By David Towlson
Working hard is good for you. I know hard work doesn’t suit some people (unenlightened people would call them lazy, but it’s just a lifestyle choice surely?), but in general it makes us feel good. It’s a wellbeing thing, as well as a feeling of achievement. It also makes quite a lot of money for company CEOs and the government, so it’s sort of philanthropic too – another reason to feel cheerful.
But you can have too much of a good thing (yes, even chocolate) and we get what we call fatigue. I’m not talking about the transitory tired feeling at the end of the day, I’m talking about that chronic feeling you get after relentless long working hours (physical) or sustained challenging demands (mental).
When this is normal working life, you become seriously fatigued and jaded. Normally positive people become snappy, negative and make poor decisions based on little data; you may even shout at the kids. The fatigue may simply be because you can’t sleep, because of anxiety, stress, or all of that extra coffee and/or alcohol as a coping mechanism.
According to the Canadian Centre for occupational health and safety there are some similarities between physical fatigue and the effects of alcohol – in terms of impairment of decision-making, etc.
As we all know, work/life balance is rather difficult these days – mobile smartphone technology being what it is means you are never far away from work emails, texts, apps and the like. It takes a great effort of will to leave it alone, take a break and get mentally refreshed – and even then, you may worry that you are missing out of important decisions.
Now, excuse me while I just answer that email.
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.
We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.
Has only part of the article been displayed as it does not explain how to deal with fatigue, only what could cause it?