Most people in Minnesota experience fatigue at some point. You may be someone who dreads getting up early in the morning (or in the evening if you work night shift) because you always feel as if you have to drag yourself out of bed. Plus, you know you will have a lot of hard work ahead of you, which can be draining just to think about.
While many people simply brush off fatigue as a usual feeling, it can actually be dangerous to workers. Feeling tired, sluggish or sleepy can diminish your abilities, and in some cases, that could put you at risk of facing work-related accidents and injuries.
Does fatigue affect some workers more than others?
Reports do show that some workers are at a higher risk of experiencing fatigue than others. If you work in any of the following categories, your job may be the reason you continually feel unrested:
- Emergency service work
- Night shift work
- Fly-in/fly-out or drive-in/drive-out work
- Health and medical work
- On-call work
- Seasonal work
Of course, even if you do not think your work falls specifically into these categories, it does not mean that you are exempt from becoming fatigued from your work.
Signs of fatigue
Numerous signs can point to fatigue in a worker, including you and your colleagues. You may think that someone being a bit snappy due to tiredness is not a big deal, but that could be just one sign of many. Plus, some of those signs, including the following, could compromise a person’s ability to work safely:
- Reduced alertness
- Memory issues
- Lack of concentration
- Mistakes
- Lapses in judgment
These and other factors could easily result in a worker making a mistake that leads to serious injuries.
Preventing work-related fatigue
You can do your part to ensure that you get enough rest, but your employer could also take steps to reduce the chances that a fatigued worker is putting employees at risk. Providing balanced workloads, ensuring adequate staff, making consistent schedules, monitoring signs of fatigue in workers and much more could all increase safety.
If you do suffer an injury on the job due to your own fatigue or that of a co-worker, you could find yourself in a difficult predicament. The incident may result in your needing workers’ compensation to cover medical bills and lost wages from time away from work while you recover. It can sometimes be difficult to obtain these needed benefits, so it may be in your interests to have a legal advocate on your side.
