Fatigue and Shift Work: Strategies and Recommendations for VOCUS

This report examines the impact of fatigue and shift work on employees within the telecommunications industry, using VOCUS Communications as a case study. It provides an overview of shift work and its implications, focusing on cognitive performance, work performance, safety, health, and economic consequences. The report delves into strategies for creating optimal shift rosters, including shared scheduling options. A literature review synthesizes research on reducing fatigue and workplace stress, covering topics like minimizing night shifts, promoting healthy lifestyles, and fostering social activities. The report concludes with recommendations for VOCUS managers, emphasizing the importance of proactive roster planning, addressing employee needs, and fostering a supportive work environment to improve productivity and employee well-being. The study highlights the need for investment and management engagement to mitigate the negative effects of shift work and fatigue.

FATIGUE AND SHIFT
WORK

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1.An overview about shift work and its impact on telecommunication......................................3
2. Shift rosters moving forward and recommendations..............................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Fatigue is a feeling of an individual or employee of tiredness or stress. It includes
different feelings like weakness, stress, depressions, lack of sleep etc. Whereas, shift work is
known as work or duty of employees design or shapes to make utilize or providing services
across 24/7 days. Shift works includes both night shifts and work shift in which worker can alter
or rotate their shift.
VOCUS communication is an ASX listed leading telecommunication of Australia.
Company provides data centre, peering and international internet facility, wholesales voice etc.
The company is founded in 2008. It is public company of Australia. This study give an overview
about work-place fatigue and shift hours. Also provide detail knowledge that how fatigue and
shit work impact employee of telecommunication service sector. This study also conclude
strategies for best roster of an organization. This study also describe possible recommendation
for solving and reducing stress, fatigue and shift work(Åkerstedt and et. al., 2017).
1.An overview about shift work and its impact on telecommunication
OVERVIEW
VOCUS communication is a telecommunication company in Australia. It has large
organization which has 4000 employees along with 4000 contractors. The industry held a call
centers which provides their services 24 hours for retail sales and 24 hours for technical supports.
Most of the company workers are provides their services Monday to Friday(8am- 5pm), but
VOCUS services are available for customers 8 hours shift and the shift timings are 7am to 3pm,
3pm to 11pm and last shift is 11pm to 7am. Company technicians are work for 2 days, 2 nights
and 4 days off. From last one year company facing the problems of organization changes. 1000
of the employees of telecommunication company are terminated by their new manager. Also new
manager of company leave the organization. And another mangers of company are not be able to
manage all the employees and their task at the same time .
For all of these problems organization employees are facing problems of fatigue and shift
work in company. They feel sleepy at work place, also not accomplish their task because they
feel tired all the time. For lots of work burden they are doing overtime in company(Barger and
et. al., 2017).

Impact On Telecommunication Employees
There are various ways of shift works and fatigue in which telecommunication company
can affect employees in a negative way. And employees also realize that lack of sleeps, extra
work burdens and not proper support of management, are responsible for not completing their
assign task and duty.
 Cognitive Performance: Employees performance and productive in VOCUS
communication company was constantly decreasing. Because employees feel fatigue in
an industry. Their performance will also decrease because they are tired from their work
and it cause problems like short term memory loss, not be able to concentrate and their
productivity also goes down. Company technicians and night shift works could
experience lack of sleep problem. This all things can affect employees health.
 Work Performance: Employees of telecommunication company also impacted by
fatigue just because they will perform their task in different shifts like day shift, night
shift, rotating shift and overtime. And all this conditions are affect employees
performance and arise situations of fatigues(Caruso, 2015).
 Safety Performance: VOCUS communication company employees performance may
also affected by the safety performance. Just because of safety and shift work
performance employees are not get proper sleep and approximately company employees
injuries are allocated to sleep problems. Inadequate shift working and not receiving
proper health facility made employees health are terrible. This situations also cause
problem of insomnia, obstructive sleep and this situation increase accident scale in
organization.
 Health Consequences: Fatigue at work-place also impacted worker performance and
many more health consequences. Like fatigue increase in employees situations of
depression, obesity, cardiovascular illness and many more. Employees are also involve in
vehicle accidents and suffer from psychological disorders.
 Economic Consequences: Fatigue and shift working may also improve the conditions of
economy. If employees of an organization facing the problem of lack of sleeps, it will
automatically decrease employees performance and leads to improving cost of employer.
In fact, it can value leader respective thousand extra dollars every year. Problem like

insomnia, depression, accidents are leads to fatigue and shift work and it will cost higher
healthcare facility(De Finis and et. al., 2017).
 Poor decision making and risk taking: Just because of fatigues at telecommunication
company, organization employees also face decision making and risk taking problems in
their job roles. Because loosing sleep leads to high riskier behaviors. Workers feel
irritating and make impulsive decision without understanding the situations. Risk for shift workers: Just because of fatigue at telecommunication company their
technician and other workers are facing high level of risk or accidents in between mid-
night 8 am. Daylong and alternate shifts pose a huge health anxiety than a normal 8 hours
shift.
Strategies for best Roaster in organization:
To avoiding opinion about favoritism and fatigues of employees within work-place,
manager of VOCUS communication company can be share schedule options with all employees.
When in organization, flexibility is increasing than workers are feel more productive at definite
times and certain days. In the end, final agenda depends on business necessity, but this will also
permit employees to show an activist role in determinant when they must report to.
 Share Schedule Option: This strategy is best roaster method in organization. With the
help of this strategy VOCUS communication company can easily post open shift hours it
helps to cover conceived and accidental absences. It will also provides flexible working
hours and it improves company culture. This scheme is best roaster for employees of
telecommunication company. Employees can easily access online scheduling about work
shifts at anywhere and at any time. By this method employee also get message or
notification before their shift begins. Share schedule option is mobile friendly feature
each and every employees of an organization can use it. This scheme also help fewer
managers of VOCUS communication company. With the help of this system, manager
can seen schedule at anytime and anywhere, also mange this schedule. Easily
communicate or share important information and massages with employees via email or
text. This system also improves employee engagement in company and reduce turnover
of employees(Domen, Connelly and Spence, 2015).
With the help of this feature employee and employer both are ware about their assign task and
duties. Employee can get notification, also employee can show their absents on the job. With this

features employees and workers of VOCUS communication company are feel more flexible
towards their works and their performance and productive are improves.
Literature Review:
As per the view of Barger and et. al.,(2017). keeping night shift work to minimum for
reducing fatigue and work stress of employees. Three shifts of 8 hours and two shifts of 12 hours
are recommended to maximize work-load. Rostered day off should not be in between of night
shift schedule. Allow employees two free weekends. Analyze duration of shift accordant to
employment. Also try to avoiding overtime before and after night shift. Try to gives
telecommunication workers prior notice at least on or two weeks of their rosters.
While Caruso,(2015). states that a work schedule is no more than six 8 hours shifts or four 12
hours shifts. Avoid seven days working system in an organization. At least have minimum of 11
hours gaps between work schedule. Also avoid long working shift at the time of inordinate heat,
cold, vibrations, noise etc.
According to Wickwire and et. al.,(2017). Workout and healthy live are two of foremost
weapons against workplace stress. Management encourage their employee to go on a walk in
between lunch breaks. Pay gym membership fee of employee for reducing stress. Bring a yoga
instructure into office premises once in a month. Provide employees healthy snacks and
refreshments in an organization. Enhancing work place wellness for all of workers of company.
While Stanton and et. al., (2016). lots of stress and depression are comes from environment.
Think about every segments of office premises and what it does ore what doesn't do for the
wellness of team. Basic things like quality of coffee and tea, area and height of cubicle walls
affect employee relationship. Create organization with an upbeat color scheme,plants etc. Any
kind of minor change will leave employees feelings of stress, fatigue and depression.
As per the opinion of Techera and et. al., (2016). encouragement of social activity are
helpful for reducing stress. Workers spend more time together and find more comfort zone with
each other. In organization employee are know each others barriers of communications are break
down. Employees feels more flexible and active in an industry.
While Heath and et .al.,(2016). employees feel more productive and enthusiastic when their job
are praised and recognize their result. Each and every employee in an organization have different
character, so understand worker at the time of recognize.

2. Shift rosters moving forward and recommendations
As telecommunication companies are striving hard to provide best services to their
customers and increasing focus on customer satisfaction and business growth, employees are left
behind and not given that much attention which is required. In given case situation is similar,
newly appointed Managing Director in Vocus telecommunication took unplanned decision
regarding restructuring workforce and then left organization bleeding. Now new Managing
director tried to fix the situation with changing senior leadership team and assigning new roles,
fix working of each department and assigning new performance targets. Organization is
increasingly dependent upon shift workers and few managers who have bigger 'span of control'
to meet the demands of consumes, pending workload emerged out of redistribution of tasks of
redundant employees who were removed and our 24-hour society. As per increasing competition,
shift work is consider as an excellent way to increase customer service and production without
major increases within infrastructure(Domen, Connelly and Spence 2015).
Excess amount of work during the shifts make the worker tired and exhausted. These
excessive amount of shift can result into ill health and can hamper the health outcome of
employees. Managers must keep a note that employees are not working more than 8 hours a day
and benefit keeping in mind Australian National Employment Standards(Guastello ed., 2016).
Addressing these issue will require investment. To improved productivity within the bottom line
workers needs enough amount of improved sleep. Manager needs to analysis the needs as well
as demands regarding shift workers. They need to identify what problems or issues they are
facing. If managers are not engaged in identifying this then this can lead to hampering of health
outcome of employees. This might increase the employee turnover in organization. Workers
from extra amount of work can suffer problems like anxiety, sleep deprivation, anxiety, chronic
disorders and many more. (Haidarimoghadam and et. al., 2017).
An organization where managers are not engage in taking care of their employees can
disturb and hamper their relationship with them. This can also lead to hampering the goodwill of
firm. This can lead to situation like high employee turnover. Firm can also bear loss because of
it. Overworking in office can also lead to problems like stress. It can increase the risk of illness
in employees. An stressful organization is a place where employees leave frequently. Depending
on hours of job duties, the type of roster used become a productive business tool. It is used to
ensure that each shift has enough employees available on the job. This helps to keep operations

running smoothly(Heath and et. al., 2016). Efficient staff roster system is a powerful solution for
addressing present problem of the organization.
Recommendations for changes to managers regarding shift rosters
Planning roster before adding individual names: For overcoming the problems of shift,
organization can engage in planning roster. In this they can specify employees which will work
at the particular time.
Share roster options with the entire staff: Managers can involve in sharing the problem of
excessive hours of work to all the staff members. Employees can come together and brainstorm
the ideas which can be required for overcoming this problems. (Ihlström and et. al., 2017).
Fill busy shifts with the most experienced and skilled staff: Organization can resolve the
problem of fatigue and shift working by recruiting those employees which are skilled and
talented. This can support the firm in saving a lot of time. In this way organization can become
more effective.
Organization in order to reduce the work pressure also needs to be involve in motivating
employees. This can be done by providing them with flexible working conditions so that they
can be retained in firm. This can help the firm in growing. It can also help tehm in enhancing
their productivity and operational efficiency. (Lorenz and et. al., 2018).
Beginning roster week on a busy day: Organization can involve in creating roster on the most
busy day, so that staff gets motivated and they
Mangers must make sure that the employees in their organization are getting at least two days off
so that they can stay motivated and also their productivity of work can be increased. This can
help firm in growing and also it can support firm in attracting new managers and employees.
This can support firm in enhancing their productivity as well as operational efficiency. It can
help firm in growing. This can also relive employees with the stress full condition. (Stanton and
et. al., 2016).
Company can also allow staff members to have best rosters for this problems. They can engage
in advancing technology so that they can easily perform and finish the task. This can also make
them stay loyal to their enterprise. They can be provided with smart phones and online apps so
that the work can be easily done and finished. This can also make their work less hectic. It can
also enhance the health outcome of employees who are suffering from various health problem
because of fatigue and over time.

Problems regarding roster which are not recommended.
Last minute scheduling: Procrastinating things on the last minute is not a good idea . Making
sure managers plan roster in advance to give everyone time to digest and adjust according to the
roster. This kind of practice makes the business more efficient for the mangers and making hell
life for the employees or hourly workers. This happens because of the employers paid the
Employees when the business is slow but the hours workers rely on the credit cards as well as
shady lenders. Fortunately last minutes workers facing a lot of legal criticism as well as become
the last thing. However, reports also said that last time scheduling impact a lot to the families
more in the negative sense (Wickwire and et. al., 2017)..
Clopen: This term is made from the words called ‘close’ and ‘open ' According to this term
staff members has the last shift of the day as well as they have first shift when the firm open its
doors. This means that staff members able to do work two shifts within a row as they are
unable to go home. When doing the final screenings of the schedule managers should pay
attention regarding clopen . Clopen could also occur if various managers are responsible for
various parts of the schedule. To avoid this conflict managers They should stay communicated
to avoid the conflicts with each other to assure that staff members get the break they deserve
(Techera and et. al., 2016).
Overtime: When employees work overtime, they suffer various problems like sleep disorder,
anxiety and depression. This also hampers there personal as well as professional life. It makes
them unhealthy and unfit. This can hamper the good will of company.
On-call scheduling: Instead of making employees work in office, company can also engage in
providing them work from home, so kers. Employees who are engaged ins stress free working
can enhance productivity of firm.
(Wickwire and et. al., 2017).
Employees complaining about shift distribution: It is a common thing to rely on a selected
few employees to do particular tasks or to get certain staff to take particular shifts on particular
days.
Employees must not be engage in making employees come to work place at shift time, as this
can lead them in creating chaos. This can hamper the working environment in office. This can
also de motivate the workers to come to organization. It can enhance employee turnover. Chaos
can reduce the employee belongings. Workers can also get confuse because of the swap in shift.

This can reduce their efficiency in work It can also hamper the relationship between employers
and employees.

CONCLUSION
The above study has been concluded that what are the present scenario of
telecommunication company and what kind of problem company facing. The above study
explain the impact of fatigue and shift working on employees and management, how this fatigue
and shits affect employee performance and productivity. From the above study, also know about
the best strategies for roaster of fatigues. Above study also describe the recommendation for
removing and reducing stress and depression of workers, what are the changes require in an
organization for removing this situations. that employees can easily and comfortably do their
work. This can also help firm in retaining employees and attracting more efficient and skilled
workers towards them. This can support firm in growing. Providing this kind of flexibility can
help firm in reducing stress and tension of workers. Employees who are engaged ins stress free
working can enhance productivity of firm.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
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