Fatigue may seem like a personal experience that one needs to handle on their own. However, since our fatigue also influences others especially in the work context, it might be beneficial to be open about it and ask help from others. The role of our boss and colleagues in this regard is undeniable. Therefore, we will address how can an employer and colleague help one who experiences fatigue.
How to help as a colleague?
Imagine that there is a task that you are working on in collaboration with your colleague but she is not doing her tasks on time and keeps postponing the deadlines. How would you feel about it? Probably, you would get frustrated or even angry. It is understandable because you feel responsible and you owe an explanation to your team leaders. However, would you feelings change if you knew that your colleague has been slow and inefficient due to experiencing fatigue? Your perspective on the situation and your colleague would probably change a bit. You may still be angry, which is perfectly understandable. But at this point, it is very important to empathize and try to understand what she is going through. If you have experienced fatigue before, it would be easier for you to understand how it is. We all can experience fatigue time to time and depending on its level, it can effect our work performance, daily activities and our life in general. So, the reason your colleagues postpones the deadlines might not be laziness or relying on you with their tasks. They might be unable to work efficiently. Here are few things that you can do to help them:
- Once you realize that your colleague is not working as efficiently as a regular day, you can ask them “How are you doing these days?”, “Is everything okay”?” to understand the reason. If you know that your colleague is someone who does not like to share their personal life too much, you can just start the conversation by telling them about the time you experienced fatigue yourself. This might encourage them to share their own experience.
- If they share with you that they are not feeling well/too tired to work, you can ask them “Is there anything I can do to help you?”. Sometimes they might feel too proud to say what you can exactly do for them. Therefore, you can ask them more specifically: “I can take over one of your tasks if you want, I have some free time this week”. Try to first consider your own needs and availability before asking this. If it is not convenient for you, you can offer them another option such as the following “I would like to help you with your current tasks this week. However, I am very busy. That is why let me talk to the manager and postpone the deadline of this task. Then, I can help you with it next week and we can make it to the deadline together”.
- While asking them what can you do for them and supporting them, as long as your colleague doesn’t ask you to let others know, try to keep the situation between you two. It might be a sensitive topic for some people and they might not want other people to know about it.
How can help an employee as an employer?
As an employer, it may be stressful and disappointing when tasks are not completed on schedule. You have obligations to other people, as well as a busy schedule that cannot take any changes. It makes sense that you would want everything to go smoothly for this reason. However, businesses may not follow a straight line when it comes to performance and the completion of tasks/projects, much like life. This might be difficult to accept in the beginning. However, by building a trust relationship with your employees and try to keep your empathy level as high as possible, you can accept the fact that things might not always go as they should. Accepting this does not mean to be too flexible or too forgiving. You can still be strict when needed and only be flexible when it is really needed. Fatigue might be one of those cases they may require you being flexible. When one of your employees have a delay with completing their tasks and coming up with excuses. Jumping to a conclusion might be the first thing we do which is reasonable. You might think that they don’t work efficiently anymore, their performance is much worse than their colleagues, they do not put the necessary effort into their job. However, it might not always be the case. When someone experiences fatigue, they might not be able to work or at least work efficiently, even if they want to. There are few things you can do to help them as well as your organization:
- When you realize that your employee started to work slower than usual and not able to finish their tasks. You can take a deep breath and try not to think about the worst scenarios (such as them not taking their job seriously or taking advantage of your understanding) and ask them if everything is going well. You can also ask them if they need anything.
- When they share with you that they are not feeling well and they can not manage to work at that point. You can ask them “How can we help you as a company?” or you can be more specific and ask them the following: “Would changing the deadline help?”, “Would you like to collaborate with your colleague, would that help?”, “Would you like to take some days off?”. Don’t forget that asking these questions and trying to help your employee do not make you a “too kind” leader. It would rather make you a great leader who takes cares of their employees’ needs.
- Another solution that you can implement your organization in the long term is trying to build a trust relationship that your employees never take advantage of your understanding and they work whenever they are able to and share with you when they are not able to. For this, you might need to set an example to them by showing them you take care of your own needs when needed. For instance, when you experience fatigue (yes you also have the right to experience it even if you are the employer!), you can tell that you may not be as fast as usual with answering their questions or finishing your tasks. Remind yourself that it is nothing to be ashamed of. Moreover, you can include an item in your company policy that focuses on the cases of illness, fatigue, mental health struggles. This would give your employees the trust that you find their needs important.
In conclusion, there are several ways to support a colleague or an employee who is fatigued. Both that person and your company would benefit from it as long as you maintain empathy and a willingness to understand one’s experience. Remember that sometimes a few hours lost or a slight delay wouldn’t hurt us all that much, but experiencing exhaustion that could perhaps result in burnout would.
To learn more about Fatigue at work please download the “Fatigue white paper“
