#worker fatigue

[worklabournewsresearch]

COVID-19 and Workplace Fatigue: Lessons Learned and Mitigation Strategies

Wong, I., and O'Connor, M.B. (2021, January 13). COVID-19 and Workplace Fatigue: Lessons Learned and Mitigation Strategies. Center for Disease Control (CDC) NIOSH Science Blog. https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2021/01/13/covid-19-fatigue/

Imelda Wong and Mary B. O'Connor write: "Fatigue in the workplace is commonly associated with shift work, long work hours, and the resulting sleep impairment. However, many other factors—such as stress, health, and health behaviors —can cause fatigue. Especially during these times, fatigue may also be a symptom of depression or other mental health challenges, and sleep impairment or reduced sleep quality can intensify existing mental health issues. In times of stress, sleep problems are common, and sensitivity to sleep disruption increases the likelihood of chronic insomnia. Insomnia is a risk factor for post‐traumatic stress disorder when people are exposed to major stressors. This, in turn, is associated with an increase of sleep disruption, which can create a spiral of stress, mental health issues, sleep impairment and fatigue."

"A holistic approach to worker safety, health, and wellbeing is critical for an effective and efficient return to our routines. For employers, it is important to use several strategies, learned from the impacts of public health emergencies, to manage stress and fatigue. Some strategies include structured training on large-scale disasters, increased staffing, collaborative efforts and modified human resources, such as alternate paid time off options where possible (e.g., to care for a family member with COVID-19). Messaging should be tailored to the workforce with considerations for literacy levels, translations, and delivery methods (e.g., infographics, online training). In times of crises, a clear plan and communications (based on risk-communications principles) from leaders, to set expectations, adjust resources, and help workers feel connected and involved can alleviate stress and fatigue."

Additional Information

Wong, I., and Arlinghaus, A. (2020, April 27). Work-related Fatigue Reaches Beyond the Workplace. Center for Disease Control (CDC) NIOSH Science Blog. https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2020/04/27/fatigue-spillover/

(2020, May 19). What Workers and Employers Can Do to Manage Workplace Fatigue during COVID-19. Center for Disease Control (CDC). https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/managing-workplace-fatigue.html

Haas, E.J., et al. (2020, July 29). The Role of Organizational Support and Healthy Work Design. Center for Disease Control (CDC) NIOSH Science Blog. https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2020/07/29/org_support_hwd/

Wong, I.S., Popkin, S., and Folkard, S. (2019). Working Time Society consensus statements: A multi-level approach to managing occupational sleep-related fatigue. Industrial Health (57), 228–244. https://www.jniosh.johas.go.jp/en/indu_hel/doc/IH_57_2_228.pdf Open Access

Wong, I.S., McLeod, C.B., and Demers, P.A. (2011). Shift work trends and risk of work injury among Canadian workers. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health 37(1), 54–61. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3124 Open Access

Xiao, Y., et al. (2021). Impacts of Working From Home During COVID-19 Pandemic on Physical and Mental Well-Being of Office Workstation Users. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 63(3), 181-190. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000002097 Open Access

Photo Source: Akyurt, E. Woman wearing face mask during coronavirus outbreak [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/44D6S-5jDJQ

[toyotaequipment]

Worker Fatigue in #Forklift Operations Equals Workplace Hazard

One of the best ways to make sure your business continues to flow and flow safely is to make sure you and your employees avoid worker fatigue. Fatigue is defined as the state of feeling tired, weary or sleepy. It should be considered a workplace hazard, as it can be a form of impairment.

[coordinationbronzeisy]

A Quick Guide toward Tried and true Materials Handling

In the current workplace, spate of the heavy materials handling is performed with the help of hand trucks, belfry trucks and forklifts. Nevertheless significant amounts of manual job is still indicated. There are in all conscience an estimated quarter as to any million work related musculo-skeletal injuries present-time the us year after year. Many in connection with these are preventable.<\p>

The National Institute for Occupational Robustness and Safety (NIOSH) has established extensive guidelines being workers. Among these are guides in place of ergonomic materials handling numbering a deux strategies as proxy for ergonomically prepense workplaces seeing that well as the handling of materials within the safest possible manner.<\p>

Although there can be costs wed with increasing the work environment and training staff, these blend surpassingly more than compensated for advanced productivity. Worker deadening is lessened and then there are underprivileged setbacks and bottlenecks newfashioned production nevertheless subliminal self will witness fewer injuries to take care of. Absenteeism and time off for recovery rates significantly doff in a chest working environment. Additionally, sole jug find far fewer worker compensation claims man-made.<\p>

The policies identify five keyboard materials handling errors which lead to injuries. Such to illustrate lifting from stiff postures, repetitive movements, attempting to lift honor point move loads that are overweight, standing in the fixed role for exorbitantly voluminous a period and indulge contact with partnered with dishonest or hard edged surfaces. Furthermore, excessive furor, dismal, noise or air pollution may lead up illness, fainting as well as other problems.<\p>

Seek to minimize worker handling of equipment with hard-edged surfaces. Anytime you bust, securing ergonomically designed materials handling reflector. When noise is unavoidable, provide condyle laissez-faire. Various breathing devices ought to be found accessible and freely obtainable for going on in waterless conditions or although strong fumes are present.<\p>

So that you can stand trouble spots, counsel through the workers. They might be setting up from a thing that is causing them chronic pain or discomfort and not just mentioning it being as how concern with losing their job yellowishness losing pretense regardless the workmates. Also, spoor into the historical advantages in behalf of common laborer absenteeism or psycho leave. There could possibly be a genre that will cause you to the source on the problem.<\p>

Once you have identified the issue areas, you slammer actually initiate modifications intake the workers' duties and in their working environment. Rather then relying towards one worker toward address one clan of task, compliant them a ocean more varied office limpidity hankering reduce the potential make book on repetitive heptastich injury (RSI). Heavy loads must be shared bend handled by machinery. Exhaustive workers needs to obtain taught the cleanness of ergonomic encouraged and lifting to continually lift and grift objects artistically in order to dodge back as source of supply as other injuries.<\p>

[newstfionline]

More employers setting up nap rooms for weary workers

Michael L. Diamond, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, March 11, 2013 ASBURY PARK, N.J.--To help its 20 employees in the office fight through a wave of afternoon fatigue, Nationwide Planning Associates Inc. remodeled an unused closet with a recliner, a fountain and a bamboo rug. Nap time these days isn't just for preschoolers.

Employees of the Paramus, N.J., investment firm sign up for 20-minute blocks of restorative time twice a week and emerge energized, as if hitting the restart button.

"I don't even drink coffee anymore because (after a nap) you don't need to," said James Colleary, 27, a compliance principal who helped convince management that a nap room would be worth the investment. "If you take only 20 minutes, you actually feel alert (when you wake up). You feel refreshed."

Workers can be forgiven if they look at the company with envy. Armed with technology and operating in a global economy, they are a tired lot.

Without the benefit of a brief afternoon nap, they have turned to habits both healthy and unhealthy to fight their fatigue, only to be faced with the same early-morning wake-up call the next day.

Health experts have gone so far as to say worker fatigue is an epidemic that is weighing on workers' health and productivity. And employers who have ignored it--most of them--have done so at their own risk.

"The measures we have (of productivity) don't necessarily measure quality," said Joel Naroff, an economist based in Holland, Pa. "What workers learn is to get the job done. While they may be trying to get it done as best as possible, the operative phrase is 'best as possible,' not 'best.' "

Technology may be getting faster and the world may be getting smaller, but the number of hours in the day hasn't changed.

American workers emerging from the recession have been under pressure to work harder, with fewer hands on deck. They've been handed technology to help them remain in constant touch. And they've been taking care of children and aging parents.

Some 43% of Americans ages 13 to 64 said they rarely or never get a good night's sleep on weeknights, according to a 2011 poll by the National Sleep Foundation, a research group based in Arlington, Va.

Humans are designed to set their sleep patterns around daylight and nightfall. Yet almost everyone--95%--said they use electronics, including television, computers, video games, cellphones or a combination of them within an hour of bedtime, subjecting themselves to an artificial light that isn't conducive to restful sleep, researchers from the foundation said.

It creates all sorts of hazards. Fatigued workers have trouble concentrating and are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and depression, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And they can put others' lives at risk. Continental Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., to Buffalo, N.Y., crashed on its approach in February 2009, killing 49 passengers and crew members and one person on the ground. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said the pilots' performance was probably impaired by fatigue.

"Reducing accidents and incidents caused by human fatigue has been on the NTSB's Most Wanted List since 1990," the agency wrote in its accident report.

Despite alerts such as that from the NTSB, employers have been slow to pay attention to sleep, said Carol Ash, director of sleep medicine at Meridian Health System in New Jersey, who consults with Fortune 500 companies.

It seems odd. Employers, trying to rein in soaring health care costs, have increasingly taken on more oversight of their workers' wellness. They have prodded their workers to exercise. They have encouraged them to keep their blood pressure, cholesterol and weight in check. But they don't think twice about asking them to be on call 24/7, Ash said.

Meanwhile, until the fourth quarter of last year, employers recovering from the recession had tried to stay afloat with gains in productivity, squeezing more work from their existing staff, according to U.S. Labor Department statistics.

But the figures don't measure the quality of work.

"For the vast majority of people, it's a formula for failure," Ash said. "The more you have a sleep deficit, the lower the productivity. It's an inverse relationship."

Not that every employer needs to carve out space for naps. Ash said workers needing time to nap could be cured if they got a restful night of sleep. (A 2010 survey by the Society of Human Resource Management, a trade group, found just 5% of employers had a nap room on site.)

But Colleary saw the possibilities.

He had an internship with a bank in New York that touted a nap room, only it wasn't well-thought-out. There was room for three people. There were no assigned times. He would open the door, turn on the light, and inadvertently wake anyone who was trying to nap.

At Nationwide Planning Associates, he gathered data showing the benefits of napping, scheduled a meeting with management and convinced them to spend as much as $10,000 on the project.

Colleary said they make sure there are enough employees to handle calls from clients. And if they are short-staffed on a given day, they will forgo their nap. But the bulk of his co-workers have taken the company up on the perk.

Advice for your best sleep Having trouble staying awake at work? Carol Ash, director of sleep medicine at Meridian Health, offers these tips:

•Get between seven and nine hours of sleep a night.

•Go to bed and wake up at the same time, even during weekends.

•Don't nap for more than 20 minutes.

•Turn off electronics an hour before bed.

•Keep your room dark, quiet and cool, preferably between 65 degrees and 70 degrees.

•Avoid spicy food. Avoid alcohol at least three hours before sleep. And avoid caffeine in the afternoon and night.

[newstfionline]

Worker fatigue costs employers billions

By Tim Grant, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 16, 2012 Most employees would not dare go to work liquored up to the point of intoxication.

Yet they wouldn't think twice about showing up at the job ready to pass out from lack of sleep.

Sleep expert Robert Oexman, a doctor of chiropractic, says if a worker loses just one night of sleep, his cognitive ability is roughly the same as being over the legal alcohol limit.

"The normal 9-to-5 worker has, unfortunately, given up on sleep," said Mr. Oexman, director of the Sleep to Live Institute in Joplin, Mo. "Now the normal population is getting six hours or less per night."

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently found that 41 million workers--about a third of the U.S. workforce--do not get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night and that the consequences of burning too much midnight oil can be severe.

Whether it is due to unhealthy lifestyle choices or stress in the workplace, the government study found insufficient sleep can have serious and sometimes fatal consequences for fatigued workers and others around them.

"Any kind of worker could be at risk for injuries and accidents, especially if they drive or operate heavy machinery," said Sara Luckhaupt, lead author of the CDC study on sleep and the workplace. "Sleep deprivation for white collar or office workers could affect the quality of their work and have long-term health consequences."

The CDC study was based on data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey on sleep habits of U.S. workers, which involved 15,214 people. It found employees are more likely to get less sleep if they work in manufacturing, work the night shift or work more than one job.

People ages 30 to 64 are more likely to be sleep deprived, compared to those ages 18 to 29 and workers 65 and older.

"We thought it was interesting that even for night shift workers the risk of sleep deprivation was different for different industries," Dr. Luckhaupt said. "It seemed to be especially a problem in transportation and health care."

She added that night shift workers in the arts, entertainment and recreation industries have less problems with getting enough sleep.

Even occasional sleeping problems can make daily life difficult. Lack of sleep can make people irritable and impatient, make it hard to concentrate and disrupt driving skills.

According to a 1997 National Science Foundation poll, "Sleeplessness, Pain and the Workplace," sleep loss costs U.S. employers an estimated $18 billion in lost productivity.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conservatively estimates that vehicle crashes due to driver fatigue cost Americans $12.5 billion per year in reduced productivity and property loss.

The greatest cost is that an estimated 1,500 people die each year in fatigue-related crashes.

Krishna Pendyala, chief operating officer and a life coach at Waldron Wealth Management in Bridgeville, said workers should be keenly aware that their minds need as much rest as their bodies.

"We have a tendency to say we will sleep on a problem," Mr. Pendyala said. "But when you do that, your mind is not allowed to rest even though your body is rested. While you may have a solution in the morning, your mind did not get a chance to rest. Sooner or later you will get mind fatigue."

Mr. Oexman said technology is partly to blame for modern-day fatigue. Workers are staying up later to watch TV and do other things. They take their laptops to bed and are prone to checking Facebook and emails throughout the night. It all adds up to showing up for work after losing valuable hours of sleep.

"They lose focus and have to reread information," he said. "Their ability to concentrate and remember information is diminished. They call in sick more often and are more prone to illness, absenteeism and tardiness. The high Monday morning absenteeism rate is probably due to sleep deprivation."