Ground_Support_August_2020 - 22

Ballard and Mollicone each also say that
fatigued employees shouldn't be dealt with
in a punitive way.
"They need to speak up and let their
supervisor know. Life happens, and if their
focus is on personal problems outside of
work, the company gains nothing by them
being there," says Ballard. "Too much risk
for the reward."
"It has to be in a non-punitive framework," Mollicone says.
For example, if an employee has a new
baby at home, they're bound to lose some
sleep and their performance might suffer because of it. "They haven't become a
bad employee, but just need some support
during this new, temporary phase of their
life. And then that period passes and they
return to their normal, reliable self," Mollicone continues.

The Culture Wars
One of the biggest factors in having wellrested employees and a safer operation is
culture, as France describes.
"I think as organizations, employers, and
as trade associations and press and so on,
we've all got a duty to spell out what the
dangers are and that being rested is important," France says. "Organizations have to
begin by accepting that they have a role in
managing risk that comes from fatigue and
that that risk management process begins
with having an open discussion about it,
recognizing that fatigue needs to be taken
seriously and that team members need to
feel comfortable; then talking about it and
raising concerns on things like sleep deficits, performance degradation."
Adopting a culture that takes sleep
and fatigue seriously is unfortunately at
odds with society's larger views on sleep,
explains Gurubhagavatula.
"We live in a society where the culture
tends to undervalue sleep, we don't regard
sleep the same way as we regard food or
oxygen or water. You don't hear people
going around bragging about how little
water they can drink and get away with.
And sleep is no different, it's a biological
need, just like those other things," she says.
The bravado outlook some hold towards
sleep can lead them deeper and deeper into
danger via sleep debt.

22 GROUND SUPPORT WORLDWIDE

Photo courtesy of Phillips 66

GROUND SERVICE
PROVIDERS

"There is no such thing as getting used
to insufficient sleep. What happens is sleep
debt. If you have one night without sleep
and you have another and another, then
the impact of that chronic accumulation
of sleep debt continues to build. Somebody
who's gone without enough sleep for two
weeks is in worse shape in terms of vigilance and performance than somebody who
went without sleep for one night," Gurubhagavatula says.
Thusly, an organization should take it
upon itself to educate its employees on the
dangers of sleep deprivation and encourage
employees who are feeling under rested to
feel safe in reporting their condition.
"Obviously if I come in every day for
two weeks and say, 'Man, I'm really under
rested I need to take the day off,' or it's constantly being used as a means to get out of
work that's going to be a different story. But
how many times have employees really felt
fatigued and unable to really perform safely
but not said anything because, 'Well, what
choice do I have? If I tell them I'm tired, the
bosses might say: well, why didn't you get
enough sleep? That's your fault.' So, I think
it's, again, culture. Everything comes back
to culture," France says.
Some of the things that Gurubhagavatula says an organization can do to build a
sleep-positive culture is scheduling shifts
that rotate forward.
"Human biology dictates that we're
better at delaying sleep onset night after
night than we are at advancing sleep onset,
which means that it's easier for us to go

AUGUST 2020

to bed at 10 p.m. one night, then 11 and
then midnight and so on, than it is to keep
pulling the bedtime backwards. If you have
24/7 operations and you have rotating shift
workers, an organization can help by making sure their shifts are rotating forward,
which means you may work a day shift
followed by an evening shift, followed by
a night shift and then days off to recover,"
she says.
Another step is making sure employees
are educated on sleep and sleep disorders,
as well as screening for sleep disorders.
"Sleep apnea is really common in most
groups and particularly when you have
people that are obese and overweight. And
then encouraging those people to get tested
and creating a process that makes getting
testing and treatment easy, so removing
barriers can be really helpful. Then don't
dock them sick pay because at the end of
the day, it's a workplace safety issue and
it's a performance issue as well," Gurubhagavatula says.
Workplaces should also be offering rest
areas, or even nap rooms, and encouraging people to take breaks, Gurubhagavatula
continues.
"It's really important that organizational
culture is aligned with healthy sleep so that
everybody benefits," she says. "Creating a
culture where people look out for each
other and respect each other's sleep needs,
where people are actually taking turns, giving each other rest opportunity is the way
to improve the risk of some of the health
and safety consequences of fatigue."

Ground_Support_August_2020

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