Working huge hours? There is a good chance you’re in a psychologically unhealthy workplace.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/australia-s-fatigue-epidemic-corporate-life-is-wearing-us-down-and-damaging-our-productivity-20180702-p4zp0o.html

As the SMH article suggests, fatigue is becoming a huge issue in the corporate world. Asking people to do more with less resources, massive ongoing change (frequently mismanaged), knowingly encroaching on people’s work-life boundaries, imposing unrealistic KPI’s etc are all too familiar signs of a psychologically sick work environment. It’s not new, and the fact that these types of work practices cause fatigue and ‘reasonably foreseeable’ harm to the physical and mental health of staff is a given. So why don’t organisations take more notice?  There a multitude of reasons – none of which are acceptable IMHO - ‘we have always worked like this’, ‘it’s just part of our high performance culture’, ‘we have all had to do it at some point in our career’, ‘it’s just part of our reasonable additional hours’, ‘at your pay grade, you should be burning the candle at both ends’, ‘our job is to ensure shareholder value’ – I call bull%$)& on these, they don't add up.

Fatigue increases the risk of errors, accidents, vulnerability to mental health issues, not to mention the likelihood of staff turnover, low morale, underperformance, and presenteeism. Allowing fatigue and excessive stress to become normative in your workplace undermines creativity and innovation, kills off discretionary effort and reduces problem solving capabilities. It is simply not good business. I am all for working hard, and occasionally doing a few extra hours to get the job done or meet a challenging deadline, but even then this needs to be in the context of a balanced and supportive work environment where the wellbeing of all staff is at the fore.  

Have you been working under fatigue for a long time?  

1.  Maybe have a look at your accrued leave, have you been taking time off?
2. What happens to you when you go on holidays, do you get sick almost straight away?
3. How do you feel on a Sunday night when you think about the working week in front of you, are you motivated or full of dread and about to start your working week already tired?

Over the next few weeks I will be writing more about key signs of a psychologically unhealthy workplace, and possible remedies - watch this space if this is of interest!

Dave