December 4, 2016 | Posted in: Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully

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We’re a nation of over-doers, over-schedulers, and over-achievers which makes us fatigued both emotionally and physically. I offer some ideas from past clients on how they fight fatigue in the workplace along with my personal experience and research in fighting personal fatigue. Read on to help energize yourself and your workplace.

• SAS of Carey North Carolina, a privately held software company with a turnover rate a fraction of that of its competitors. They offer free amenities on their park-like campus including a health club, medical care, M & M’s every Wednesday, a chance to have lunch with their kids at the subsidized childcare center, and subsidized country club memberships to the company-owned golf course. They have also arranged for local businesses to bring their services on campus such as dry cleaning and car detailing to save worker’s energy, effort, and downtime from work running errands. They know that if workers are being taken care of and are happy, then they won’t feel fatigue, and will take care of the customers and that will make the owner as well as the customers happy. It’s all about removing the everyday irritants and obstacles to living a balanced life so workers can focus on their work without extra stresses of running errands and juggling life priorities.

• I asked one of my clients, trucking industry executives, what they did to energize their workplace and here are some of their answers:
  • Have a spring bonnet contest with each department entering one bonnet to be modeled by one of their team members. Judges for this Alabama company selected the one with a live chicken on it as the winner. The gentleman in the audience declared that his bonnet would have won if he had known the use of livestock was allowed.
  • One Fedex exec goes out on the floor and sings happy birthday to each person on their special day and he also sends candy bars with notes attached for those doing a great job.
  • Another Fedex manager has found that asking his customers to supersize their order (similar to the fast food industry) is helpful as a recovery strategy. When following up with a customer whose package went astray, the liaison asks for another chance to do an even better job and it has resulted in tens of thousands of extra income – just by asking them to supersize their order.

• A Hilton Generational Time Survey of 1220 adults asked Americans how they felt about their lives:
  • Need more fun – 68%
  • Need a long vacation – 67%
  • Often feel stressed – 66%
  • Feel time is crunched – 60%
  • Want less work, more play – 51%
  • Feel pressured to succeed – 49%
  • Feel overwhelmed – 48%

• When we look at these statistics, it seems even more important to evaluate how our workplaces are helping our employees balance their personal and professional lives and to make it easier for them to do the job we pay them to do.

• Seven Kinds of Tired:

1. tossing and turning tired – not enough sleep
2. everybody-but-you tired – overdoing it, too busy
3. ditching-your-diet tired – skipping meals, overeating, unhealthy choices
4. allergy tired – worn out seasonally, watery eyes
5. hard-times tired – troubled home, lost your job
6. under-the-weather tired – listless and groggy
7. exercise-overdose tired – always on the go, overactive and stressed to fit your fitness in

That are you doing to fight fatigue at work? What are you doing to energize your personal life and your physical self? Take steps now to enjoy freedom from fatigue – you’ll be happier in the long haul.