Men At Work: Fatigue And Second Wind.
Today wherever we go men at work, very often, complain to their controlling officers about their tiredness. At the slightest opportunity they are found to say, "Sir, I am extremely tired now, as for rest of the task I will do it tomorrow". "काम करते करते अब बहुत थक गया हूँ, साहब, अब और खड़ा/बैठा नहीं जा रहा है, अब दिमाग काम नहीं कर रहा है etc,etc."
While it may be a tactics to escape work temporarily by showing the deteriorated conditions caused by so called overwork, the objective of the present piece of writing is to analyse fatigue and explore the ways and means to combat it.
At the very outset, it must be mentioned that feeling tired is not necessarily being tired. In other words, a feeling of fatigue is not a true index of actual fatigue. Experiences have shown that when a man feels dead tired and quite unable to carry on the work any longer, if he still pushes on, he may find, to his surprise, that actually there is no noticeable drop in either the speed or the accuracy of his performance.
We can say that fatigue is mostly notional and its importance for a sincere worker is that his mental faculties start giving him a signal to go for a rest of short duration. It is quite after a long period of stretched-uninterrupted hours of work that our body develops physiologically certain toxin.Only then real fatigue of our mind and body sets in.
Besides, actual fatigue also depends upon the working conditions. Ergonomics has a great impact upon the work output.
Poor illumination, insufficient ventilation, constrained and unhygienic working space leaving little or small headroom or legroom generate fatigue. The efficiency of performing work goes down deplorably.
Chief cause of fatigue may be found in the lack of interest in work due to militating working environment comprising factors of ergonomical imports and poor hygiene.
Another important factor contributing to fatigue is the nature of work itself. It has been found that work of repetitive content produces boredom which taxes one mentally. Thus we tend to devalue the importance of our own work we do. This negative feeling causing mental fatigue is nothing like physical fatigue but is only a state of mind. It ought to be tackled by viewing differently the task we do. We should be made to realize by ourselves or others that even though the work we do is of routine nature nevertheless it serves as the input to many other work processes which seemingly appear to us more important or critical. While that may have been so i.e critically important but in noway this devalues or shortsrifts the importance of work which are routine in nature. Is the importance of the work of an Office Attendant(OA) carrying files, faxing documents, sending e-mails, keeping work desks free from dust and clutters less important? A little reflection will show that it is definitely not so to say the least. Thus a task of whatever character if done with responsibility earns not only respect in the eye of others but is self-satisfying also for the doer himself.
Hence, we can combat the fatigue out of boredom (due to the task content of the work) by developing a habit of inculcating higher order thinking skills(HOTS)about not only ourselves but our job also. This is a safeguard against the loss of interest that mars our performance at work producing what is called mental fatigue.
For increasing our output and efficiency at work it is necessary that we expend less amount of energy and keep a reserve of it to tackle emergency. For this we must learn how to regenerate ourselves and build second wind.
The following is highly helpful towards building second wind which is recovery of normal breathing after exertion and burst of renewed energy or enthusiasm.
A. We should alternate work with rest. Optimizing Mix of Work and Rest is something to be learnt in the light of our own capacity, attitude, physical strength, skill and time demand of the work content. Even before a hard and uncondescending taskmaster engaging a labourer it is not unusual to find the latter taking breaks of short durations under the garb of attending to the call of nature. As a matter of it helps him build Second Wind or regenerate physically to take up the task with fresh efforts. Thus work and rest both are equally important. Soul destroying hours of work ultimately proves to be a backlash in more ways than one.
B. It should be our duty to find ways and means to enrich our task no matter how repetitive or boring it may be. After all the experience gained on work makes us enriched in multiple ways.
C. Interest in work serves as the antidote to fatigue and builder of Second Wind. Besides, sometime it happily results in innovation at work earning encomium to the doer. So care should be taken that interest in our work is not lost. If interest is lost the work becomes a burden which in common parlance is referred to as workload(!). Does anyone want to carry load?
D. We must keep ourselves physically fit and mentally alert. So good physical and mental health readies one onto the job. It keeps anxiety at a bay. Fatigue, therefore, does not ensue so easily for a man of health. Frail health condition only aggravates fatigue and makes the man a misfit. Such person becomes an easy prey to be quipped as 25 साल का बूढ़ा by a 60 साल का जवान.
E. A person, truly speaking, has infinite reservoir of energy within her/his Self. We feel rundown only because we just feel unable to tap this energy. Beseeching Almighty by the way of our choice is the sure shot method of tapping this energy to our performance at work. Sitting at peace with Self or meditation works wonder. Besides, it helps regenerating mentally.
Thus when we feel regenerated physically and mentally, can fatigue find a room in the premises built of mind, body and spirit?
R. R. Prabhakar
10.05.2019
While it may be a tactics to escape work temporarily by showing the deteriorated conditions caused by so called overwork, the objective of the present piece of writing is to analyse fatigue and explore the ways and means to combat it.
At the very outset, it must be mentioned that feeling tired is not necessarily being tired. In other words, a feeling of fatigue is not a true index of actual fatigue. Experiences have shown that when a man feels dead tired and quite unable to carry on the work any longer, if he still pushes on, he may find, to his surprise, that actually there is no noticeable drop in either the speed or the accuracy of his performance.
We can say that fatigue is mostly notional and its importance for a sincere worker is that his mental faculties start giving him a signal to go for a rest of short duration. It is quite after a long period of stretched-uninterrupted hours of work that our body develops physiologically certain toxin.Only then real fatigue of our mind and body sets in.
Besides, actual fatigue also depends upon the working conditions. Ergonomics has a great impact upon the work output.
Poor illumination, insufficient ventilation, constrained and unhygienic working space leaving little or small headroom or legroom generate fatigue. The efficiency of performing work goes down deplorably.
Chief cause of fatigue may be found in the lack of interest in work due to militating working environment comprising factors of ergonomical imports and poor hygiene.
Another important factor contributing to fatigue is the nature of work itself. It has been found that work of repetitive content produces boredom which taxes one mentally. Thus we tend to devalue the importance of our own work we do. This negative feeling causing mental fatigue is nothing like physical fatigue but is only a state of mind. It ought to be tackled by viewing differently the task we do. We should be made to realize by ourselves or others that even though the work we do is of routine nature nevertheless it serves as the input to many other work processes which seemingly appear to us more important or critical. While that may have been so i.e critically important but in noway this devalues or shortsrifts the importance of work which are routine in nature. Is the importance of the work of an Office Attendant(OA) carrying files, faxing documents, sending e-mails, keeping work desks free from dust and clutters less important? A little reflection will show that it is definitely not so to say the least. Thus a task of whatever character if done with responsibility earns not only respect in the eye of others but is self-satisfying also for the doer himself.
Hence, we can combat the fatigue out of boredom (due to the task content of the work) by developing a habit of inculcating higher order thinking skills(HOTS)about not only ourselves but our job also. This is a safeguard against the loss of interest that mars our performance at work producing what is called mental fatigue.
For increasing our output and efficiency at work it is necessary that we expend less amount of energy and keep a reserve of it to tackle emergency. For this we must learn how to regenerate ourselves and build second wind.
The following is highly helpful towards building second wind which is recovery of normal breathing after exertion and burst of renewed energy or enthusiasm.
A. We should alternate work with rest. Optimizing Mix of Work and Rest is something to be learnt in the light of our own capacity, attitude, physical strength, skill and time demand of the work content. Even before a hard and uncondescending taskmaster engaging a labourer it is not unusual to find the latter taking breaks of short durations under the garb of attending to the call of nature. As a matter of it helps him build Second Wind or regenerate physically to take up the task with fresh efforts. Thus work and rest both are equally important. Soul destroying hours of work ultimately proves to be a backlash in more ways than one.
B. It should be our duty to find ways and means to enrich our task no matter how repetitive or boring it may be. After all the experience gained on work makes us enriched in multiple ways.
C. Interest in work serves as the antidote to fatigue and builder of Second Wind. Besides, sometime it happily results in innovation at work earning encomium to the doer. So care should be taken that interest in our work is not lost. If interest is lost the work becomes a burden which in common parlance is referred to as workload(!). Does anyone want to carry load?
D. We must keep ourselves physically fit and mentally alert. So good physical and mental health readies one onto the job. It keeps anxiety at a bay. Fatigue, therefore, does not ensue so easily for a man of health. Frail health condition only aggravates fatigue and makes the man a misfit. Such person becomes an easy prey to be quipped as 25 साल का बूढ़ा by a 60 साल का जवान.
E. A person, truly speaking, has infinite reservoir of energy within her/his Self. We feel rundown only because we just feel unable to tap this energy. Beseeching Almighty by the way of our choice is the sure shot method of tapping this energy to our performance at work. Sitting at peace with Self or meditation works wonder. Besides, it helps regenerating mentally.
Thus when we feel regenerated physically and mentally, can fatigue find a room in the premises built of mind, body and spirit?
R. R. Prabhakar
10.05.2019
Comments