, and fatigue.
Behavioural- symptoms include poor patterns of sleep, decreased in the reaction times, and erratic behaviour.
Cognitive- symptoms include difficulty in concentrating on the job and memory, and the inability to make decisions.
Emotional- symptoms include depressed mood states, anxiety, irritability, and loss of self-confidence.
Organisation symptoms- transforming the factors that contribute stress in the workplace may produce more productive results that focusing on the personal factors. Just like the personal symptoms it is also divided into categories and these are behavioural and emotional.
Behavioural- symptoms include the high level of absenteeism or sick leave, high turnover of staff, poor industrial relations, poor productivity and quality, increased in the rates of illness and accidents in the workplace, increased in the claims of stress by the workers, as well as, retirement rates.
Emotional- symptoms include having low moral and loss of contribution of the employees in the planning and the process of improvement in the workplace.
Due to stress caused by fatigue and poor lifestyle choices the performance of an individual in the workplace could be greatly affected in a negative way. Stress occurs whether the person is employed in a white collar job or blue collar job, according to the study of Jones (1999) there is little difference between the individuals working in a white collar job and blue collar job in terms of the signs and symptoms of stress such as depression, satisfaction in life, and physiological complaints.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce (1990) have grouped four categories of work-related stress and these are:
- Work load- wherein the tasks could either be too much or too little and too difficult or too easy
- Work conditions- wherein there is poor organisational structure in the company, too much politics in the work place, the design of the job is not good, poor organisational culture, and the management has low control over the work of the employees
- Work patterns- the patterns of job in the workplace could also contribute to the stress of the employee, patterns include shifts in the time of work, and repetition of tasks
- Work roles- the role of the worker in the job also adds to the stress especially if the roles are ambiguous, the demand of the job could emerge conflicts within or outside the workplace, and disagreement on the commitment with personal acquaintances and the job
According to Dullard (2001) exposure of individuals to the stressors in the environment particularly the workplace does not inevitably cause serious health problems in people. Even though stress may co-exist with feelings of emotional distress, and may notably affect the well-being of an individual, it does not necessarily lead to a serious psychological and physiological disorder. Minimal stress is also important in the work because without stress workers may find that their task in the workplace will be boring and their performance suffers because they will feel unmotivated. On the other hand, if there is too much stress in the work place the individual's performance in his or her job will suffer greatly and can even interfere in his or her actions. Due to stress Miller and Smith (1997) stated that the American industry loses $300 billion annually because of the lost hours in absences of the employees, and the decrease in the productivity and efficiency of the workers.
