FATIGUE IN THE

WORKPLACE: ITS
CAUSES, EFFECTS
AND MANAGEMENT
A guide for HR practitioners
in managing the incidence of
fatigue at work
October 2018

All employees are exposed to a variety of conditions in the

workplace that inevitably affect individual capabilities. These
conditions could lead to work fatigue, health problems,
musculoskeletal problems, lower performance, increased errors
Dr. Alvin T. Cabral at work, injuries and accidents.
Medical Director
Lockton Benefits Group Even without any measurable proof of decline in performance in
alvin.cabral@asia.lockton.com
its initial phase of affecting workers, the subjective reporting of
fatigue is sometimes delayed because of poor judgement and
identification of one’s own impairment. This is a crucial aspect
of human work.

Fatigue is defined as a feeling of tiredness and decreased

capacity to perform mental or physical work that leads to a
biological drive for recuperative rest. Moderate levels of fatigue
are comparable to being intoxicated with alcohol at 0.10%
blood concentration (0.08% or higher is legally impaired in the
US) with physical manifestations as slowed reaction time,
impaired judgement, memory lapses, difficulty in concentrating
and lack of emotional control.

Although mild fatigue is a normal everyday experience, a severe

episode may gravely affect an employee’s performance at work
and at home. Recurrent sick leaves and eventual work disability
due to hypertension, anxiety and gastrointestinal problems are
some of the consequential effects of long term fatigue.
Aside from the topmost cause of fatigue that is lack of
restorative sleep, there are other factors that contribute to its
occurrence in the workplace which affect employee
performance:
 FATIGUE IN THE WORKPLACE:
ITS CAUSES, EFFECTS AND MANAGEMENT

• Physically or mentally demanding work

• Prolonged period of being awake and actively at
work (>16 hours)
• Inadequate sleep (<7 hours )
• Active at an adverse circadian phase
• Drugs and medications and medical conditions
• Critical moderating factors in the work
environment such as temperature, noise, vibration
• Complexity and duration of physical, mental and
sensory-motor tasks
It is challenging to define the contribution of each of
these factors to fatigue and deterioration of
performance, especially in the unmanaged working
conditions.

Measurement of Fatigue
Due to employees’ reluctance to express any feeling
of fatigue in the workplace, it is not easy to measure
this existing problem. There is no single instrument
that can be used and tagged as the gold standard
for fatigue measurement.

Nevertheless, there is a wide array of instruments to

measure fatigue in both subjective quantification
devices including one and multidimensional
self-rating verbal assessments (multiple points
questionnaire with scale rating) and objective scales
such as measurement of blood pressure,
temperature, energy expenditure and blink rates.
Your employee benefits consultant can share these
tools with you.

Management of Fatigue
The multiple causes of fatigue in the workplace pose
a challenge for HR practitioners because there is no
comprehensive single intervention that can
eradicate fatigue in both industrial and corporate
settings. As mentioned earlier, the primary and most
important cause of fatigue is lack of sleep or
disruption of the circadian rhythm or body clock.
The best countermeasure for fatigue consists of
preventive strategies that can be utilized before
working hours and during break periods at work.
These can decrease the impact of body clock
disruption and loss of sleep on job performance and
alertness to assigned tasks, whether physical or
mental jobs. Some of these strategies are as follows:

Lockton Companies

For an initial free
consultancy meeting on
employee benefits, on-site
clinic management, health
and wellness programming
and health risk assessment
for your company, please
contact:
Lockton Benefits Group
Lockton Philippines Insurance
and Reinsurance Brokers, Inc.
29/F Rufino Pacific Tower
6784 Ayala Avenue, Makati 1200
Philippines
Tel: +632.811.0388
Fax: +632.811.0093/+632.811.0069
Website: www.lockton.com/asia
FATIGUE IN THE WORKPLACE:
ITS CAUSES, EFFECTS AND MANAGEMENT
• Good sleep hygiene or sleep loss minimization
• Pre-sleep routine
• Relaxation techniques
• Body clock adaptation
• Effective use of stimulators such as caffeine and exercise
• Naps during shifts
• Sleep study and treatment of co-morbidities
Fatigue among employees is an unrecognized problem across
all industries mainly due to highly demanding jobs, long
working hours, body clock or circadian rhythm disruptions and
accumulative lack of sleep or sleep debt.
Fatigue in the workplace is manageable through continuous
improvement of work organization in terms of overall
management and modification of working conditions including
job redesigning, recurring review and continuous improvement
of operational efficiency protocols, promotion of physical and
emotional wellbeing of employees and job reassigning, if
necessary.
The key for both employees and employers especially HR
practitioners is to identify and manage fatigue incidence and
reduce its probability, educate workers on coping strategies for
combating fatigue and utilize tools to obtain both subjective
and objective information from the workforce to validate its
presence or absence in the organization.
References:
https://www.quitalcohol.com/information/the-legal-alcohol-lim-
it-in-the-usa.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4525425/
https://www.nerc.com/pa/rrm/hp/2014_Human_Performance_Confer-
ence/NERC-Fatigue-MacKenzie%20(clean).pdf
Lockton Companies
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