Wake up South Africa!
The 5 Wake up Calls of Work Fatigue that could be Killing your Business
It’s normal to feel tired after a busy day or week on the grind. But when it comes to facing levels of work fatigue that the Mayo Clinic defines as “unrelenting exhaustion that isn’t relieved by rest, a nearly constant state of weariness that develops over time, reducing your energy, motivation, and concentration” – we need to go beyond the norm and ask for help.
Workplace exhaustion is an extreme that’s become oddly normal in the work world. This is certainly a priority for employers to resolve, primarily for their people, and also for their collective success. We could go so far as to say that chronic work fatigue is a silent killer of real people and team productivity.
One estimate puts a number to it, saying that employees who sleep fewer than six hours a night can cost an employer about six workdays a year in productivity. But what exactly does six workdays of limited productivity per employee mean in context? According to the National Safety Council in the USA, it could equal over US$1 million a year in revenue for a business with 1,000 people – $272,000 due to absenteeism and $776,000 due to presenteeism, and an extra $536,000 in healthcare costs that “could be avoided with optimisation of sleep health.” Back home in South Africa, these stats should wake us up to the seriousness of this issue.
For one, there’s a growing rumble about absenteeism on the rise. Law firm, Engelbrecht Employment Law Professionals speaks out about this saying, “Absenteeism has a major impact on productivity, and businesses lose millions of productive days annually. According to the SAFACTS website, any business target for absenteeism rate should be 1.5%. South African companies’ average absenteeism rate is between 3.5% and 6%. This equates to roughly between 8 and 15 days per worker annually. If a company has 50 employees, this equates to approximately 400 to 750 productive days lost annually. This leads to increased costs to the employer and decreased morale among employees.”
So, what can be done about it? As employers and colleagues, we can start with the warning signs; to make room for information around the topic, and to look out for the scales of exhaustion, especially when the bottom line depends on it.
Employers and Employees - here are 5 wake up calls of work fatigue you should know:
1. Increased absenteeism and presenteeism
Both are a warning signs. While absenteeism finds a person staying away from work, presenteeism puts them at work, but not working. Both are dangerous. What’s needed first and foremost is empathy - which means having a conversation around the matter. Absenteeism and Presenteeism stem from deeper psychological truths, and real (and consistent) connection between managers and their people, is the first place to start. First, seek to understand the reason, then seek to collaborate on a period of rest, and recouperation. Making room to get honest about ‘what’s making us tired’, and discussing it in a safe environment, is what real business calls for.
2. Less attention to detail and more errors
Mistakes are human nature, but too many mistakes too often, become a hinderance. There’s a level of concentration around quality that is expected of us when we work in a business or help people with a service. When we’re too tired to focus, our attention span thins and when it gets too thin, we err over to errors. Red Flag. Making too many mistakes, is a tell-tale sign of sleep deprivation, or burn out or oftentimes, social distraction. It’s our brains way of saying, ‘I need rest’. Notice the mistake trail - and be brave enough to call it. Sometimes, just owning the fact that we are not superhuman, and we are messing up, is already a salve to the problem.
3. Irritation by the second
When we’re overtired, we tend to have a short fuse. We can all get moody and irritated at times, but if a colleague is consistently losing patience or snapping at others, it could be a sign of extreme exhaustion. When this happens, a mini-pause session could help. Whether that’s taking an actual lunchbreak (away from the desk), watching your favourite 20 minute series, calling a brother or sister for perspective, or taking half an hour to head out for a run – even washing the dog (or cat) – when you get home - it helps the body to exhale, and the brain to reset.
4. Feeling demotivated or forgetful
Chronic work fatigue can unravel you to the same extent as if you were sedated or drunk. If you haven't slept in 17 hours, your driving ability is affected in the same way as someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.05%. Imagine what will happen at the office? While bouts of hopelessness, or amnesia, are common in work fatigue, they can have detrimental effects on productivity and performance if prolonged. One resolve - is sleep. Actual, restful sleep. Getting to bed earlier, for 28 consecutive nights, is a proven habit-breaker for the brain. Aiming for 8-10 hours of rest for a regular time period, rewires the brain for performance. Through this, we teach our brains how to stay awake when we need it, and how to rest when we need it – ultimately developing more clarity, and zest for our daily routines. To achieve 8 hours or more of quality sleep, it’s a good idea to ensure your mattress and pillow are in check. For a free sleep assessment, Bed King offers a consult at any of its Comfort Solutions Labs in store.
5. Risky business decisions
The fifth wake up call for businesses, is one of decreased awareness of risk. Published in Science daily researchers from the University of Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich found that chronic sleep deprivation increases risk-seeking. This makes a person impulsive, more inclined to make rash decisions, and potentially puts others in danger or similarly, at risk. While an uncalculated risk can cost a business millions, it can also cost us our careers. The smart move is to not make decisions when you are tired. Choose to rest, take pause, or sleep it off. Risk the rest, before you risk everything else.
Ultimately, our capacity for performance and well-being is directly linked to our levels of tiredness. Extreme exhaustion is not an option for any of us. Not only do we have responsibilities to meet but we have things we want to achieve, people we want to empower, and dreams we want to realise – all of which, is worth waking up for.
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