sleep
Most of us call it our body clock, though it does have a fancy scientific type name of Circadian rhythms.
At the end of the day they refer to the same thing, the physical, mental and behavioural changes that occur in a person on a 24 hour cycle. For shift workers the disruption to this natural cycle can bring a number of problems, particularly to sleep habits.
For many shift workers, falling asleep is a bit like Alice in Wonderlands’ trip down the rabbit hole; a slow fall where time drags on whilst you hope for the destination to be reached.
The good news is you can take steps to help achieve good sleep habits and in the long run become more effective when you are awake.
- Avoid stimulants like caffeine (tea, coffee, cola and energy drinks) and nicotine at least four to five hours before bedtime.
- Avoid alcohol for at least four hours prior to bedtime. Whilst alcohol may appear to help induce sleep it actually causes sleep disturbances later in your sleep cycle. It can have the double negative effect of causing you to wake and finding it harder to get back to sleep.
- Maintain a sleep schedule. Consistency is key to developing good habits.
- Keep your room cool; it helps you get to sleep and stay that way.
- Train your brain to associate your bed with sleep and sex only. That means no watching television, playing computer games or even reading in bed.
- White-noise can help. The hum of a fan or the drone of an air- conditioner are effective ways to block out external noise and give you something to focus on.
- Darken the room. Block out blinds on your windows, a sleep mask or even sleeping in dark sunglasses.
- Have a pre-bedtime ritual. A warm shower, listening to a certain piece of music or reading a book (just not in bed).
- Use a sign to alert your neighbours that you are a shift worker. Not everyone on site works shifts so they may forget to be considerate to those that do.
When you wake there are a number of steps you can take to prepare you for sleep after your shift is over.
- Seek out sunlight. Sunlight is a cue to your body clock to wake-up. If you are on the night shift get as much sun as you can when you wake in the afternoon before starting your shift. The opposite is also true, when you finish a night shift you want to avoid the sun to stop your body being stimulated. Consider wearing caps and dark sunglasses until it is time for bed.
- Exercise before work not after. Exercise will increase your alertness, so doing it before work makes sense. Avoid it before bed, as it will make it harder to get to, and stay, asleep.
Like all good things developing good sleep habits takes time. Implement the changes and see them through, hopefully to a better and more rested you.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This health and well-being information is not intended to replace advice that might be provided by a medical professional. The information is general in nature, it may be incomplete and may be unsuited to your personal circumstances. Mining People International does not accept liability for any action taken by any person as a result of this general information.
Burn Out
What is burnout?
The WHO defines burnout as, “a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” They point to three symptoms employees experience with burnout:
Employer
What are the causes of burnout?
According to a Gallup poll of 7500 employees, the top five causes of burnout are:
- Unfair treatment at work
- Unmanageable workload
- Unclear communication from managers
- Lack of manager support
- Unreasonable time pressure.
7 things you can do to prevent burnout in your employees
The breakthrough discovery in the Gallup report is that managers are largely responsible for burnout. The good news is that companies are in great position to make the changes necessary to prevent burnout and, in the process, retain their staff.
- Make managers responsible for addressing burnout with their teams. Empower your management team to find out how employees are feeling about their work, their workplace and their role in the organisation.
- Talk to your employees. The first step to identifying burnout is to have candid conversations with your employees about workplace stresses they may be experiencing. Ask them how they’re travelling and take note of descriptions that describe burnout. The employee may not recognise they’re on the path to burnout.
- Consider implementing a company-wide survey about burnout. It may be easier for your employees to answer questions in an anonymous survey. For large organisations, a survey may be the fastest way to understand if there’s a wider burnout issue that needs to be addressed.
- Make wellbeing part of your culture. Ensure your employees are getting enough time to focus on things outside of work. The five elements of wellbeing are interrelated and include career, financial, physical, social and community. Check in with employees on a regular basis to ensure they’re paying attention to all five areas.
- Ensure your team understands the objective. Teams or individuals within the team who aren’t clear on the priorities will either spend too much time on one task or spread themselves thin across multiple tasks at once. This is a recipe for burnout.
- Understand and manage your employees’ ambitions – and expectations. Getting to know employees as individuals, celebrating achievements, having performance conversations, and conducting formal reviews all contribute to helping employees feel a sense of worth in the workplace.
- Ensure your team is fully staffed for the job. According to Gallup, the risk of occupational burnout increases greatly when employees exceed an average of 50 hours of work per week and escalates even more at 60 hours per week. Hiring a casual for a fixed term can alleviate the extra pressures that come with those bigger jobs.
Burnout can be managed by setting clear expectations and ensuring all employees feel fully supported to do their best work. The good news is you can reverse burnout and prevent further burnout before it starts.
Employee
Four steps to reducing stress and potential burnout.
Stress impacts all of us at one time or another. Yet it can still be a taboo to discuss these feelings in the workplace – whether that’s on a mine site or in a corporate office.
Sadly, it is this inability to talk about stress, this growing feeling of isolation, that contributes the most to making it worse.
While stress and mental health challenges can and do affect everyone, the mining industry in Australia has come under particular scrutiny recently, concerning the link between the FIFO lifestyle and stress.
Extensive research has been conducted on the mental health and wellbeing of FIFO workers. A report from the WA Mental Health Commission produced in 2018 contained, among other data points, a comprehensive analysis of 59 FIFO studies, a survey of more than 3000 FIFO workers, in-depth interviews, and surveys of former FIFO workers. The results overwhelmingly pointed to greater mental health risks for FIFO workers. One-third (33%) reported experiencing “high” or “very high” feelings of anxiety and depression. FIFO workers also scored significantly worse on suicidal risk and intent compared to the benchmark group. Full report : https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/ bd06d8_eece6f9018414d98a252aee0580a33a8.pdf
No more brushing off stress
We’re not doctors and we strongly encourage you to seek professional medical help if you’re feeling stressed out. However, what we can offer are some tips on how to identify the warning signs and how to try to mitigate stress and burnout.
Work-related stress typically comes as a response to demands and pressures that challenge an employee’s ability to cope. Every work environment will provide these challenges at times and, for the most part, people can adjust and overcome short-term stressors. It is when people begin to feel out of control, or overwhelmed that these demands and pressures are not easing, that it may start to affect a person’s psychological and physical health.
Physiologically the stress response in all of us is designed to be used in short bursts and then switched off. If it is activated for too long, the body has no time to repair, so fatigue and damage kick in. From here, the stress hormones begin to destroy the body.
The warning signs:
- Exhaustion
- Lack of motivation
- Frustration, cynicism, negative emotions
- Cognitive problems
- Slipping job performance
- Interpersonal problems
- Not taking care of yourself
- Inability to let go of work, even outside of work
- Decreased satisfaction in and outside of work
- Health problems
Get out
Take relaxation seriously. Go for walks; sit in a green park; go hiking. Do something outside of the home or the office that allows you to breathe and unplug from the environments that trigger stress.
Get enough sleep
The average person is scientifically proven to require seven to eight hours of sleep each night; otherwise, you are gradually depleting, even if you think you’re okay with only six hours. Get an app like Sleep Cycle, which tracks and analyses your sleep to help you learn about your sleep requirements.
Get work perspective
When you’re in the thick of workplace stress, it can be hard to look at it from the outside. It is essential to pull yourself back and analyse your situation. Talk to your manager about how you’re feeling. Then make peace with what you cannot change, or make the decision to move on.
Get life perspective
When work has been all consuming, it is too easy to forget about life outside. But your life outside is a lifeline to health. Focus on your relationships and connect with people who lift you and whom you can talk to constructively and honestly about your life and your stress.